Artists

Belov Vladimir Andreevich. Kholuy.

The coming of age of the Kholuy lacquer miniature is associated with the name of Vladimir Andreevich Belov, a pupil of S.A. Mokin. Vladimir Andreevich was born in 1923 in the town of Yuzha situated in the Ivanovo region.

Belov didn't have any formal art education. He joined the Kholuy artel as a 17-year-old youth. Initially, he painted rugs in oil under the tutelage of P.A. Kosterin, but in 1943 he was attached to S.A. Mokin assisting him in the decoration of paper-mache articles. Describing S.A. Mokin's instruction methods, V.A. Belov called it a "do as I do" method which was the only one available because there were no schools.

Vladimir Andreevich has been working at the Kholuy lacquer miniature factory since 1940. He taught compositions at the Kholuy Art School (1953-1958, 1960-1961). Member of the RSFSR Artist's Union (1966). That same year the artist was awarded to the Order of Lenin. Merited Artist of the RSFSR (1968).

V.A. Belov's earlier lacquer miniatures are strikingly elegant. One is aware of the influence of an outstanding teacher with a fine command of icon-painting technique. These works include "Three Maids" (1945), "Ruslan and Lyudmila" (1945), "Princess Frog" (1947).

In late 1940s V.A. Belov passed on from small to crowded compositions while seeking to preserve the elegance of his early efforts. These works include the historical composition "Boyar Orsha", the fairy-tale illustrations "Twelve Months" and "The tale of the Fisherman and the Fish". In "Boyar Orsha" the young artist is struggling to find his own style different from that of Palekh and Mstera.

Over the next decade V.A. Belov's work revealed a stylistic consistency. It was not immune to the influence of easel painting ("Battles of Moscow", 1952; "Dobrynia Fights the Dragon", 1957) and of the composition methods pioneered in Mstera (Ruslan and Lyudmila", 1952; "Lermontov", 1954), and the unforgettable lesson of Kholuy masters who had turned to the traditions of old Russia icon-paintings ("The Tale of the Dead Princess", (1958).

The works of late 1950s effected a blend of the realist trend of easel painting with icon-painting. Vladimir Andreevich worked on a variety of themes: space exploration themes ("Brothers in Heaven", 1962), historical themes ("The people of Nizhni Novgorod Visit Dmitry Pozharsky", 1961; "Yaroslavna", 1964; two compositions "Andrei Rublyov", 1963, 1965; "Russian bogatyrs", 1959; "Boyar Orsha", 1945; "The lay of Igor's Host", 1966; "The Song of Oleg the Wise", 1967), and landscapes ("Spring in Kholuy", 1964; "The North").

The development of the old Russian tradition, which became something of a craze in Kholuy at the time, was seen by V.A. Belov as a philosophical challenge to fathom the spirit of old Russian masters. "Andrei Rublyov" seems to extend the boundaries of a lacquer miniature. Its subject and message ask for a larger surface. Not surprisingly, V.A. Belov was thinking about making a mural as an extension of the Kholuy lacquer miniature.

In 1965 he produced a series of murals. The mural "Firebird" is perhaps his most successful. It is not for nothing that it became the symbol of the Kholuy lacquer miniature. The dark backgroound is illuminated by bright sparkles.

In the prevailing decorative pathos of the images of that period, one finds occasional works of a different, gentler kind. The miniature "Spring in Kholuy" is reminiscent of the early V.A. Belov. His brush is subtle and delicate and it is hard to believe that it was the same brush that made "The Firebird".

In 1968 Vladimir Andreevich experimented with decorations on compressed sawdust and wood-shaving plates. In painting these plates, V.A. Belov fell back on the tradition of fresco painting and therefore did not use lacquer ("On the Meadow", "Wind, You're Powerful", "Volga and Mikula").

In 1970s-1980s Belov headed a group of young miniature painters that initiated experiments with new themes, painting manner and new shapes of articles.

V.A. Belov was a new type of a folk artisan, a committed artist, organizer and teacher. He was perhaps among the most forward-looking of artists. He was forever probing the frontiers of art. He was among the first to start looking for a new expressive idiom for the Kholuy miniature and he made it more decorative, flat and geared to the lacquer surface.

Belov took up the ideas of the founders of the Kholuy lacquer miniature and elaborated them in the 1960s-1970s. His work is an example of the continuity of tradition passed on from generation to generation, and from one contemporary to another thus enriching the whole art.

Biographical information taken from the book by Soloviova L. N., 1991, KHOLUY LACQUERED MINIATURES, INTERBOOK, Moscow


V.A. Belov's works are sited in the following books:

I. Soloviova L. N., 1991, KHOLUY LACQUERED MINIATURES, INTERBOOK, Moscow, ISBN 5-7664-0696-7:

1. Box "Andrei Rublyov" (1963, Folk Art Museum of the Crafts Research Institute).
2. Plate "The Song of Oleg the Wise" (1967).	3. Plate "Firebird" (1965, Folk Art Museum of the Crafts Research Institute).

1. Box "Rublyov" (1965, Folk Art Museum of the Crafts Research Institute), page 23.	2. Box "Spring in Kholuy" (1964, Folk Art Museum of the Crafts Research Institute), page 32. 3. Box "Sadko" (1967, Folk Art Museum of the Crafts Research Institute), page 33.
4. Panel "A Young Mare…" (1969, Folk Art Museum of the Crafts Research Institute), page 34.	5. Box "The Lay of the Host of Igor" (1971, Folk Art Museum of the Crafts Research Institute), page 36.
6. Box "The Tale of a Golden Fish" (1993, Kholuy Craft Workshops), page 35. 7. Box "The Fiery Ascension" (1993, Kholuy Craft Workshops), page 35.

1. Casket "Twelve Months", # 10. page 67.

2. Box "Snowmaiden", # 3. page 70

1. Casket "Brothers in Heaven" (1962, Folk Art Museum of the Crafts Research Institute).

2. Plate "Firebird" (1965, Folk Art Museum of the Crafts Research Institute). 3. Box "Andrei Rublyov" (1963, Folk Art Museum of the Crafts Research Institute).