Valery V. Pimenov (February 15, 1920, Cherepovets - February 28, 2008, St. Petersburg) - Soviet painter and teacher, People's Artist of the Russian Federation, member of the St. Petersburg Union of Artists (until 1992 - Leningrad organization of the RSFSR Union of Artists).
Valery V. Pimenov was born in 1920 in Cherepovets in a working class family. After graduating from high school in 1936, he moved to Leningrad, where he began working at a plant for printing machines. At the same time he worked in the art studio at the Palace of Culture named after SM Kirov, which was directed by I. I. Brodsky and M. S. Kopeikin. As a studio student, Pimenov began to show his work at art exhibitions, and two of them - «The Meeting of Tankmen» and «Hero's Feat» - were exhibited at the All-Union exhibition «Defense of the USSR» (1940).
In 1941, after graduating from preparatory classes, Pimenov entered the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after I. Repin. At the end of 1942, together with the institute, he was evacuated to Samarkand, then transferred to Zagorsk. During the Great Patriotic War, he worked in the defense poster team on the instructions of the Western Front and in the TASS Windows of Moscow. Classes at the institute were resumed only after the war, where I.E. Grabar and V.M. Oreshnikov became his teachers.
In 1949, Pimenov graduated from the institute in the workshop of V. M. Oreshnikov with the qualification of an artist of painting. Thesis - the painting «Comrade Stalin at the rate of the Supreme Command». After graduation, Pimenov continued his postgraduate studies. In 1955, for the painting «Lenin's Word» he was awarded the academic degree of candidate of art history. The interest in historical-revolutionary themes and, no doubt, the influence of teachers, which manifested itself in the early years, determined the future path of the artist.
In 1957, Pimenov wrote the picture Worker Control. 1917, and in 1963-1965 working on the composition «Leninists». While working on the picture, Pimenov carefully collects the material that helped him to create authentic images, and among them are portraits of old Bolsheviks - A. A. Bulyshkin and M. E. Erofeev, surrounded by pioneers.
At the initial stage, the work of Pimenov developed in line with the traditions of the national school of painting of the 1940-1950s, based on the achievements of Russian realism of the previous time. His historical and revolutionary canvases involuntarily resemble the landmark paintings of the artist’s teachers, V.M. Oreshnikov and I.E. Grabar, who contributed to the «Soviet Leniniana» and asserted their artistic method and principles of approach to painting material, to the construction of paintings based on similarity. "
The 1960s were a period in which art stereotypes were abandoned in Russian art. In the artistic environment was widely believed that any aesthetic platforms historically transient and exhausted along with the ideas that formed it, and the purpose of a creative person is expressed primarily in not to miss this change of reference. The end of the 1960s. for V.Pimenov became a new stage when his true abilities as a bright painter, master of landscape and portrait began to unfold. This did not mean that the artist abandoned the realistic method. At the same time, in the work of V.Pimenov, the changes taking place in art are also reflected, the shift of evaluative reference points from the «general» to the «special», that is, personal, is clearly readable in the works.
The development of Pimenov's skills was facilitated by numerous trips around the country. He visits the North and Central Asia, working on study material. During these years, V.Pimenov makes a number of foreign trips, having been to Romania, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia. The trip to Cuba in 1965 was especially fruitful. The sketches brought from the “Island of Freedom” were dominated by landscapes with the motives of the Caribbean Sea, the white embankments of Havana, peasant huts and roads stretching deep into the sugar cane plantations.
Great influence on the work of Pimenov had a trip in 1966 to Italy. Like many Russian masters who visited this country, Pimenov discovers the beauty of Italy’s nature, devoting his landscapes to small and large Italian cities and villages. In his works, he uses pure unclouded tones, contrasting combinations of colors.
The next three years (1968–1970) V. Pimenov spends in Cambodia, where he was sent by the USSR Ministry of Culture as a professor at the Royal University of the Arts. Here he works not only as a teacher, but also as a landscape painter. Among Cambodian landscapes, the cycles dedicated to the ancient Khmer culture and modern life of the country stand out in particular. Temples of Angkor X — XIII cc., Lost in the jungle, amaze the viewer with their special mysterious beauty. combinations. He chooses color for the main expressive means for creating an image («The Temple of Bayon», «Entrance to Bayon»). On the banks of the Mekong and Bosak Pimenov writes fishing houses on high stilts, floating settlements on the water. The artist devotes the painting «Vietnamese Fishermen» (1969) to the peculiarity of life and nature of this country. According to the impressions of staying in Phnom Penh, he also wrote one of the best portraits of this time, «Portrait of an Indian Teacher» (1969).
In the 1970s Continue trips to Europe. He visits France, Germany, Hungary, Holland. With a great desire to travel around his native country. In these years, there are works of the artist dedicated to Leningrad. Among them are landscape motifs with famous architectural monuments and portraits of cultural figures (O. F. Bergholz, V. I. Strzhelchik, I. P. Vladimirov).
The compulsory element of V.Pimenov’s creative activity is teaching at the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after I.E. Repin (since 1950), where he holds the position of Professor of the Department of Painting and Composition (since 1971). Often, now accompanied by students, he comes to his homeland, to Cherepovets. Here in the Cherepovets Museum Association not one personal exhibition of the master was organized, his work was adequately represented in the museum collections of the city. In 1971, Pimenov was awarded the honorary title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR, in 1994 the honorary title of People's Artist of the Russian Federation.
Valery V. Pimenov died on February 28, 2008 in St. Petersburg at the eighty-ninth year of life. His works are in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, in museums and private collections in Russia, France, Italy, Cuba, Vietnam, Cambodia and other countries.
