Andrei Polyakov, artist

Andrei Polyakov was born in South Sakhalinsk on 22 April 1960. Being only 9 years old he started painting and always strived for the carrier of a painter. At the age of 12 he entered the Art School for- children in Kamenets-Podolskiy, then he studied at the Art School named after M. Grekov in Odessa.
While serving in the army (Prague) he was busy with designing and drawing sketches of his colleagues and command staff and participated in an international exhibition of classical portraits in Prague. After leaving the army he fully devoted his life to open-air painting. Since 1983 he has reconsidered his art work and a portrait genre with a deep understanding of the psychology of the object of painting has come to the foreground, which has become the brand of this master while his motto being “To draw people of my time”.

The painter believes that his teachers here are old masters of Russian portrait such as V. Serov, I. Repin and K. Makovsky. The first exhibition ofPolyakov’s works was held in Chernovtsy in the Palace of Culture where the painter presented mainly portraits drawn by using mixed techniques: drawings, pastel, watercolours, oils. In 1989 the family ofAndrei Mikhailovich moved lo the Moscow region, to the city of Chekhov, where half a year later he held a successful personal exhibition devoted to the Anniversary of the City Foundation (portraits, landscapes).
 
The first large orders for portraits having been made, the works of the painter have been purchased by private collectors.

1992 - an exposition in the Central library in Chekhov. 1995 - 1997 -a permanent exposition at the ExpoCenter in Moscow.
1999 - participation in a joint exhibition of “Agropromstroi” (Moscow). 2000 - 2003 - work in an elite gallery “Bagira” of the Russian Arts Academy, master classes.
In 2004 the painter received the ministrations to paint the portrait ofAlcksii II - the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
In January 2007 the painter held an of the “Art of Portrait” in Gostiniy Dvor in Moscow together with famous painters N, Safronov and G. Sattarov.
2007 – II personal  exhibition in Russian-German House in Moscow.
2008 - II personal  exhibition in Russian-German House in Moscow.
2009 – participation in the III International Festival of Modern Art, Manyzh, Moscow.
2010 – participation in the  International Exhibition «Beautiful Houses», Krokus Expo, Moscow.
2011 – personal exhibition in State Duma of the Russian Federation, Moscow.

Well-versed in the portrait genre, the gallery workers as well as art critics, who visited this exhibition, had simlar views about the painter’s academic portraits calling them to be worthy of the highest praise and void of society masks but spiritually filled and conveying the essence of the character. In 2007 the known Moscow Drama Theatre “Lenkom” purchased the portrait trio “E. Leonov, G.Gorin and M. Zakharov” redrawn from the photo portraits by V. Plotnikov.
 
The exclusiveness of the master’s works in this complicated and important genre is in demand among the high society and bohemians, which is confirmed by the portraits of the RF President V.V. Putin, the Army Marshal V.G. Shevchenko, Russian singers I. Allegrova, I. Talkov, theater and film stars Yu. Solomin, I. Staroseltsev, T. Gverdtsiteli, M. Zakharov, etc.

The origins of his art find foundations in the Academic school and traditions of the socialist realism. The painter has been working in the portrait genre since 1983. More than 300 works have been acquired by the Russian and foreign private collectors in Ukraine, the Check Republic, Germany, the USA, France, Finland. Their owners can feel the spirit of old painters in the handwriting of the artist.