Victor Popov
ein Phantastischer Realist

Collenbachstr. 16
D - 40476 Düsseldorf
Phone: +49 211 4407977
or +49 211 4409746

Victor Popov


BiographyGerman version Home

Born 1952 in Kasachstan.
Art Studies at Art Institute of Lemberg, Ukraine.
1971 - 1991 creating art in Sibiria und St. Petersburg.
1984 - 1991 living and atelier in St. Petersburg.
Joining artists group "The Island"
Three paintings bought by the Museum of City History, St. Petersburg.
1991 emigration with his family to Germany, living and atelier in Düsseldorf.
Single an group exhibitions in Russia, Germany, Korea, France, Sweden, Japan and the USA.

Artist's Statement
"When I was a child, my favorite artist was Surikov. I particularly liked the composition of his paintings and his use of colour. However, at that time I still wasn't aware of this. While I was still in school, I drew from life, painted in oils and later in water colours. My father always encouraged me and provided me with paints and art books. He was an electrician.

When I was seventeen, I left home to find myself and my path in life, travelling first to Semipalatinsk, the center for nuclear testing. At that time I still hadn't dreamed of becoming an artist. For some reason I thought that I couldn't draw and didn't bother looking into the possibility of studying art somewhere. After having served the army, I went to Alma-Ata, where I began taking courses in drawing and painting.

Being twenty then, I finally realized that I couldn't live without drawing. Two years later I enrolled in the Institute for Decorative and Applied Arts in Lvov (Lemberg) in the western Ukraine. After living in the grasslands and mountains, I found myself in the center of Europe. I tried to paint as I saw things and as my hand guided me. However, my instructors reproached me, and eventualy I stopped showing them my works. After that I began to see my pictures in completely new light. I realized that everything that I had previously learned was strange to me, and that I needed to develop my own style and approach. Later in Petersburg I again began working the way I liked.

I tried to depic the people I saw and the surroundings in which I lived, in terms ranging from actual to speculative reality. My sense of humour, as well as a certain aloofness, indispensable to the artist, protected me from the temptations and dangers of bohemian life. I earned my living by carving wooden sculptures for children's playgrounds. I continue to practice this craft, acquiring along the way a greater understanding of woodworking.

People are the most important element in my work. My heroes, leaders and wisemen are complicated individuals. They dream of leading the masses and of bringing truth to light. But as these ambitions are always somewhat dubious, my characters are comic figures. Of course I would also like to understand the truth, but I place more trust in the materials, the work and the sensibilities of the artist. And out of these lofty considerations, I continue my endeavors now in Germany, where the Eifel region from time to time recalls my homeland, the foothills of the Altai Mountains." Victor Popov

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