Nikolai
Andreevich Lunev

An amateur artist.
He was born on May 13, 1914 in Venev in the family of a paramedic. He studied at Venevsk high school, where he took a great interest in drawing at the fine arts club. In 1933-1935, he worked as a driver on the construction of the railroad Moscow-Dombass. In 1939, he worked for the NKVD as a photodactyloscopist. From 1941 to 1946, upon the referral of the military recruitment office, he worked at the Kuibyshev Weapons Factory as a adjuster of the shop, for which he was awarded the medal "For Valorous Labor in the Great Patriotic War. From 1946 to 1957 he worked in his native Venev in the carpentry workshop of the timber company. Since 1957, he retired due to illness. From that moment devoted himself to his favorite hobby - fine arts. Nikolai Andreevich described the turning point in his biography: "My health worsened with the years - I fell ill with pulmonary tuberculosis, and after two years I had to be treated in a psychiatric hospital. Due credit must go to our medicine, which brought me back to life. I am very grateful. Being handicapped of the first group, I sank into loneliness, but I decided to take up my favorite art. I had to start all over again. I began to read a lot about art, to study drawing and painting on a regular basis, to receive consultations from the Tula Artist's House. His work I have devoted to the landscape of his native land. In 1959, Nikolai Andreevich was a member of the 10th Exhibition of amateur artists in Tula with a painting "Veniev - 1930". In 1963 was organized in the city. Veniev personal exhibition of paintings, sketches, drawings. From 1964 to 1971 led the art studio at the Palace of Pioneers. Among his students was Evgeny Vladimirovich Turenko (1950-2014), a poet, writer and teacher. Over the years, Lunev created a whole gallery of paintings, recreating the look of pre-revolutionary Venev, monuments of Russian architecture. A lot of expressive portraits and still lifes. For participation in district, regional and All-Russian exhibitions of amateur artists awarded diplomas. For creative successes at the All-Russian review of rural amateur art 1963-1965 was awarded the Diploma of II degree for a picture "Veniev in 1941. The basis for the picture was a photograph published in the newspaper "Izvestia" December 12, 1941. In 1970 Andrew Nikolaevich was awarded the medal "For Valorous Labor in commemoration of 100 years since the birth of VI Lenin. He lived in Venev on Red Square in house number 3. Lunev was the author of the jubilee medal issued for the celebration of the city's 600th anniversary in 1971. The celebrations themselves took place only in 1972. According to his daughter, Vera Nikolaevna, the author's fee for the medal project was not paid to her father. The head of the region, Nikolaev, reacted to Lunev's claims by suggesting to the artist that he should demand the payment through the court and reproached him for visiting the Orthodox church. Nikolai Andreevich did not sue, but ended his cooperation with the Soviet authorities. He left the Studio of Fine Arts and did not participate in the creation of a local history museum until the end of the 1980s. Lunev glorified the passing past of the district town in his landscapes, which the district authorities strongly disliked. The artist regularly visited the church and even wrote icons. According to the artist's daughter Vera Nikolaevna, documentary filmmakers from Sverdlovsk made a film about her father, which was aired on central television. Vera Nikolaevna also recalled that her father called the artist by the name of Efremov as his teacher. Among the outstanding students of Lunev, his daughter called the artist Badaev. In Venyov to visit Lunev came painters Penkov Alexei Ivanovich (1905-1995), Porfiry Nikitich Krylov (1902-1990), Alexander Maxovich Shilov (b. 1943). After the artist's death, his children donated more than five hundred of their father's works to the funds of the Venyov Museum of Local Lore.