Andrei Vasnetsov

Painter, graphic artist, applied artist, decorator, teacher. Grandson of Victor Vasnetsov, great-nephew of Apollinary Vasnetsov, distantly related to Yury Vasnetsov. Born in Moscow (1924) in the family of Moscow University professor Vladimir Vasnetsov (1889–1953) and his wife Nadezhda (1886–1951). Studied art under Alexander Mikhailov in the House of Pioneers at 6 Stopani (now Ogorodnaya Sloboda) Lane in Moscow (1936–41). Fought in the Second World War (1942–45). Studied under Alexander Deineka, Andrei Goncharov and Pavel Sokolov-Skalya at the Moscow Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts (1946–52) and at the Vera Mukhina School of Art and Industry in Leningrad (1952–53). Member of the Union of Artists (1956). Winner of the Komsomol Prize (1972), State Prize (1979), Council of Ministers of the USSR Prize (1985) and Russian President’s Prize (1998). Taught at Moscow Institute of Polygraphy (1975–2002), head of the department of drawing and painting (from 1980), professor (1986). Chairman of the Union of Artists (1988–91), elected to the Congress of People’s Deputies of the Soviet Union (1989–91). Corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1988), full member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1991), presidium member of the Russian Academy of Arts (1997). People’s Artist of the USSR (1991). Awarded a gold medal of the Russian Academy of Arts (2000). Died in Moscow and buried at the former German Cemetery in Lefortovo (2009). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1954), including Times of Change: Art in the Soviet Union (1960–85) at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (2006) and one-man shows at the House of the Artist in Moscow (1987), Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (2004) and the Russian Academy of Arts in Moscow (2005).