The Russian Academy Of Arts

On  February 4, 2008 at the age of 84 passed away the Full Member of the Russian Academy of Arts, Member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Arts, Winner of USSR State Prize, Doctor of Art History, Professor Vadim Polevoi.

Vadim Polevoi started out in the late 1940s when he came to work at the Soviet Encyclopedia Publishing House. Vadim Polevoi spared no effort to make materials on art critics for the Big Soviet Encyclopedia  in compliance with the requirements of the time.

His researches ranged from the Art of Ancient World to the problems of modern art history.  In Polevoi’s numerous articles and books one could feel his critical respond to problems of art development, his sincere interest of a true researcher.
 
Vadim Polevoi was one of the initiators and authors of a reference art edition Art of Nations and Peoples (1962-1981), one of the founders of Scientific Fedorov-Davydkov Readings  in the Moscow University, as well as Alpatov Readings in the Russian Academy of Arts, a frequent participant and lecturer in sessions and conferences of International Associations of Art Historians (CIHA) and Art Critics (AICA). His creative energy and high competence of a researcher won a wide recognition during his work as a chief editor of the year-book Soviet Art History (1977-1990).    

For his three-volume monograph History of Greece (Moscow, 1970-1975) Vadim Polevoi was awarded the USSR State Prize (1977),  his book Art of the 20th Century (Moscow, 1989) won a Gold Medal of the USSR Academy of Arts in 1991. Among his major works were: Fedor Semenovitch Bogorodski (Moscow, 1956); Art of Latin America (Moscow, 1967); Twenty Years of the French Graphic Art: Drawings in the Revolutionary Newspapers and Magazines, Political Posters in 1920-1930s (Moscow, 1981); A. Kuprin: Selected Works (Moscow, 1984); Art as Art (Moscow, 1995).

Vadim Polevoi was an organizer of the exhibition and discussions during the  Moscow Festival of Young People and Students (1957), a creator of the concept and curator of exhibitions Moscow-Paris (1979 – Paris, 1981 – Moscow),  Moscow-Berlin (1995-1996, Moscow, Berlin) and an exhibition Dialogues in the Space of Culture (2002, Moscow).

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