Background

Pavel Vasilevich Maslenikov was born on February 14, 1914, in the village of Nizkaya Vulitsa, then Mogilev Governorate of the Russian Empire. Later the village was incorporated into the village of Knyazhitsy, which is situated about 12 km from Mogilev, Belarus. His parents - Vasily Grigorievich and Maria Efimovna - were well-to-do farmers who knew well the job of grain growers and who brought up four children: the eldest daughter Euphrosyne and sons Timofey, Pavel, and Vladimir.

Education

Pavel finished four classes of primary school in the village of Knyazhitsy, and when he was ten years old, the future artist moved to Mogilev, where he studied at comprehensive school № 3 and later at Mogilev Pedagogical College and Mogilev Pedagogical Institute (now Mogilev State A. Kuleshov University) at the Literature Faculty. He met F. Parkhomenko, a wonderful teacher and painter, at the college. At the same college, N. Churkin, composer, worked as a teacher of Music, Singing, and Methodology. He created a great choir and orchestra of folk instruments that was joined by P. Maslenikov.

The studies at Vitebsk Art College, from 1934 to 1938, became the basis of Maslenikov's work. In the 1930s, famous artists following the realistic method in painting taught there. It was them who formed P. Maslenikov as an artist. He remained faithful to the realistic art all his life long. It is reflected not only in his works but also in his researches in art history.

From 1948 to 1953, Maslenikov also studied at the Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture named after I. Repin (now Russian Academy of Arts) at the Theory of Art and Art History Faculty. After the graduation from the institute, he became a Doctor of Philosophy, a Candidate of the Institute of Literature of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR (Belarus).

Career

During the period at college, Maslenikov joined a great choir orchestra of folk instruments. Playing at the orchestra was one of his favourite pastimes. When he was 24 years old, Maslenikov came to the Belarusian State Theatre of Opera and Ballet (now The National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Republic of Belarus). He worked as a scene designer there from 1938 to 1941. But his creative work was interrupted by the war. He was mobilized into a communication unit near Moscow and at the end of the war, he was sent to the Turkish border to Iran.

Maslenikov returned to the theatre in 1946 and held the position of the art director until 1960. During that period, he designed 16 operas, 7 ballets, and more than 10 dramatic productions. Maslenikov had a chance to work with the European classics (Tosca, 1950 by G. Puccini; Pagliacci, 1951 by R. Leoncavallo; Lakme, 1952 by L. Delibes; The Gypsy Baron, 1960 by J. Strauss; La Gioconda, 1962 by Ponchielli) and the works of Russian composers (The Demon, 1951 by A. Rubinstein; Iolanta, 1952 by P. Tchaikovsky). He also designed operas written by Slavic composers (The Sold Bride, 1949 by B. Smetana; The Haunted Manor, 1952 by S. Monyushko) and worked on the Soviet repertoire (The Young Guard, 1954 by Y. Meitus) and on the production of the Belarusian national operas, including The Valley of Happiness, 1957 by Y. Belzatsky; Mikhail Podgorny, 1957 by E. Tsikotsky; Bright Dawn, 1958 by A. Turankov. From 1952 to 1954, Maslenikov also worked as a graphic designer at the Janka Kupala National Theatre.

The beginning of the 1960s was the most intensive life period for P. Maslenikov: the thesis defence for degree of Candidate of Arts, the work as the Head of the Artist`s Union of the BSSR (Belarus), the defence of an idea and the opening itself of the Republican Boarding School of Music and Fine Arts in 1962 (now it is called the upper secondary school and college named after his teacher I. Akhremchyk). During this time was held the second personal exhibition of the artist dedicated to his 50th anniversary (the first exhibition had been held in 1954).

While working as a rector of the Belarusian State Theatre and Art Institute (now Belarusian State Academy of Arts) from 1960 to 1964, he did a lot to improve the educational process and enrich material and technical resources of that educational institution. Subsequently, he held the position of associate professor of the department of the interior (1964-1967), head of the department of fabric decoration and styling products of light industry (1967-1978), and associate professor of the painting department (1979-1995).

During his life, the artist traveled a lot with his sketchbook. He visited India and Nepal, Sweden and Finland, France and Italy, Egypt, the Baltic countries, Ukraine, Russia and explored every corner of his native Belarus. He created landscape series "Around the Native Land", "The Altai Series", and "The Baltic Series" (1970-1974), which were included in his personal exhibition dedicated to his 60th anniversary. City and architectural landscapes reflect different conditions and geography of the artist's journeys: "Ancient Minsk", 1987; "Gurzuf", 1987; "Old Riga", 1973; "At the Shores of Odessa", 1958; "Rome", 1958; "Naples", 1958 and etc. He also loved to paint "in close up", placing his sketchbook amidst thickets and choosing an angle of view close to a depicted object. He also strived to depict changeable and elusive images of nature: "In the Park", 1983; "Golden Autumn", 1994 and etc.

In 1978, Pavel Maslenikov retired. He died on September 6, 1995, in the village of Kniazhitsy, Mogilev region."Heaven" became the last and unfinished work of P. Maslenikov.

Achievements

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  Pavel Vasilevich Maslenikov was one of the renowned Belarusian masters of landscape painting and scenic painting in the XX century whose activity was directed to the creation of the theatre culture, the national system of education and science in the sphere of art, and the development of Belarusian painting. During his long career, he designed 16 operas, 7 ballets, more than 10 dramatic productions and hundreds of paintings, which can be found in the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus, the Belarusian Artists Union funds, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Minsk, the Moscow and Grozny (Russia) art museums and Mogilev Regional Art Museum named after P. V. Maslenikov.
  
  Since 1954, Pavel Maslenikov owns the title of the Honoured Art Worker of the BSSR.
  
  In 1994, he was awarded the title, People’s Artist of Belarus, and the same year, the Art Gallery of P.V. Maslenikov was opened in the Mogilev Regional Art Museum. From 1997, the museum bears the name of the artist.
  
  By decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus A. G. Lukashenko dated January 22, 1996, the name of P. V. Maslenikov was assigned to the Mogilev Regional Art Museum and a monument-bust of the sculptor Letun V. was installed.
  
  In 1999, the IV International Plein Air on painting named after P. V. Maslenikov took place in Mogilev: "The Image of the Motherland in the Visual Arts".
  
  In 2004, the IX International Plein Air was held in memory of P. V. Maslenikov and V. K. Byalynitsky-Birulya.
  
  To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the artist’s birth, the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus, with a circulation of 3,000 copies, produced a commemorative silver coin of rectangular shape with polychrome and monochrome reproductions and a portrait of Pavel Maslenikov.
  
  On January 20, 2014, the Ministry of Communications and Informatization of the Republic of Belarus issued an envelope with the original stamp “Painting. P.V. Maslenikov” from the “Painting” series. The illustrations for the envelope were paintings by Pavel Maslenikov: “Last leaves”, 1987, and “Svisloch Revealed”, 1992.
  
  By the decision of the Minsk City Executive Committee of September 27, 2013, No. 2459, the state educational institution Gymnasium No. 75 of Minsk was given the name of Honored Art Worker of the BSSR, People’s Artist of Belarus, Pavel Maslenikov.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • February Sun

    1981

  • Willows

    1971

  • Karpaty

    1970

  • The Crimean Tune

    1969

  • At the lake

    1989

  • Minchina

    1979

  • Sea

    1977

  • Seashore

    1979

  • Autumn

    1979

  • Before the rain

    1977

  • Calmness

    1984

  • Clouds

    1969

  • Evening in India

    1971

  • June

    1977

  • Logoysk

    1976

  • By the evening

    1983

  • Khatyn Forest

    1971

  • In the Chernobyl Zone

    1989

  • Spring

    1981

  • Zaslavsky Reservoir

    1976

  • Abandoned Village

    1979

  • Dnepr

    1976

  • Evening Sunset

    1969

  • Minsk Suburbs

    1977

  • Winter Day

    1971

  • The Colours of Native Nature

    1971

  • In the pine forest

    1974

  • Mound of Glory

    1981

  • Autumn

    1993

  • Sofia of Polotsk

    1990

Views

Pavel Vasilyevich considered that the most important thing about painting was to find an idea, comprehend it and work on it and then rely on a team for its realization.

As for his creative work, though the artist does not suggest any unusual visual images, there is still a desire to admire their colour scheme endlessly. Picturesque distances, soft lines, unhurried rhythm of colour changes, contact with beauty in its highest manifest, when aesthetics comes together with an ethic ideal, is felt again and again. Beauty is blended with good. Meaning woven into the visual base of a landscape grows from the life experience and inherits all its wisdom.

His miniatures painted in oil on small-sized cardboard are of special attraction. There are thoroughly depicted unique harmony of the green, the clear blue sky and reserved ocher-brown tones roads and paths on them. Harmonious illustration of natural life reveals the creative energy of the artist, designed to initiate a sense of beauty. The peculiar lyricism of senses and poetics of tender attitude toward his native land concentrate in a miniature pictorial form.

Pavel Vasilyevich also loved to paint "in close up" placing, and strived to depict changeable and elusive images of nature. His creative work was always singled out by romantic mood and realistic depiction of nature. Maybe it came to life in his works as a symbol of the uprising against rationality and the norms of civilization as a right to release creative individuality.

Quotations: "Colour is one of the most powerful means of a scenic designer. To be able to find a colour tone of a painting, which would blend with an orchestral score, to find the colour development in a plot, the rising power of its intensity, its climax means to express an emotional and psychological atmosphere of a performance."

"...study standards are very important. A study, as well as a painting, should be artistically independent. A scenic designer like an easel painter should paint from life every day, improve his skills, enrich himself with new impressions."

Membership

Pavel Maslenikov was a member of the party bureau of the Opera Theatre and the Theatre and Art Institute, the Scientific Council of the Institute of the Art History, Ethnography and Folklore of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR (now Belarus), the Audit Committee of the Artist's Union of the BSSR.

He also performed duties of the Head of the Art Fund of the Artist's Union of the BSSR, the Deputy Head of the Artist's Union of Board, the member of the Presidium of the USSR Art Fund Board, secretary of the party bureau of the Artist's Union, chairman of the Scientific Council of the Methodological Centre of Folklore of the Ministry of Culture of the BSSR, scientific advisor of Encyclopedia of Literature and Art of Belarus, and chairman of the Great Patriotic War veteran's section.

Personality

Pavel Maslenikov was a decisive person and a fighter, who could defend his ideas. He radiated colossal energy that stimulated the general rise of intellectual life and always had inner independence and sense of duty, the pathos of obligation.

Interests

• Music

Connections

Maslenikov was married to an artist, designer and a book illustrator, Tatyana. The couple gave birth to two children, Vladimir and Vera.

Father:

Vasily Grigorievich Maslenikov

Mother:

Maria Efimovna Maslenikov

son-in-law:

Vladimir Prokoptsov

Son:

Vladimir Maslenikov

Daughter:

Vera (Maslenikov) Prokoptsov

Wife:

Tatyana Maslenikov

Sister:

Euphrosyne Maslenikov

Brother:

Timofey Maslenikov

Brother:

Pavel Maslenikov

Brother:

Vladimir Maslenikov