Background
Voranau was born on the 19th of May 1916 in Mogilev, Belarus; the son of Maisey Voranau and Sofia Neymark.
In the Studio with Zaitsev.
Years of study in Leningrad.
Hospital. Leningrad 1945.
Oscar Mareks, Natan Voronov, nephew Robert (on top) and his wife Dona (in the center).
Parents Sophia and Maisey, brothers Benjamin, Aaron, Nathan. Kuibyshev in 1946.
With a daughter Marina.
Work on the diploma, 1948.
With Evgeny Zaitsev.
In the Studio with Zaitsev.
Years of study in Leningrad.
Hospital. Leningrad 1945.
Oscar Mareks, Natan Voronov, nephew Robert (on top) and his wife Dona (in the center).
Parents Sophia and Maisey, brothers Benjamin, Aaron, Nathan. Kuibyshev in 1946.
With a daughter Marina.
Work on the diploma, 1948.
With Evgeny Zaitsev.
Voranau was born on the 19th of May 1916 in Mogilev, Belarus; the son of Maisey Voranau and Sofia Neymark.
In 1931, Natan Voranau entered Vitebsk Art College and studied until 1934. After that, he taught painting in schools № 3 and № 20 in Mogilev for a year. In 1935, N. Voranau was sent among the best students to continue his studies in Leningrad to I. E. Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. In 1948, he graduated from Institute, his graduation work was a multi-figured composition "Kovpak's Raid".
In 1933, Voranau began to participate in exhibitions. In 1941, the first personal exhibition was held successfully in the Institute. After a short training at the 3rd Artillery Academy (Kostroma), N. Voranau went to the front as a volunteer. He came through the entire war. Not being even 30, he commanded a battery of 45-mm anti-tank guns on the South-Western front (1941-1942), and later he was a commander of the reconnaissance platoon of the 77th Artillery Regiment of the 248th Infantry Division on the 4th Ukrainian Front in 1943-1945. Three times N. Voranau was on the verge of physical death, and once - on the brink of creative death. In February 1945, fragments of the exploded enemy`s shell hit the eyes of the future artist and deprived him eyesight.
In the years of war, Natan Voranau made graphic sketches of his fellow soldiers and of the places where he fought. Already in 1946, he was demobilized from the Soviet Army.
From 1966 and until his last days, N. Voranau taught at the Department of Drawing and Painting of the Belarusian State Theatre and Art Institute (now, the Belarusian State Academy of Arts). From 1963- 1965, he served as Chairman of the Union of Artists and headed the primary party organisation. The earliest work by N. Voranau in the collection of National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus is the canvas "In the Shadow" was made in 1939 during the studies in Leningrad.
Natan Voranau painted numerous works on the historical and revolutionary theme. Their content corresponds to the ideological line in social realism: "By Order of the Lenin Central Committee of the RCP, Minsk, 1919" (1952-1954); "Morning in October Minsk, 1917" (1955-1957); "Belorussia. For Soviet Power" (1966-1967). His painting "Mine Builders of Belorussia" (1961) stands out among other works on the topic of modernity. In 1973, he created the painting "To the Memory of Fellow Soldiers of 1941".
In 1949, N. Voranau had a creative trip to Kuibyshev. There he painted a numerous of portraits of outstanding people of Volga region for the All-Union Picture Exhibition dedicated to the 32th anniversary of October Revolution: "Captain of the Falgship Steamer "Ruslan" Major Bukaev P. S." and portrait of "Trubkin M. V., Winner of the State Award, Senior Master of Kuibyshev Hydroelectric Power Station". Other portraits: "Portrait of a girl", 1954; ''Portrait of Pylikau A. N.", Miner of Saligorsk Potash Plant', 1960; "Portrait of Zyatseva V. A., Senior Laboratory Assistant of the Control Laboratory of Polotsk Refinery", 1963; "On the Line", 1972; "Midday. Portrait of Labour Veteran, Milkmaid V. A. Mikhailouskaya", 1975; "Minsk. Citizen. A. Contemporary", 1976-1977; "Traffic Police Captain L. Novak", 1977 and etc.
A special place among the portraits take the canvas depicting artist`s daughter Maryna: "Marynachka","Self Portrait with the daughter", 1956; "A Little Octobrist", 1961; "To Spring. Friends", 1967.
N. Voranau worked a lot in the landscape genre: "A Cloudy Day", 1946; "Kavgolovo", 1948; "On the vast Expanse of the Volga", 1949 and etc.
In the early 1960s, he visited Saligorsk on creative trips. He created a whole series of industrial landscapes depicting the construction of the new city.
With a special feeling the artist painted views of his favourite Minsk that had literally risen from the ashes after the war and became one of the most beautiful cities in the USSR.
From time to time, N. Voranau painted stil-lives with pleasure. They are distinctive due to the simple laconic composition but they are always extremely complicated in colour: "Roses", 1956; "A Sunny Day", 1958; "Window", 1964; "An Open Window. The spring Has Come", 1972; "September. Sunflowers", At the artist`s studio", 1973.
In his last year Natan Voranau was very ill. He passed away being 61 at the peak of his creative powers. Until the end of his life the artist never ceased to create.
N. Voronau`s graduation work "Kovpak`s Raid" was shown at the All-Union Exhibition in Moscow dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Komsomol and it was awarded the Third Degree Prize.
Natan's paintings are kept in the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus, the Museum of the Contemporary Art in Minsk (now, the National Centre for Contemporary Arts), in the funds of the Belarusian Union of Artists, in the Museum of the History of the Belarusian State University of Physical Training, in the private collections in Belarus and foreign countries.
A Cloudy Day
1946Kavgolovo
1948On the vast Expanse of the Volga
1949September. A Fishing Harbour
1953Riga Seaside
1953Flax
1956Sea
1956Boath
1956An Alley in the Park
1958Flowering Apricot
1959Noon on the Prypyat
1959Busy Season
1961A Windy Day
1962To Spring
1962Rypening Rye
1962Spring Has Come
1963A Sunny Day
1963Silence
1966Blossomed
1973Before the Rain
1973Svetlagorsk on the Byarezina
1975Concrete Product Plant
1960Minsk. Internatsiyanalnaya Street
1949Minsk. Peramogi Square
1964Uskhodnyaya
1968A Road to Minsk
1972Roses
1956At the artist`s studio
1973To the Memory of Fellow Soldiers of 1941
(He concentrated all attention on details, nuances, that l...)
1973Morning in October Minsk,1917
(The painting depicts a Red Army unit guarding the order o...)
1957Kovpak`s Raid
(It depicts historical events of the last war. The paintin...)
1948Mine Builders of Belorussia
(N.Voranau painted it both in the image and composition an...)
1961the canvas "In the Shadow"
1939By Order of the Lenin Central Committee of the RCP, Minsk, 1919
1954Belorussia. For Soviet Power
1967Captain of the Falgship Steamer "Ruslan" Major Bukaev P. S.
1949Trubkin M. V., Winner of the State Award, Senior Master of Kuibyshev Hydroelectric Power Station
1949Portrait of a Girl
1954Portrait of Pylikau A.N., Miner of Saligorsk Potash Plan
1960Portrait of Zyatseva V. A., Senior Laboratory Assistant of the Control Laboratory of Polotsk Refinery
1963On the Line
1972Midday. Portrait of Labour Veteran, Milkmaid V.A. Mikhailouskaya
1975Minsk. Citizen. A.Contemporary
1977Traffic Police Captain L. Novak
1977Portrait of Artist Bakhatkau A. S.
1955Portrait of Pastunina T. M., Honoured Performing Artist of the BSSR
1956Portrait of Romanovich Y. S., Honoured Performing Artist of the BSSR, Playwright
1962Belarus Is My Song. Portrait of I. I. Zhynovich and V. A. Burkovich
1970Portrait of Yanka Kupala
1972Marynachka,Self Portrait with the daughter
1956A Little Octobrist
1961To Spring. Friends
1967The work of Natan Voranau was beyond social realism. While saving the ideological basis of the official art, the pictorial and figurative aspects of his paintings are based on a creative reinterpretation of the heritage of Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and Fauvism.
Natan Voranau was a member of the board of the BSSR Union of Artists.
N. Voranau was married to Aldona Mironchyk and had a daughter.
