Voronov Viktor Anatolyevich (Russian: Воронов Виктор Анатольевич, pronounced [´vorənəf]; 1955-2016) was a painter, one of the leading masters of modern Krasnoyarsk painting.
Viktor Voronov was born on April 13, 1955 in the village of Dolgiy Most, the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
In 1971-1975, he studied at the Krasnoyarsk Art School named after V. I. Surikov. In 1975-1981, he worked in the theatre, did his military service, and was engaged in design work.
In 1981, Voronov entered the Krasnoyarsk Institute of Arts (now Dmitri Hvorostovsky Siberian State Academy of Arts). His teachers were V. M. Kharlamov and A. M. Znak. Vladilen Kharlamov (Russian: Владилен Митрофанович Харламов) was a Krasnoyarsk artist. He is known to have been the founder of the Faculty of Painting at the Krasnoyarsk State Institute of Arts (1981-1984), which was later transformed into the Painting Department at the Krasnoyarsk State Art Institute. Anatoly Znak (Russian: Анатолий Маркович Знак) was a Soviet Russian artist, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Arts (1988), People's Artist of the Russian Federation (2001), Professor at the Krasnoyarsk Art Institute.
In 1987-1995, Voronov taught painting and drawing at the Art Pottery Department, Krasnoyarsk State Art Institute (since 2018 – Dmitri Hvorostovsky Siberian State Academy of Arts).
In 1994, he became a Member of the Artists’ Union of Russia.
Viktor Voronov participated in regional, all-Russian, international art exhibitions, for example, the Regional Art Exhibition Siberia (Novosibirsk, 2009); Regional Art Exhibition dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Krasnoyarsk Territory (Krasnoyarsk, 2009); Regional Art Exhibition of Landscape and Still Life Autumn Vernissage (Krasnoyarsk, 2010); Regional Art Exhibition Yenisei – Irtysh: Great Rivers of Siberian Art (Krasnoyarsk, 2011).
He held a series of solo exhibitions in Russia (1998; 2004; from 2006 to 2014 annually) and abroad (Nicosia, Cyprus, 1997; Genève, Switzerland, 1998; Athens, Greece, 2000; Hamburg, Germany, 2011).
In 2010, Voronov was a resident at the Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris, France).
Viktor Voronov’s works are in the collections of the V. Surikov Krasnoyarsk Art Museum, Divnogorsk Art Museum, Museum and Exhibition Centre (Zelenogorsk, the Krasnoyarsk Territory), Taimyr Local Lore Museum, Russian Museum of Modern Art (Harbin, China), as well as in private collections in Russia, France, Greece, Israel, Germany, America, and Japan.
Viktor Voronov died in 2016 in Krasnoyarsk.
Creative Activities
One of the main genres in the works by Viktor Voronov is still life. Inspired by European masters of the 20th century (Giorgio Morandi was especially close to the master), he nevertheless remains a representative of the Siberian painting school, directly related to the realism. There are quotations and allusions to the world artistic heritage in such works as Meditating on Konchalovsky (2005), A Fruit Bowl (2002), A Still Life with a Falk Album (2003), A Primus (2010). His work is many-sided and ambiguous. Despite their apparent simplicity, Voronov’s paintings are filled with a subtle sense of colour, composition, and love for painting.
In the 2000s, he combined genres (still life-landscape-portrait) and turned to the nude rather rare for the Siberian school (A Girl with a Fan, A Model in the Studio).
One of Viktor Voronov’s favourite genres of painting was the urban landscape. When travelling in Russia and abroad, he worked in Saint Petersburg, Paris, Hamburg, Athens, and Venice. In those creative trips, he gathered material for his work. Later he used those sketches brought while creating his works: Leningrad, Night Hamburg, etc. Krasnoyarsk was also poetized in his work. In a series of landscapes dedicated to Krasnoyarsk, he captured the soul of the city in all its diversity.