Oleg Sergeyevich Prokofiev (russian: link=no, Оле́г Серге́евич Проко́фьев; 14 December 1928, Paris – 20 August 1998,
Alderney
Alderney (; french: Aurigny ; Auregnais: ) is the northernmost of the inhabited Channel Islands. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown dependency. It is long and wide.
The island's area is , making it the third-largest ...
) was an artist, sculptor and poet, and the son of composer
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, p ...
.
Artistic life
His career as an artist began at sixteen, attending the Moscow School of Art from 1944 to 1949. On completing his studies, Prokofiev worked in the studio of the painter
Robert Falk
Robert Rafailovich Falk (russian: Роберт Рафаилович Фальк, October 15, 1886 - October 1, 1958) was a painter.
Biography
Falk was born in Moscow in 1886. In 1903 to 1904 he studied art in the studios of Konstantin Yuon and ...
, leaving in 1952 to work for the Institute of Art History in Moscow. There he studied and published his writing, specializing in the ancient arts of
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and South-East Asia. As the second son of
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, p ...
, he wrote that his father's music inspired in him ‘a wave of some wonderful energy…a poetic or artistic impulse’.
During Prokofiev's lifetime he exhibited worldwide, including the UK, (Germany), Russia, France, and the US. As an artist, he was both excited about the future of Art as well as being remarkably informed about its history. During a visit to New York City in 1977, Prokofiev experienced the works of
Rothko
Mark Rothko (), born Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz (russian: Ма́ркус Я́ковлевич Ротко́вич, link=no, lv, Markuss Rotkovičs, link=no; name not Anglicized until 1940; September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970), was a Latv ...
,
Still
A still is an apparatus used to distill liquid mixtures by heating to selectively boil and then cooling to condense the vapor. A still uses the same concepts as a basic distillation apparatus, but on a much larger scale. Stills have been used ...
,
Motherwell
Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...
,
Barnett Newman
Barnett Newman (January 29, 1905 – July 4, 1970) was an American artist. He has been critically regarded as one of the major figures of abstract expressionism, and one of the foremost color field painters. His paintings explore the sense o ...
, and
Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler (December 12, 1928 – December 27, 2011) was an American abstract expressionist painter. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work for over six decades (early 1950s u ...
, and these continued to influence his own work throughout the 1980s. He began creating organic
constructivist sculptures, and over a short period of time his paintings also began to change. His brightly saturated line paintings and skyline sculptures of the 1980s demonstrate a definite departure from the greys, browns, and masking white works of the 1960s and early 70s.
Oleg's late paintings are also strikingly atmospheric. They astonish both in their freedom of expression and their symbolic intensity whilst maintaining a strong sense of continuity within the artistic tradition of the 20th century.
Since his death, his popular
abstract compositions have been exhibited in the collection of the renowned
Tretyakov Gallery
The State Tretyakov Gallery (russian: Государственная Третьяковская Галерея, ''Gosudarstvennaya Tretyâkovskaya Galereya''; abbreviated ГТГ, ''GTG'') is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, which is considered th ...
in Moscow. His work is also in the collections of the
Lehmbruck Museum
The Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum - Center for International Sculpture is a museum in Duisburg, Germany.
Sculptures by Wilhelm Lehmbruck, after whom the museum is named, make up a large part of its collection. However, the museum has a sub ...
of Modern Sculpture, (Germany); the Zimmerli Art Museum, US; the
Leeds City Art Gallery
Leeds Art Gallery in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, is a gallery, part of the Leeds Museums & Galleries group, whose collection of 20th-century British Art was designated by the British government in 1997 as a collection "of national importance ...
, UK; and the
MART Museum, Italy.
Personal life
Born on 14 December 1928, from
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, p ...
's first wife,
Lina Llubera (the stage name of Carolina Codina). They lived in Paris until moving to Moscow, in 1935, at the age of seven.
Oleg was first married to Sofia Koravina with whom he had a son, Sergei (1954–2014), who lived from 1985 in Germany and Switzerland with his wife Astrid and who, writing sub nom
Sergei O. Prokofieff, wrote profound works in the field of Anthroposophy and, in general, Christian occultism.
In 1960 he met a young English art historian,
Camilla Gray, in Moscow. The publication of her ground breaking study of Russian avant-garde ‘Great Experiment: Russian Art, 1863–1922’ infuriated Soviet officials and Camilla and Oleg were not allowed to see each other for six years. Tragically, in 1971, two years after they were eventually allowed to marry, Camilla died. From his second wife Oleg had a daughter, Anastasia.
Oleg decided to move to the West, and from 1971 until his death he lived in
Blackheath, London
Blackheath is an area in Southeast London, straddling the border of the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Lewisham. It is located northeast of Lewisham, south of Greenwich and southeast of Charing Cross, the traditional ce ...
. Oleg married Frances who gave him five children, one of whom, Quentin, died at an early age. Frances Prokofiev, her four children and Anastasia live in Britain. His son
Gabriel Prokofiev
Gabriel Prokofiev (born 6 January 1975) is a Russian-British composer, producer, DJ, and Artistic Director of the Nonclassical record label and nightclub.
Early life
Gabriel Prokofiev was born on 6 January 1975 to an English mother and a Russi ...
is a London-based composer, producer and DJ. His son Rupert died in 2017 aged 31 from
ataxia–telangiectasia
Ataxia–telangiectasia (AT or A–T), also referred to as ataxia–telangiectasia syndrome or Louis–Bar syndrome, is a rare, neurodegenerative, autosomal recessive disease causing severe disability. Ataxia refers to poor coordination and telan ...
.
Oleg Prokofiev died in 1998 aged 69, while on holiday on the island of Alderney in the English Channel and is buried on the west side of
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...
.
Selected exhibitions
* 2014 – 'From East to West' at Hill Gallery, London
"Hay Hill Gallery Exhibitions"
/ref>
* 1999 – DeliArt, London
* 1997 – Museum of Music, Moscow
* 1994 – Contemporary, London
* 1993 – W. Lehmbruck Museum of Modern Sculpture, Germany
* 1991 – Lemington Spa Art Gallery and Museum; Malvern Winter Gardens
* 1989 – Sue Rankin Gallery, London; La Mama Galleria, New York City
* 1988 – Burg Zweiffel
The German word Burg means castle. Burg or Bürg may refer to:
Places Placename element
* ''-burg'', a combining form in Dutch, German and English placenames
* Burg, a variant of burh, the fortified towns of Saxon England
Settlements
* Burg, Aar ...
, (Germany); ‘100 Years of British Art’ a
Leeds City Art Gallery
* 1987 – Dortmund Opera House and Matthew Scott Gallery, Miami
* 1985 – Woodlands Art Gallery, London
* 1984–1985 – Galerie ‘Edition de Beauclair’, Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
; and Theater am Gartnerplatz, Munich
* 1984 – Old Vic Theatre
The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat, nonprofit organization, not-for-profit producing house, producing theatre in Waterloo, London, Waterloo, London, England. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Th ...
, London; Galerie Johanna Ricard, Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
* 1983 – ACG, London
* 1981 – Galerie Mandragore, Paris
* 1980 – Galerie C. Ratie, Paris
* 1977 – Norther Artists Gallery, Harrogate
Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor at ...
* 1976 – University of Surrey, Guildford
Guildford ()
is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...
; Sadlers Wells Theatre, London
* 1975 – Coard, Paris
* 1974
Leeds City Art Gallery
References
External links
Biography about Oleg Prokofiev's life and work (lang. English)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prokofiev, Oleg
Russian male poets
20th-century Russian sculptors
20th-century Russian male artists
Russian male sculptors
20th-century Russian painters
Russian male painters
1928 births
1998 deaths
Burials at Highgate Cemetery
20th-century Russian poets
20th-century Russian male writers
Soviet sculptors
Soviet painters
Soviet male poets
Soviet people of Spanish descent