Boris Lavrenko

Boris Mikhailovich Lavrenko (; 6 May 1920 – 7 June 2001) was a Russian Soviet realist painter, People's Artist of the Russian Federation, professor of the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after Ilya Repin, who lived and worked in Saint Petersburg (former Leningrad), regarded as one of the major representatives of the Leningrad school of painting.

Biography 
Boris Mikhailovich Lavrenko was born on 6 May 1920 in the city of Rostov on Don, Soviet Russia.

In 1936–1940 years Boris Lavrenko studied at the Rostov on Don Art School. In Autumn of 1940, he was drafted into the Red Army. Boris Lavrenko was a veteran of World War II. As an artilleryman, he went all the way from Moscow to Berlin. His front-line drawings, sketches, portraits are interesting as a documentary and truth.

After demobilization in 1946, Boris Lavrenko entered at the first course of the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after Ilya Repin. There he studied under Mikhail Avilov, Ivan Stepashkin, Genrikh Pavlovsky, Joseph Serebriany.

In 1952, Boris Lavrenko graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture as artist of painting in Rudolf Frentz workshop, together with Sergei Babkov, Leonid Baykov, Irina Baldina, Dmitry Beliaev, Abram Grushko, Marina Kozlovskaya, Boris Korneev, Elena Kostenko, Oleg Lomakin, Piotr Fomin, Vladimir Chekalov, and other young artists. His graduated work was genre painting named "At the collective farm Stadium".

Since 1936, Boris Lavrenko has participated in Art Exhibitions. He painted portraits, genre and historical paintings, landscapes, still lifes, sketches from the life. It became the leading genre portrait of a contemporary. Boris Lavrenko’s works were exhibited in 1972 in Moscow, Leningrad, and Rostov on Don, to great acclaim. Later his art were exhibited in Leningrad in 1986 and in 1996.

His style distinguish a broad painting, energetic brushstroke, artistic transfer of tonal relations and states of lighting and air, palpable materiality of volumes and forms. In the works of 1970–80 years we see growing decorative qualities of painting and generalized drawing.

Since 1953, Boris Lavrenko was a member of the Leningrad Union of Artists (since 1992, named as Saint Petersburg Union of Artists).

Over the 40 years, Boris Lavrenko combined her creative activities with pedagogical work. Since 1954 he taught in the Repin Institute of Arts. He was Doctor of art-criticism (1983), professor of painting, a head of personal workshop and graphical department of the Repin Institute of Arts.

In 1976 Boris Lavrenko was awarded the honorary title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR. In 1994 he was awarded the honorary title of People's Artist of the Russian Federation.

Boris Mikhailovich Lavrenko died on 7 June 2001 in Saint Petersburg at the eighty-first year of life. His paintings reside in State Russian Museum, State Tretyakov Gallery, in art museums and private collections in Russia, England, Germany, France, Italy, the U.S., and others.

See also
 Leningrad School of Painting
 List of Russian artists
 List of 20th-century Russian painters
 List of painters of Saint Petersburg Union of Artists
 Saint Petersburg Union of Artists

References

Bibliography 
 The Spring Exhibition of works by Leningrad artists of 1954. Exhibition Catalogue. - Leningrad: Izogiz Edition, 1954. - p. 12.
 1917 - 1957. Exhibition of works by Leningrad artists of 1957. Exhibition Catalogue. - Leningrad: Khudozhnik RSFSR, 1958. - p. 20.
 All-Union Art Exhibition of 1957 dedicated to the 40th Anniversary of October Revolution. Catalogue. - Moscow: Soviet artist, 1957. - p. 42.
 Autumn Exhibition of works by Leningrad artists of 1958. Exhibition Catalogue. - Leningrad: Khudozhnik RSFSR, 1959. - p. 16.
 All-Union Art Exhibition dedicated to 40th Anniversary of Komsomol. Catalogue. - Moscow: Ministry of Culture of USSR, 1958.
 Exhibition of works by Leningrad artists of 1960. Exhibition catalogue. - Leningrad: Khudozhnik RSFSR, 1961. - p. 24.
 Soviet Russia republic exhibition of 1960. Exhibition catalogue. - Moscow: Ministry of culture of Russian Federation, 1960. - p. 47.
 Exhibition of works by Leningrad artists of 1961. Exhibition catalogue. - Leningrad: Khudozhnik RSFSR, 1964. - p. 24.
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 The Leningrad Fine Arts Exhibition. - Leningrad: Khudozhnik RSFSR, 1965. - p. 29.
 Soviet Russia the Third Republic Exhibition of 1967. Catalogue. - Moscow: Ministry of culture of Russian Federation, 1967. - p. 34.
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 Exhibition of works by Leningrad artists dedicated to the 25th Anniversary of the Victory in Great Patriotic war. Catalogue. - Leningrad: Khudozhnik RSFSR, 1972. - p. 7.
 Our Contemporary Exhibition catalogue of works by Leningrad artists of 1971. - Leningrad: Khudozhnik RSFSR, 1972. - p. 14.
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 The Lyrics in the works of artists of the war generation. Painting, drawings. Exhibition catalogue. - Saint Petersburg: Nikolai Nekrasov Memorial museum, 1995. - p. 4.
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 Anniversary Directory graduates of Saint Petersburg State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture named after Ilya Repin, Russian Academy of Arts. 1915 - 2005. - Saint Petersburg: Pervotsvet Publishing House, 2007. p. 70.  .

1920 births
2001 deaths
Artists from Rostov-on-Don
20th-century Russian painters
Russian male painters
Soviet painters
Socialist realist artists
Leningrad School artists
Members of the Leningrad Union of Artists
Repin Institute of Arts alumni
People's Artists of Russia (visual arts)
Honored Artists of the Russian Federation
Soviet military personnel of World War II
Burials at Serafimovskoe Cemetery
20th-century Russian male artists