The Russian Academy Of Arts

From June 16 until July 5, 2009 on display in the Russian Academy of Arts are paintings by Oleg Vukolov, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, Full Member of the Russian Academy of Arts.

The artist’s biography is full of unexpected and unpredictable turns. He spent his childhood in Pyatigorsk, studied at I. Repin St. Petersburg State  Academy Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, participated in alternative exhibitions, was exiled for his independent creative position, later retuned to Moscow, took part in major European forums of contemporary art, set up an International Association of Artists in Provence (France) which he heads. 

After the graduation from I. Repin Institute, in the early 1960s the work of Oleg Vukolov inclined towards the “stern” style, soon after intonations of the Italian neo-realism appeared in his paintings. He has keenly reacted to European art processes, added new colors to his palette and created his own original pictorial manner. The range of his work includes portraits, in which Vukolov shows himself to be a fine master, poetic still lives and landscapes. In his pictures one can see a familiar and at the same time unusual world that is a result of the artist’s fantasy. 

In the 1980s, when the artist lived in Europe, he felt a need to renovate his pictorial language.  Thus appeared a pillow - new symbolic object of Vukolov’s strife to depict the diversity of the “game culture”.  This integral attribute of everyday life, an inanimate object has obtained in his works a special spirituality and associativity. Vukolov considers these compositions a powerful energy, semantic and plastic module, a kind of a tuning fork of his personal attitude to life.

In his studio in Marseilles the artist has been creating a cycle of works entitled “Sails” combining searches of the Russian avant-garde, its romanticism and intellectual context.

Oleg Vukolov has been a frequent exhibitor of numerous displays in Russia and other countries. His works are in collections of many museums worldwide:  the State Tretyakov Gallery and Russian State Museum (Russia);  Moscow Museum of Modern Art (Russia); museums of CIS countries; Columbia Museum of Arts (USA); Irene and Peter Ludwig’s collection in the contemporary art museums in Cologne, Aachen (Germany)  and Beijing (China); national galleries in Budapest,  Paris, Bratislava, Warsaw, Vienna; in funds of the Deutsche Banc in Frankfurt-am-Main and Luxemburg, etc.       

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