Levanidov Valery Ivanovich

The artist received his artistic education at the Nizhny Novgorod Art and Industrial College, where in 1923-1927 he studied with A.V. Fonvizin. In 1930 he graduated from VKHUTEIN, where he studied with S.V. Gerasimov, K.N. Istomin, A.A. Osmerkin. The artist’s pictorial concept was formed in the 1930s. In his works, Levanidov relied on a truthful rendering of nature, clarity and simplicity of compositional solutions, and the sincerity of the author's intonation. The artist gravitated towards tonal painting, soft and lyrical colors. Levanidov's most significant achievements are associated with the landscape genre. In a number of works of the 1930s, techniques of tonal painting were combined with techniques of decorative writing. Sometimes he introduced watercolor into mixed media as one of the components. In Levanidov's paintings of the 1950s, a tendency to reduce color complexity to decorative generalization begins to be visible. The works of this period are characterized by lighting effects, outright decorativeism, and the poetics of pictorial and plastic generalizations. In the 1970s, the artist created works programmatic for this new style - a thematic painting with a military plot. His paintings on military-patriotic themes were a sincere tribute from the front-line artist to the memory of his experiences. The artist passed away in Moscow in 1983. During the exhibition, representatives of many of the country's largest state art collections expressed a desire to have the artist's works in their museums, including the Tretyakov Gallery, the State Historical Museum, the Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) State Art Museum, the Oryol Museum of Fine Arts, the Tula Museum of Fine Arts, the Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve and many others. Today, his works are in more than 20 museums in Russia, including the State Russian Museum of St. Petersburg, the Saratov State Art Museum. A.N. Radishchev, State Cultural Institution of the Museum Association Museum of the History of Moscow,