Victor Zaretsky studied at the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture from 1947 till 1953.
Portrait of Victor Zaretsky.
Victor Zaretsky in his later years.
Victor Zaretsky studied at the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture from 1947 till 1953.
Zaretsky was born in Belopolye, Ukraine, on February 8, 1925. His father, Ivan Antonovich Zaretsky, worked as an accountant at the then created chemical production, while his mother, Maria Andreevna Zaretsky (nee Kolomiytseva), was a pianist and music teacher.
Viktor Zaretsky spent his childhood and youth in Donbass in the workers’ settlements of Gorlovka and Stalino (now Donetsk). During the Great Patriotic War (1943-1945) Zaretsky served in the reserve regiment. After the demobilization, he lived for some time with his parents in the village of Obidimo near Tula, Russia. While in Russia he took private lessons from the Soviet painter L. Orekhov.
In 1946 Zaretsky enrolled in the art school at the Kiev State Art Institute (now the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture), workshop of Gennady Titov. A year later he entered the institute, where his teachers were K. Yelev, M. Sharonov, and S. Grigoriev. As an excellent student, he received Repin and Stalin scholarship. Moreover, the diploma picture - The Line to Lenin’s Mausoleum - received the highest score. He graduated from the institute in 1953.
In 1953 Victor Zaretsky began to teach at the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture. From 1955 the painter worked in Donbass. There he created such paintings as Miners. Shift, After the war, Hot day, Mine yard, After the change and others.
Together with his wife, Alla Gorskaya, Zaretsky was a well-known representative in the movement of the "sixties". Together they created numerous monumental and decorative works, including mosaic panels and mixed-media murals, such as Prometheus, Earth, and Fire, in Secondary School No. 47 in Donetsk, The Tree of Life and Dream-Bird, in the Ukraina restaurant in Mariupol, and The Flag of Victory, in the Young Guard Museum in Krasnodon. There was an apparent influence of folk art in his artworks, characterized by a bright, life-affirming artistic solution. In the meantime, he opened his own art studio in 1978, in which over 200 students were trained. Among them are well-known masters: Arsen Savadov , Olesya Avramenko, Konstantin Kuntsevich , Oleksandr Kurinenko, Larisa Pisha, Marina Sochenko, Taras Loboda, Nikolai Shkaraputa and others.
In the 1970s Zaretsky abandoned socialist realism in favor of an art nouveau style. At this period of time, his favorite themes were women and nature. The threat of ecological disaster were expressed sharply in his paintings Beauty Abandons the Earth, Sign of Calamity, Ozone Hole, and Atomic Winter. His late artworks included Klimtesque paintings, such as Angels (1988) and Portrait of Liudmyla Kozachenko (1987). A catalogue of his works was published in 1991.
Characterized by the multidirectional stylistic approaches, his creativity was nothing more than a constant search for the new in the traditional. His early artworks showed expressive composition, rhythm, and silhouette. The artist also wrote, and partially dictated lapidary vivid memories. In his legacy are also notes and essays. These texts were published in periodicals in the first half of the 1990s, and in 2009 they were published as a separate book “The Artist Victor Zaretsky. The search for the roots."
Victor Zaretsky became one of the most notable artists of his time. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the artist’s legacy received a wide foreign resonance. For instance, about 30 of his works were presented at Christie’s auction.
The artist was posthumously awarded the Shevchenko National Prize in 1994. He received the prize for the paintings Soldier, Summer, Tree (Art Lessons), Spring Troubles.
At the tomb of Viktor Zaretsky, who was buried with his parents at the Berkovets cemetery, a monument by Lesja Dekermengey was erected. In 1993 the National Academy of Artists and the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture created the Viktor Zaretsky Prize for young artists. In 2016 a lane in the town of Belopolye, near the house of his parents, was named after the artist.
Portrait Of The Writer B.Antonenko Davydovich
Portrait of a Woman in a Red Suit
Requiem
Poppies
The Old Woman in the World of Mini and Maxi
Bell. The Golden Skull
A Misty Morning When Bream Comes out of Warm Edges
The Victory Banner
Yura Milko
Self Portrait
A Teacher
Spirit of Alla Horska
Male Portrait
Spring
Potters
Portrait of Maria Kapnist
Zaretskaya Grigoryeva Maya Margarita
Flood
Production
Road to the Temple
At the Fair
My Hosts
Landscape with a Tree
Smoked Fish
Bells
Koncha Ozerna
Women in the Bus
Musicians
Eugenia
The Holodomor
Male Portrait
Tree. The Origins of Art
Boat
Flood
Woman's Portrait
Holy Easter
Evening
The Syrovatko Brigade
Self Portrait with Zun Ko Lee (Ishiyama)
At the Lake
Autumn
Theater
Kalina
In the Cafe
Donbass
Garden in Blossom
Spring Has Come
Pussy Willows
Still Life with Fish and Mushrooms
Male Portrait
Autumn. Morning in the Garden
Lights of the Highway
Chumak
Urban Landscape
Chamomile
Seamstress
Mariupol. Canteen of Ukrainian Dishes
Portrait of Larysa Zhukovskaya
Young Moon
In the Bus
Velvet Night. Spirits of Love
Cherry Wind
Thirst
Malva
Winter
Miner
Portret of Tetyana Tsymbal
Avel Drknight
Cossaks
Children
Water Meadows
Solitude
River Open Spaces
Chestnut
Kaif
Nastya
Do Not Sleep, Cossack
Against the Background of Space
Flowers
Still Life
Portrait of a Girl
Girls
Grove
Eighth grade
Bouquet
Song
Summer Flowers
Meditations
Kalina Snow
Girl with Palette and Brush. Portrait of Ivanna Moskovka
Winter Forrest
Labor City
May the 1st
Grandma
Winter
Portrait of a Woman in Red
Near the Table
Creative Process
Victor Zaretsky was an adherent of the Communist Party.
Zaretsky was a member of the USSR Artists’ Union.
Victor Zaretsky was married to Alla Gorskaya.
