Quick Facts
Biography
Vladimir Ovchinnikov — painter, ethnographer, social activist, founder of the wall painting of the city of Borovsk.
Biography
Vladimir Ovchinnikov was born in 1938 in Dushanbe. Graduated Moscow State University of Civil Engineering. He worked on construction sites and also was engaged in scientific work. Candidate of Economic Sciences. Until 1998 he lived in Moscow, and then, after retirement, settled in the city of Borovsk Kaluga Oblast. He started drawing during his school days, when there was enough free time for it. But only in the last period, after having settled in Borovsk, he was able to devote himself entirely to painting. In 2000 he had a solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Borovsk. There he presented about 100 works - landscapes, portraits, still lifes, made with pastels.
In the reading room of the Central Library of Obninsk he met Elvira Chastikova (2003), who later would become his wife:
«Suddenly I saw him, and heard, and felt, - Elvira recalls - and it happened quite suddenly, as if I was standing with downcast eyes and just looked up. Frankly speaking, I was frightened, I thought that we should get out of here, because at home were my husband, children, grandchildren. But it turned out that it was too late to run from this new feeling, I missed that moment…»
— Cygankova Elena, Vladimir Ovchinnikov // Magazine «Faces» 2007, September
The search in non-traditional areas led Vladimir Ovchinnikov to graffiti and wall painting:
«Becoming old, people make a lot of discoveries, which they were not thinking about their whole life. For me such discovery was the fact that I know how to draw»
— Izvestiya February 8, 2006
During four summer seasons (2002-2005), Ovchinnikov, a self-taught artist, made about a hundred paintings on the houses of Borovsk, creating on the dull blank walls of city buildings, boarded-up windows, fences, about 90 different subjects (his famous countrymen, churches, historical events, genre scenes: a girl walking on the pipe of the pipeline, an old woman with a bucket near a downspout, naked boy knocking at the locked door, a man with a giant cucumber in the hands, the old man in the window reading a newspaper «Times», etc.). Themes are chosen and selected with his wife. Many of the paintings were accompanied by poems written by Elvira.
«It occurred to me that all local artists should be transferred to the walls of buildings presenting their works in an enlarged view. But all other artists refused: one referred to the fact that his health does not allow him, others - for other reasons, like age, some said that it does not allow to make money. Then I decided to go to our mayor and offered to him paint the walls of their own».
Vladimir Ovchinnikov is not only famous frescoes, which for many years adorned the walls of houses in Borovsk. His main desire - to install a monument in the city of the repressed:
«It began from the sceneries… Then I understood that I need a theme. And this theme - was history…»
For ten years the artist collected materials for the gallery of the repressed people. In August, this monument finally appeared: 18 portraits of the repressed, which the artist has painted… on the fence of his neighbor.
But his another attempt to create a memorial gallery was smashed by the actions of hooligans and vandals. On the wall of one of the shops in the center of Borovsk, a painting of 20 killed people and the image of Alexander Solzhenitsyn was destroyed after only two days. Ovchinnikov's work was destroyed methodically and carefully.
Murals by Vladimir Ovchinnikov
Murals by Vladimir Ovchinnikov in the houses of the city Borovsk:
Wall image «Solving the world»
Wall image «Globe Borovsk»
Wall image «Family Polezhaeva»
Wall image «Cathedral»
Wall image «Old Borovsk»
Wall image «Old Borovsk»
Wall image «Gardeners of Borovsk» and «Tsiolkovsky»
Drawing on the garage door
Literature
- Ovchinnikov V.A., Chernikov V.A. Borovsk in painting and poetry: the exhibition catalog. - Moscow: Gallery-Museum Nikor, 2002. - 28 p.: ill. (Russian)
- Ovchinnikov V.A., Chernikov V.A. Borovsk in painting and poetry: Art and poetry album. - Kaluga: Golden Alley, 2003. - 192 p.: ill.- (Russian)
- Parallel town Vladimir Ovchinnikov and Elvira Chastikova: Art and poetry album. - Obninsk: Printer, 2005. - 48 p .: ill. (Russian)
- Anohin Dmitrij Murals Ovchinnikov engineer. Moscow city construction decorate Borovsk // Vechernyaya Moskva. — № 166 (24944). — September 11, 2008.
- Prilepina Oksana City one artist // Russkij Mir. — 2010. — № 2. (Russian)
- Fyodorova Anastasiya Why "Parallel city" can sink into oblivion? // MK Kaluga. — November 16, 2007. (Russian)
- Cygankova Elena Faces. Vladimir Ovchinnikov // Magazine «Faces» 2007, September. (Russian)