Petersburg Style

The exhibition “Petersburg Style” presenting 200 works of graphic artists Vladimir Ivanovich, Nikolay Vladimirovich and Natalya Nikolaevna Serdyukovs was opened in two halls on the ground floor of the House of Father Superior in early May 2014.

Vladimir Ivanovich Serdyukov was born in Alma-Ata in 1924. He was fond of drawing since childhood. He drew during the war years, having gone the way from Kursk to Berlin. He was awarded the Order of the Red Army, the medals “For Capture of Berlin”, ‘For Liberation of Warsaw”, “For Victory over Germany”, and many others.

In 1949, he came to Leningrad and entered the Graphic Art Department of the Academy of Arts. He graduated from it in 1954. It was in Leningrad where the artist met his future wife Nina Nikolaevna Novoselskaya. In the 1960s – 1980s, he taught drawing in Leningrad Institute of Civil Engineering and in the Leningrad Higher School of Industrial Art named after Vera Mukhina.

Thanks to the talent of the restorer, Vladimir Ivanovich managed to preserve the boards of the outstanding masters of Russian xylography A.P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, V.A. Favorsky, A.I. Kravchenko, N.I. Piskarev, M.I. Pikov, M.V. Kupriyanov. He glued the boards that were sometimes unfit for printing, engraved the drawing anew and removed imperfections.

The artist is also known as a talented illustrator. Pictures for books hold a special place in his creative work. The most interesting works were made in the 1970s for the book “Literary Places and Monuments of Leningrad”, the books of verse of V. Soshin and the book of H. Hoppe “Angelita”.

The works displayed in the museum were mainly about St. Petersburg. You could see military pictures, book illustrations and others. All of them were chromoxylographs.

His son, Nikolay Vladimirovich Serdyukov, initiated the exhibition in the museum. He worked on the project “Printing-Offices of Russia” since 2012 and opened such a workshop in the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve.

His works were also presented at the exhibition. Nikolay Serdyukov was born in Leningrad in 1952. He got his elementary art education in the family because both parents were graphic artists. They cultivated in him love for creative work and drawing. He made his first engraving at the age of 4. Nikolay Serdyukov was a student of G.N. Antonov in the City Art School, M.A. Goldin – in the school of the Leningrad Higher School of Industrial Art named after Vera Mukhina, E.N. Lazarev – in the Leningrad Higher School of Industrial Art named after Mukhina.

Upon graduation, he taught in the Leningrad Art School named after Serov. In the 1980s, he devoted himself to xylography continuing his father’s work. In 1992, together with the group of printers, he started to build an exposition complex “Printing-Office” in the Peter and Paul Fortress that was completed in 1997. Nikolay Serdyukov was at the head of this project for many years.

On his initiative, such workshops were also opened in other art monuments of St. Petersburg. Since 1998, Nikolay Serdyukov is an artistic director of the Graphic Art Centre of the St. Petersburg Union of Artists. He became its director general in 2001.

His works are kept in the collections of the State Hermitage Museum, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, the State Museum of History of St. Petersburg, and other museums and private collections.

33 chromoxylographs, lithographs, and works made in the colour metallography technique in different years were displayed in the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve. All of them were about the monuments and historical places of the native city.

His daughter, Natalya Nikolaevna Serdyukova, is a young novice artist. Since childhood, she got to the creative atmosphere watching the work of her grandfather and father. She studied in Herzen Pedagogical University during 6 years and got the Master’s degree in art education. When Natalya was a first-year student, she claimed a win in the contest “Europe at School” and went to the Czech Republic.

Natalya Serdyukova is fond of creating in such techniques as linoleum engraving and monotyping. Her 10 linocuts, cooper plates and xylographs were exhibited in the museum.

Visitors could not only see the works of St. Petersburg artists, but also participate in the creation of an engraving with the help of the printing press.

Y.A. Lebedeva, head of the Exposition and Exhibition Department