Artist Vladimir Volosov

The Artist Vladimir Volosov It is rare but there are people for whom one life is not enough while also being wise enough to spend theirs tempered by fate. St.-Petersburger Vladimir Volosov once took a step in his life – that same step set out by Paul Gauguin in the history of world painting. One will recall that the bank functionary left work at the age of forty-three and departed for far away islands in order to become a painter. Professor Vladimir Volosov, a USSR State Laureate and Doctor of Physics and Mathematical Sciences, left science at 52 years of age and became a free and unabandoned artist. His childhood passion had finally won out. He had always been drawing since early childhood, but in choosing a profession he had listened to the advice of his father, a reknowned scientist and physicist, one who had indeed worked with Korolyov. His father believed that a man had to occupy himself with "deeds" – and by deeds was implied physics – and that while painting would not amount to anything of significance, one could entertain it for one’s own sake. Having gotten his higher education in physical-industrial science, Vladimir became engrossed in his own right with one of the latest areas for scientific investigation – that of lasers and non-linear optics. Over the course of thirty years, he followed that path from engineer to established scientist, a researcher in the area of lasers and the new science of non-linear optics. Indeed he was awarded the USSR State Prize in 1984 for his creation of the transformative laser spectrum on the basis of non-linear crystal optics. More than 100 scientific works, reports at international conferences, prestigious positions as a professor and scientific collaborator ... As a well-respected scientist, Vladimir Davidovich left for a career in painting by the force of his own internal needs. Fortunately he did not need to liberate himself from dry and artificial academic styles. He had not been traumatized by a single training school. He simply went from books and museums – to canvas and paints. It sounds easy, but this path was the result of his own self-training. To open up the principal law of painting for himself – to speak through space, paints, colors – he was able to achieve this on his own. But behind the painter’s back were the traditions of the Russian landscape school and the heritage of the impressionists – his idols. He seeks to penetrate the essence of discovery from those French artists, to understand the formal means of rendering sunlight and its reflections on the land or in the water, on the leaves of trees or the ocean surf. He understands the varied effects of illumination. In a mathematical way he has presented himself with regulated tasks needed for pictorial expression of his own world-view, for example, to impart his own particular vividness and translucence to color and light. Like an artist “inventing the wheel.” These are the landscapes of a master – flashes of memory, an expression of instantaneous life. Recollections – a part of the landscape – become a leitmotif of his work. He creates realistic compositions, softened by romanticism, and this imparts its own fascination to the artist’s canvases. He often works with the palette knife, adding surface textures. He allows himself to paint all that is of interest to him – from the nude body to seascapes to abstractions – complete freedom of self-expression and that heartfelt comfort which one can only envy. He did not follow a path guaranteeing success – he did not go about occupying himself with primitive art at that same level as frank postmodernism. The classics were for him. He was used to solving problems of the highest complexity, anything else was of no interest – the odd pathfinder with an easel opening entirely newer and newer worlds. And it was easy for him to achieve recognition. What helped was a steadfast belief in his own self. One can be certain that even more new works will be appearing for his forthcoming eightieth birthday. All has not yet been found and said by this artist. And he has not yet crossed the threshold. It is still a long way off before his experiment’s final result. The artist is a professional, recognized and claimed by the artistic circle and the public – indeed the Russian Union of Professional Artists has evaluated Volosov’s works. In the artist’s creative biography are exhibitions in many countries around the world – United Sates of America, Great Britain, Finland, Sweden, Israel. After one particular historic event – the fall of the Berlin Wall – he participated in a series of exhibitions shown under the motto “Two Worlds – One Culture” held in Berlin. Volosov’s works are in the collections of such well-known people as Anatoly Sobchak, Yury Luzhkov, Aleksandr Lukashenko, and in St. Petersburg’s Diaghilev Center of Arts. At the present moment, Vladimir Davidovich resides in the United States, in the city of Boston. Awards 2010 – Special Prize of the Moscow International Concourse “Art Preview” 2010 – Gold Medal at the International Exhibition “Contemporary Impressionism” in New York 2011 – Gold Medal at the International Exhibition “Life & Environment” in New York


Tatyana Yuryeva Doctor of Art History, Professor
of the Smolny Institute of St. Petersburg State University,
Director of the Diaghilev Center, Academician of the Academy of Humanitarian Sciences,
Member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA).