Yefrem Zverkov

Painter, graphic artist. Born in the village of Nesterovo in Tver Province (1921) in the family of medical herbalist Ivan Zverkov (1890–1942) and his wife Maria Posadskaya (1891–1963). Moved with his family to Tver (1927), where he took painting lessons from Nikolai Borisov (1930s) and was accepted into the preparatory classes of the All-Russian Academy of Arts in Leningrad (1939). Served in the Red Army in Kharkiv (1939–41) and fought in the Second World War (1941–43). Wounded and hospitalised (1942), returned to the front and fought at the Battle of Stalingrad (1942–43). Drove automobiles in the 17th battalion (1943) and worked for the Maxim Gorky Studio of War Artists (1943–45). Studied at Boris Johanson’s studio in Moscow (1946–47) and under Vasily Yefanov, Victor Tsyplakov, Pavel Malkov, Alexei Gritsai, Sergei Gerasimov and Arkady Plastov at the Moscow Institute of Fine Arts/Vasily Surikov Institute of Art in Moscow (1947–53). Member of the Union of Artists (1953). Married art historian Lyubov Shirshova. Member of the Moscow Barbizon group working at the Dmitry Kardovsky House of Creativity in Pereyaslavl-Zalessky (late 1950s–early 1960s). Visited Arkhangelsk Region with Vladimir Stozharov and Igor Popov (1963) and the Komi Republic with Vladimir Stozharov and Igor Popov (1964) and with Vladimir Stozharov and Yury Semenyuk (1965–66). Board member of the Moscow branch of the Union of Artists (from 1964), first secretary of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR (1976–86) and the Union of Artists of the USSR (1977–91). Honoured Artist of the RSFSR (1970), People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1976), People’s Artist of the USSR (1981). Awarded the Bulgarian Order of St Cyril and St Methodius (1972). Corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1975), full member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1988). Winner of the Ilya Repin Prize (1975) and the State Prize of the Russian Federation (1997), awarded a gold medal of the Russian Academy of Arts (1996) and a gold cross of the Russian Academy of Arts (2011). Member of the presidium of the Russian Academy of Arts (from 1992), vice-president of the Russian Academy of Arts (1997–2012). Headed work on the recreation of the frescoes in the Church of Christ the Saviour in Moscow (1994–99) and awarded the Order of St Sergius of Radonezh (1999). Member of the International Academy of Authorised Education (1999) and the International Academy of Sciences of Nature and Society (2000). Gave his surname to a new star in the Aquarius constellation (2001). Died in Moscow and buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery (2012). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1940). Contributed to the Regional Exhibition of Works by Kalinin Artists at the Kalinin Regional Picture Gallery in Kalinin (1949), Second All-Union Exhibition of Diploma Works by Students of Art Institutes of the USSR of the Class of 1953 at the Academy of Arts of the USSR in Moscow (1953), First Exhibition of Studies by Young Artists of Moscow at the Central House of Workers of the Arts in Moscow (1954), Exhibition of Works by Young Moscow Artists in the House of the Artist at 20 Kuznetsky Most in Moscow (1954), Fifty Years of the First Russian Revolution at the USSR Museum of the Revolution in Moscow (1955–56), Second Exhibition of Works by Young Artists of Moscow and Moscow Region in the House of the Artist and the Union of Artists at 20 Kuznetsky Most in Moscow (1956), Travelling Exhibition of Works by Soviet Artists at the House of Architects in Stalingrad (1956), Boris Kustodiev Regional Picture Gallery in Astrakhan (1956), Sailors’ Club in Krasnovodsk (1956–57), Turkmen Museum of Fine Arts in Ashgabat (1957), Mämmetweli Kemine Municipal Theatre in Mary (1957), Bukhara Regional Museum of Local Studies in Bukhara (1957), Republican Museum of the History, Culture and Art of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic in Samarkand (1957), Kam?l ud-D?n Behz?d Regional Unified Museum of the History, Local Studies and Fine Art of Tajikistan in Stalinabad (1957) and the Alexander Pushkin Theatre in Leninabad (1957), Exhibition of Landscapes by Artists of the Russian Federation at the Exhibition Hall in Belgorod (1977), Impressionism in Russia at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (2000) and one-man shows in Moscow (1975, 1993, 1996, 1998, 2001–04), Rzhev (2008) and Bulgaria (1976).