Vladimir Lyubarov, artist. Biography, photos, paintings by Vladimir Lyubarov

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The name of Vladimir Lyubarov is well known to fans of modern book graphics, not only in the Russian-language literary and artistic space.

Vladimir Lyubarov: biography, paintings, photos

The versatility of his work, like many talented people, is not limited to book illustration. Vladimir Lyubarov, an artist and illustrator, has long received well-deserved recognition in the international art environment. Today he is also known as a painter, editor, writer.

Vladimir Lyubarov always appears before his fans as a cheerful kind man and an incorrigible optimist. And due to the lack of official titles, regalia and awards, the artist does not worry. He can rightly be considered one of the outstanding painters and graphic artists of our time. Today Lyubarov's works are kept in the collections of the largest museums in the country, such as the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum, which in itself is a recognition of his work.

Early years

Vladimir Lyubarov is an artist. His biography is not replete with a series of dizzying ups and downs. His biography begins with the classic "born, studied, graduated." And in general-then there is nothing supernatural in these events, but this is how the bright creative path of this original artist and extraordinary person began classically.

Vladimir Lyubarov was born in Moscow in the penultimate war year. At the age of 11, he entered the art school at the Institute. Surikov. Already at this age, he decided on his profession or, rather, vocation. At school, the future graphic artist and painter studied the theory of art for six years, it was she who laid the academic foundations of his work. However, dry academicism was initially alien to the artist. Vladimir Lyubarov continued his artistic education at the Moscow Polygraphic Institute, where one of his teachers was the famous Soviet graphic artist, theater artist and illustrator Andrei Goncharov.

Book graphics and illustrator

More than twenty years of his creative life Vladimir Lyubarov devoted to illustrating books and magazines. Classics of Russian literature and foreign authors, textbook and modern - during his career he designed about a hundred books. Among his works are illustrations for novels by Jules Verne and stories by Poe, Voltaire, Hoffmann, Nikolai Gogol and many other poets and prose writers.

The pinnacle of Lyubarov's career as an illustrator was the position of chief artist of the popular science magazine "Chemistry and Life". The originality and boldness of ideas helped the artist turn the dry edition into a real territory of art. As a graphic artist, Vladimir Lyubarov perceived and developed the wonderful traditions of the outstanding masters of book illustration S. Verkhovsky,D. Lyon, Y. Vashchenko, Y. Cooper.

From graphics to painting

In the early 1990s, Vladimir Lyubarov decided to leave the world of book illustration. His biography took a sharp turn. Unexpectedly for everyone, the artist leaves the capital for the Vladimir region. He devotes himself to easel graphics and painting.

Now the village of Peremilovo, remote and forgotten by the big world, where Lyubarov lives, is known far beyond the borders of Russia. Vladimir Lyubarov, an artist-painter, dedicates his paintings to his neighbors, perpetuates in them the wonderful world of village life, passed through a special vision of the creator.

Paintings and pictures by Vladimir Lyubarov

The artist creates cycles of paintings, populating them with very ambiguous characters, funny and sad, painfully familiar and unexpected images. Paintings by Vladimir Lyubarov, or? what does the author himself call them? "pictures" are an amazing interweaving of folklore motifs and sharp social realism. It would seem, how can an unshaven tractor driver Uncle Vasya and a mermaid get along on the same canvas? In the world created by Lyubarov, everything is possible. Against the backdrop of a gray and foggy rural landscape, unprecedented animals suddenly appear. It seems that the whole world has gathered around a village couple on a date, and right there in the corner a steep-horned cow from a fairy tale lurks, and on other canvases lubok-fabulous birds walk, and outlines of towers peep out of the evening haze.

Style and influence of the classics

In the style of picturesqueworks of Vladimir Lyubarov, one can easily read the influence of not only folklore, folk art, popular prints, but also the classics of painting. The surrealism of the images echoes the aesthetics of Magritte's works, the influence of the flying images of Marc Chagall is easily guessed in the Jewish theme, and some naivety of the images resembles Pirosmani's manner. In some works, the images of the crowd are close to Bruegel's images, and the portraits can be compared with the types of Bosch's heroes.

The village of Peremilovo in paintings and pictures

Until 2014, seven series of works came out from the pen, or rather, the brush of the painter. The first of them, which had a tremendous success and continues to this day, is “The Village of Perimilovo and the City of Shchipok”. Following her, others appeared: “Buza in the village of Peremilovo”, “Flood”, “Jewish happiness”, “FizkultPrivet!”, “Eaters”, “Amsterdam”. Simple plots, simple themes, but each of them has deep layers of philosophical overtones.

Vladimir Lyubarov, as an artist, sings the celebration of life in every everyday little thing. His works are permeated with light irony and admiration for simple and even sometimes unsightly things, from the point of view of the layman. Behind the small details, drawn with special loving care, lies a great meaning. The slightly naive, playfully childish lubok style of depiction further exacerbates the subtlety of these wonderful moments. The magic of the world is transmitted through the most simple and thus unexpected things.

Angels and people

Touching littlean angel on the shoulder of a he althy man, portly village women in the images of muses, couples in love in a space filled with various everyday objects - the inhabitants of Lyubarov's paintings exist in their own specific Universe, but closely intertwined with the real world.

The paintings by Vladimir Lyubarov are an organic symbiosis of the sad and the comic, fantasy and reality, mixed with the grotesque and light irony. Each work is like a little story, conveying a huge range of feelings and subtle shades of mood.

Vladimir Lyubarov - writer

In addition to book illustration, easel graphics and painting, Vladimir Lyubarov's talent also manifested itself in the literary genre. In 2011, his first book, Stories. Pictures”, illustrated by the artist himself. Three years later, the world saw his second book, A Holiday Without a Cause. Nevertheless, the artist does not plan to return to book illustration again, devoting his time and inspiration to painting and new projects related to it. Whether the world will ever see his book graphics again remains an open question. If he returns to illustrating, then only his books - such an answer is given today by Vladimir Lyubarov himself.

The artist uploads photos of his works, descriptions of books and future projects for review on his personal website.