Pantheon Painting

Biography: Born into a politically persecuted family, he moved to Charkov with his parents at age ten where his father worked in a Malyshev Factory. After grade 7, he enrolled into flight training school but could not complete the course because it was dissolved two years in. In 1961, he graduated from Charkov's vocational art school, and studied painting at Charkov's Institute of the Arts from 1964 to 1966. In the 60ies, he befriended the famous painter Vagrich Bakhchanyan (who subsequently left for the United states, where he worked with writers Sergej Dovlatov and Alexander Genis) as well as Evgenij Solovjov, the designer of Charkov's Pushkinskaya metro station). The three nonconformists strove to disassociate themselves from the prevalent realist tendencies, instead espousing a formalist approach. Until the early 70ies, he worked as a painter and designer at Charkov's Pushkin Dramatic Theater, where he especially impacted the production of plays in colloboration with famous painter Oleg Zelkov. From 1970 until 1989 he worked as a designer - particularly of posters - at Charkov's artistic combine and for other instutions. There, he met painter Pavel Taiber. From 1990 until 1996 he worked as a painter-designer at Charkov's Taras Shevchenko Theater of Ukrainian Drama. Presently, he resides in Cologne, Germany, where he was a member of the German Artist's Union.