Makarenko, Vladimir (born1943). Spring (1978)

Etching, paper

17,7 x 18,3

On the lower right of the plate – Makar 78

Lower left – 15/20 Makar

Lower right – MV78

Born in with Novo-Pushkarevka, Dnepropetrovsk region. In 1963 he graduated from the Dnepropetrovsk art school in the workshop of Y. Kalashnik. For his diploma work “In the Blue Land” in the manner of “geometric realism” he was accused of formalism, the painting was destroyed, and the artist was deprived of the opportunity to continue his studies in Ukraine. He moved to Leningrad, where in 1963 he entered the monumental faculty of the Higher School of Monumental Art. V. Mukhina. In Leningrad, he took private lessons in the studios of N. Altman and P. Kondratiev. He was friends with the artists M. Shemyakin, E. Rukhlina, V. Mishin, E. Esaulenko, V. Yankilevsky, A. Nemukhin and O. Tselkov. In 1969 he completed his studies and received a diploma in muralist. In the same year he became a member of an informal organization of non-conformist artists, known in the West as the “Petersburg Group”. In 1973 he was forced to leave Leningrad and move to Tallinn, where he quickly entered the artistic circle and took part in group exhibitions together with Estonian masters M. Vint, R. Lyapin, N. Kormashov. In 1974, together with F. Gumenyuk, V. Sazonov and V. Strelnikov, he exhibited at an exhibition of Ukrainian nonconformist artists in Moscow in the Sychovs’ apartment. In 1976, the first solo exhibition was held in Paris at the Hardy Gallery. The works were also exhibited at one of the most famous exhibitions of nonconformist artists in the West – La Peinture russe contemporaine at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. Living in Tallinn, he worked as a stoker, refused to join the Union of Artists. He worked in a small workshop, sometimes received orders for illustrations for magazines and newspapers. In 1973 – 1980, he annually applied for travel to France, and only in 1981 received permission and moved to Paris. Has held exhibitions in Paris, Metz, Toronto, Winnipeg, Stockholm, Chicago, New York, Washington, Dortmund, Bremen, Toulouse, Lily and Baden-Baden. Collaborates with galleries Galerie Saint-Leger (France), Turm-Galerie-Bonn (Germany), Galerie Noordeinde (Holland), Alla Rogers Gallery and Artfira Gallery (USA), KUMF Gallery (Canada). In 1987 he received the Paris Silver Medal for artistic achievement (Medaille dArgent de la Ville de Paris pour la contribution au developpement de lArt de France). In 1990 art historian J.-C. Marcade, in the preface to the catalog of V. Makarenko’s exhibition in Paris at the Modern Art Gallery, called the artist’s style “orphism”, where the main shaping component is light.