Background

Vladimir Ivanovich Prokoptsov was born on August 8, 1953 in Zhunskaja Buda, Dobrush, Homyel'skaya Voblasts', Belarus (then it was the territory of the USSR).

Education

After graduation Zhguno-Budskoy 8-year school Prokoptsov continued his studies in high school No. 2 in Dobrush.

From 1970 to 1975 he studied under the famous artists and teachers of Vitebsk arts school I. Stolyarov, D. General'nitsky and F. Houmen at the department of Fine and Graphic Arts of the Vitebsk State Pedagogical Institute named after S.M. Kirov.

In 1980 Prokoptsov received his Doctor of Philosophy at the Institute of Art History, Ethnography and Folklore of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR.

In 1984 he defended his thesis for a Candidate's Degree "Monumental art of Belarus in 1917-1980" at the Research Institute of Theory and History of Fine Arts of the USSR Academy of Arts in Moscow.

Career

Since 1986 Prokoptsov has been taking part in Republican art exhibitions as an artist, participant of international plein airs and biennials of art.

He works in the genres of still life, landscape and thematically focused picture.

Prokoptsov's picturesque works are in collections of the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus, the Belarusian Union of Artists, the National Center of Contemporary Art of the Republic of Belarus, the Museum of the History of Minsk, the Mogilev Regional Art Museum named after Maslenikov, the Polotsk National Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve, the House-museum of Adam Mitskevich, Dobrush and Lepel regional local lore museums, the Lithuanian Art Museum and the National Art Museum of China.

Prokoptsov is the author of such books as "Nikolai Ryzhenkov", "Searching for Beauty and Harmony". He was a scientific supervisor of "The National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus" (in three volumes and 6 books), "The Common Thread", curator of numerous museum projects, scientific catalogs, and articles on fine arts. He is also the author of the idea and coordinator of the publishing project "Famous artists from Belarus".

He has been working as director of the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus since 1998.

Achievements

• Vladimir Prokoptsov was named an Honored Artist of the Republic of Belarus, Candidate of Arts, Chairman of the Confederation of Creative Unions of the Republic of Belarus, Member of the Belarusian Union of Artists, Member of the Belarusian Union of Literary and Art Critics, Member of the Belarusian Committee ICOM and ICOMOS and Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Arts.
  
  Prokoptsov was given the title of "Honorary Citizen of Dobrush" and "Honorary Citizen of Lepel District" for his significant contribution to the exhibition development of the Dobrush regional local lore museum.
  
  He was awarded at the nomination "The Best Head of the Museum of the Republic of Belarus" at the First National Forum "Museums of Belarus" in Grodno (2012).
  
  Prokoptsov was awarded by the Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox churches for organizing spiritual and sacral projects dedicated to the 1020th anniversary and the 1025th anniversary of Сristening of Rus.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • Self-portrait 2005
  • Parental home 2006
  • A treat from mother 1973
  • Bathhouse 2003
  • In the parental garden 2007
  • Spring morning 2006
  • On Radunytsya. My father's memory 2004
  • Villa Seagull 1999
  • Lake Udomlya 1999
  • An old apple tree 1999
  • Morning of young May 1996
  • Night of young May 1997
  • Frozen lake 1998
  • Vitebsk's Dreams about Paris 2010
  • Night Vitebsk 2013
  • Callas in a red vase 1976
  • Polotsk. Holy day

  • Origins

    2005
  • In memory of Maxim Bogdanovich. The last sonnet of the poet 1985
  • A road 2008
  • Christmas. Morning 2011
  • The road of the poet. Rakutevshchina 1977
  • September's melody under Rakov 1979
  • Present Indefinite 1999
  • The land of my parents 2017
  • Dedicated to my parents 2017

Views

Quotations: "I can affirm that here, in the museum, I realized myself completely. Maybe I didn't have time to do anything: didn't publish any catalogue, didn't write my doctoral thesis. But I have established a museum. Long way to go, but there's movement. The main thing is that there is a strategy. Now all we need is money, time and forward way with the staff."

"I don't have much spare time, but I work as an artist - on weekends and holidays in my workshop and as an art critic. Working on the paining relaxes me. Sometimes I can't wait for the evening to come to hurry to the workshop and finish what I have planned."

"I don't paint too fast. I don't want them to be shallow. First I come up with the name and composition, and only after that the images."

Interests

• Artists

  Marc Chagall