Evgeniy Vasilievich Chuikov ( Russian language: Евгений Васильевич Чуйков; May 18, 1924 – February 15, 2000) was a

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

landscape painter working in the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

n realist ( The Wanderers) and French Impressionist traditions.

Life and work

Early years and the Second World War

Evgeniy Chuikov was born in the village of Nizhniy Reut, Kursk region,

. His father Vasiliy Chuikov was an accountant and Evgeniy was the second eldest of three brothers. In 1933 the family moved to

Zaporizhzhia Zaporizhzhia ( uk, Запоріжжя) or Zaporozhye (russian: Запорожье) is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia has a populat ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

and Chuikov began attending the local art school under the stewardship I.F.Fedyanin. He quickly distinguished himself with his strong visual memory and intuitive feeling for colour but the pursuit of further art education was however halted by the commencement of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. In 1943, at the age of 19, he enrolled into the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

and joined the

3rd Ukrainian Front The 3rd Ukrainian Front (Russian: Третий Украинский фронт) was a Front of the Red Army during World War II. It was founded on 20 October 1943, on the basis of a Stavka order of October 16, 1943, by renaming the Southweste ...

( Southwestern Front). He was assigned to a reconnaissance unit and took part in the Russian advance across the

Dnieper } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine and ...

. As the Red Army progressed, Chuikov joined the 3rd Belorussian Front and fought in the Prague Offensive and the Battle of Berlin. He served in Berlin until 1946 after which time he returned to Zaporizhzhia. For his service during the War he was awarded the 2nd and 3rd

Order of Glory Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

and the Medal "For Courage" as well as numerous other accolades.

Post War and the Zaporizhzhia school of art

In 1948, working as an artist designer at

Zaporizhstal Zaporizhstal ( uk, Запорізький металургійний комбінат «Запоріжсталь») is Ukraine's fourth-largest steel maker with an annual capacity of 4.5 million tonnes of steel, 3.3 million tonnes of pig iron, an ...

, Chuikov became friends with several other young artists and had joined the local artist workshop. It was at this moment that the Zaporizhzhia school of art was born and encompassed other artists like G. Kolosovsky, Korobov, Fomin and Akinshin. Together they were united by their fascination and love of nature. In the footsteps of the Russian realists and beyond Impressionists they tried to convey not simply the light, tone and colour but the sound and air of any given moment. Chuikov’s influence on the formation of the school and his fellow artists was profound. As a member of the USSR Union of Artists, Chuikov embarked on the formation of the Zaporizhzhia branch of the Artists’ Union of Ukraine (

USSR Union of Artists The Artists' Union of the USSR (russian: Союз художников СССР, translit=Soyuz khudozhnikov SSSR) was a creative union of the Soviet artists and art critics embracing the Republics of the Soviet Union. The Union was founded sta ...

) established in 1963, which he oversaw as Chairman for over 20 years whilst also serving on the governing board of the Artists’ Union of Ukraine. Yet it is his artistic influence which is most celebrated. In the late 1960s after several painting trips to the historic Russian city of

Vladimir Vladimir may refer to: Names * Vladimir (name) for the Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Macedonian, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak and Slovenian spellings of a Slavic name * Uladzimir for the Belarusian version of the name * Volodymyr for the Ukr ...

, he was introduced to the Vladimir school of art and became friends with such artists as V.Ukin, K.Britov and V.Kokurin. Their decorative, colour-saturated canvases made a big impact on Chuikov’s work. His landscapes became more assertive with colour and brush strokes and developed a historic melancholy characteristic of such 19th-century Russian realists as

Arkady Rylov Arkady Alexandrovich Rylov (russian: Арка́дий Алекса́ндрович Рыло́в; – 22 June 1939) was a Russian and Soviet Symbolist painter. Biography Rylov was born in the village of Istobensk, in the Vyatka Governorate ...

and

Isaac Levitan Isaac Ilyich Levitan (russian: Исаа́к Ильи́ч Левита́н; – ) was a classical Russian landscape painter who advanced the genre of the "mood landscape". Life and work Youth Isaac Levitan was born in a shtetl of Kibarty ...

. His work of that period, including the series dedicated to

Alexandre Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...

“Mikhailovskoe”(

Pushkin (town) Pushkin (russian: Пу́шкин) is a municipal town in Pushkinsky District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, located south from the center of St. Petersburg proper, and its railway station, Tsarskoye Selo, is direc ...

) dramatically influenced the Zaporizhzhia school introducing his fellow artists to a more decorative, lighter palette. In 1977 Chuikov was awarded the title of Merited Artist of Ukraine (

Meritorious Artist Merited Artist of the Russian Federation (russian: link=no, Заслуженный артист Российской Федерации, ''Zasluzhenny artist Rossiyskoy Federatsii'') is an honorary title in the Russian Federation. The title is ...

) and in 1997 the highest award – the title of the

People's Artist of Ukraine People's Artist of Ukraine is an honorary and the highest title awarding to outstanding performing artists whose merits are exceptional in the sphere of the development of the performing arts (theatre, music, dance, circus, cinema, etc.). Estab ...

Exhibitions

Throughout his artistic career he took part in over 70 national, republican and regional exhibitions. He also participated in over 20 international exhibitions primarily in the United Kingdom, Canada, USA and France.

Collections

Chuikov’s paintings can be found in many museums across Russia and Former Soviet Union Republics including The

National Art Museum of Ukraine The National Art Museum of Ukraine ( uk, Національний Художній Музей України) is a museum dedicated to Ukrainian art in Kyiv, Ukraine. History The National Art Museum of Ukraine, which was the first museum in Ky ...

, Moscow Art Academy, Zaporizhzhia Art Museum, Donetsk Art Museum, Sumy Art Museum.

Bibliography

* N. Bazhan, History of Ukrainian Painting, 1968 * I. Churina, Landscapes of Evgeniy Chuikov, 1971 * S. Latanskiy, Evgeniy Chuikov, personal exhibition catalogue, 1985 * Artist Rating Encyclopaedia, Volume VII, Moscow, 2006 * Matthew Cullerne Bown, A Dictionary of Twentieth Century Russian and Soviet Painters 1900-80s, 1998, Izo {{DEFAULTSORT:Chuikov, Evgeniy 1924 births 2000 deaths 20th-century Russian painters Russian male painters Soviet military personnel of World War II Soviet painters Ukrainian painters Ukrainian male painters Ukrainian people of Russian descent Recipients of the Order of Glory People from Zaporizhzhia 20th-century Russian male artists