The long-expected exhibition of one of the best masters of the 20th-century art – Viktor Yefimovich Popkov (1932-1974) – will be opened in the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes on September 15. The opening ceremony will begin in the Treasury Chamber at 15:00. Everybody can join in it.
The art of Viktor Popkov is understandable and close to the Vologda region and its residents probably to a greater extent than the creative work of any other master of the previous century. The Russian North became a source of inspiration for the artist, his fate and love. People living in this harsh land were prototypes of the characters depicted by the artist in his numerous pictures.
Vitaly Manin, famous researcher of Viktor Popkov’s creative activity, writes, “V. Popkov created a special figurative world. His pictures are populated with people whose life he first opened for the general audience, made their troubles common heritage and entrusted them to the care of the society. Therefore we can tell with confidence about the world of Popkov, the land of Popkov, the state of Popkov highlighted from various sides in his pictures. The artist died early, but his heritage continues existing still amazing us with strength and originality of the images”.
Viktor Yefimovich Popkov was born in 1932.
He studied in the Moscow Art and Graphics Pedagogical School leaving it in 1952 and then graduated from Moscow State Academic Art Institute named after V.I. Surikov.
He started to participate in exhibitions in 1958.
In 1959, he became a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR.
From 1963 to 1966, he was a member of the Committee on the Lenin and State Prizes.
In 1967, he was awarded the Honorary Diploma at the exhibition of young artists in Paris.
Viktor Popkov died on November 12, 1974.
In 1975, he was posthumously awarded the State Prize of the USSR for a series of pictures “Thoughts on Life”.
