Background

Gavriil Kharitonovich Vashchenko was born as Gavriil Kharitonovich Vashchanka on June 20, 1928, in Chikalovichi village, Bragin district of Gomel region, Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic (nowadays Chikalovichi, Gomel region, Belarus).

Education

Vashchenko received his education at Kiev College of Applied Art, attending it from 1945 to 1948. He studied under the guidance of lecturer, T. N. Yablonskaya. However, the friendship with a lecturer in history, A. V. Prakhov, as well as the very applied school direction, had a great influence on the formation of Gavriil Vashchenko as an artist. He was carried away by monumental art and was on the third year of the school when he had already been making paintings in the building of the Supreme Council of Ukraine.

On the advice of the undergraduates, Vashchenko then went to enter the Lviv State Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts (now Lviv National Academy of Arts) where he was studying during the early 1950s, graduating in 1955.

Career

Gavriil Vashchenko started his career at the Dovzhenko film studio in Ukraine, where he was working during 1948. After graduation from the Lviv State Institute of Decorative and Applied Arts (now Lviv National Academy of Arts) in 1955, he left for Moldova and had lived there for 6 years, working at the Republican Art College of Chisinau (now the Academy of Music, Theatre and Fine Arts of Moldova).

In the spring of 1956, the first personal exhibition of Vashchenko took place in Chisinau. In 1957, he was admitted to the Union of Artists of the USSR and became the winner of the festival of youth and students of the Moldavian SSR. Since then, he had started to combine his pedagogical work with creative one, painting landscapes, portraits, still lifes, and working in monumental art - in Moscow, he was engaged in finishing one of the pavilions of the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy of the USSR.

In 1961, Vashchenko moved to Minsk on the invitation from the future National Artist of Belarus Vladimir Stelmashonok with whom he got acquainted at the All-Union Exhibition held in Moscow. The same year the Department of Decorative and Applied Arts was established at the Art Department of the Belarusian State Theatre and Art Institute (now Belarusian State Academy of Arts). As there was a lack of qualified teachers for the new department, they were looked for in the neighbouring republics. Arriving from Moldova Gavriil Vashchenko became the head of the department. Three years later, when the Department of Monumental Painting appeared, he became its head.

From 1965 to 1975, due to the reorganization of the Department of Decorative and Applied Arts, Vashchenko directed a workshop at the Department of Painting, serving also as an associate professor of arts, and from 1975 to 1997, he was in charge of the Department of Monumental and Decorative Arts, holding at the same time his personal exhibitions at the State Art Museum in Minsk (now the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus; 1978, 1988, 1993, 1997), Central Artist House in Moscow (1980), National Art Museum in Chishinau Moldova (1978), the halls of Bulgarian Union of Artists in Sofia (1982), and the Ukrainian Art Museum in Lviv (1992).

From 2000, Gavriil Vashchenko worked at the studio, creating new paintings and holding his personal exhibitions in Belarus and other countries.

The last exhibition of the artist, while alive, was held from December 13, 2013 to January 15, 2014, at the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus.

Gavriil Vashchenko died in Minsk on February 14, 2014. He was buried in Minsk in the Eastern cemetery.

Achievements

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  Gavriil Kharitonovich Vashchenko is best known as a Belarusian artist, who had a great influence on the preservation and development of Belarusian culture and who made a great contribution to the establishment and development of the Belarusian school of monumental and decorative art.
  
  Gavriil Vashchenko's works have been exhibited in Austria, Algeria, the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, France, Germany, and other countries. They are on display at the Belarusian National Art Museum, the Tretyakov Gallery, the National Museum of Ukrainian Art, national art museums of Moldova and Bulgaria.
  
  In 1988, Vashchenko was awarded the honorary title of People's Artist of the BSSR. In 1992, the International Biographical Center of Cambridge awarded him the honorary title of Person of the Year 1992 and Person of the 20th Century. In addition, the American Biographical Institute awarded him the title of Man of the year 1994.
  
  In 2002, Vashchenko Art Gallery was opened in Gomel, containing about 70 paintings, watercolours and sketches of monumental works, donated by the artist to the city.
  
  In 2013, Gavriil Vashchenko was awarded the title of honorary citizen of Gomel in recognition of his great personal contribution to the development of fine arts and preservation of the cultural heritage of the city.

Works

More photos

• mural

  • Educators

• painting

  • The White Morning
  • Radiation 1987
  • Novogrudok 1985
  • Space 1978
  • From ancient times 1981

  • Flower-de-luce

  • Repentance

  • Calamity

  • Pasque-flower

    2007

  • Grandfather's windmill

    1996

  • The last ray

    1995

  • Nikolay Vaschenko

  • To my dear

    2002

  • Still Life with a cabbage

    1958

  • Cyclamen

    1966

  • Tender sun

    1967

  • Rye

    1970

  • The Ballad of Courage

    1974

  • Late rendezvous

  • Theater of absurd

    1996

  • Planet Kamelia

    2001

  • Chernobyl apple trees

    1991

  • Kupalinka

    2005
  • Battle of Grunwald 1985
  • Lev Sapieha in Golshany 2002

  • Chernobyl Requiem

    1998

Views

Gavriil Vashchenko worked in the genres of easel and monumental painting, watercolours, subject-themed paintings, portraits, landscapes and still lifes. In the work of Vashchenko, one can trace a close relationship with the Belarusian land, with his homeland - Belarusian Polesie. He also devoted a number of paintings to past events and historical personalities. He is considered to be the founder of the monumental school.

Membership

Gavriil Vashchenko was a member of the Board of the Union of Artists of the USSR, a member of the Presidium of the Union of Artists of the BSSR, a member of the expert committee of the Ministry of Culture of the BSSR, a member of the All-Union Commission on Monumental Art of the Union of Artists of the USSR and an interdepartmental Council at the State Building of the BSSR on Art Synthesis and a member of the Cultural Foundation Board.

Personality

Gavriil Vashchenko was an erudite, consistent, thoughtful and organized person.

Physical Characteristics: Gavriil Vashchenko had the kindest lively sky-blue eyes, hair touched by silver, a thick beard, and a good posture.

Connections

Gavriil Vashchenko was married and had two sons. His wife's name is Matilda Adamovna.

Son:

Konstantin Vashchenko

Wife:

Matilda Adamovna Vashchenko

Brother:

Nikolay Vashchenko