Gennady Nicholaevich Kochetov was born in 1941 in the village Staraya Vichuga (Ivanovskaya region) and currently resides in Palekh, as a very well known lacquer box artist. He graduated from Palekh Art School in 1965 after having studied under other such well-known artist as N.M. Zinoviev, F. A. Kaurstev, V. M. Astakhov and B. M. Netinov.
Over the last thirty years, he has received numerous awards for his artwork. He has received a nomination for the Leninsky Komsomol Prize (1978). He has also earned his diploma from the Academy of Arts of USSR (1987). Became a member of Union of Artists of USSR in 1974. The painter has worked at the Palekh Art Workshops since 1965. He is engaged in wall painting (the Palace of textile workers in Ivanov, 1974, Rooms of fairy-tale in the Children Musical theatre in Moscow, 1980, the College of dairy industry in Novomoskovsk in the Tulskaya region, 1982, the Palace of Young Pioneers in Belov of the Kemerovskaya region, 1988.
Kochetov participates in almost every large exhibit. The following museums carry pieces by this artist: Tetrapod Gallery in Moscow, The State Museum of Palekh Art, The State Historical Museum, The Museum of Moleskin in Venerator, The All-Russia Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Art, the Plyos State History, Architecture and Art Museum-Preserve, the Ivanovo Region Art Museum and finally The Museum of Revolution in Moscow displays as many as five of his pieces! If you have the (Kuzenina N.P., Bokareva A.V., Milutina E.S., 1996. A.PUSHKINS FAIRY TALES THE STATE MUSEUM OF PALEKH ART "POLINFORM" Ivanovo. ISBN 5-87970-014-3.
) book, you can view another example of his work on pg. 65.
Kochetov's favorite themes to paint are fairy-tales (He is a big fan of Pushkin), epic legends, songs, and especially military songs. He also loves to paints tea parties and space scenes! No matter the theme, his pieces are usually warm and animated. He usually paints using warm, contrasting colors; particularly red and green.
His famous pictures are "Winter", "Ilya Muromez", "The tale of golden Cockerel", "Machine-gun cart", "My Masha and I by samovar".
One can easily distinguish Kochetov's work by his techniques and high quality of painting. Kochetov's biggest concern when painting a box is that the final product reflects his sincere efforts, and great quantity of time that was put into the piece in order to create a work of the highest quality standard. Each piece that Kochetov creates becomes a part of himself. So much so that he dreams about it at night. Kochetov said that every time he works on a new piece he feels like he is "born again".
In his spare time, Kochetov enjoys sports, chess and cross country skiing. At the time of our visit, he was in the process of building a new house for himself in Palekh. To learn more about this artist, you can check out an interview published about him in the February 5, 1994 edition of the French magazine, "El Figaro" #3.
He wishes all of his collectors "love and compassion".
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