Andrianov, Piotr

Piotr Nikolaevich Andrianov 1916-1995

Piotr Nikolaevich Andrianov is an outstanding example of the best type of Soviet Era painting.  He was born in Moscow in 1916 to the family of a workman.  He finished elementary school and went to vocational college at an engine factory where he later became an engine repairman.

His family of six depended on young Piotr and his father to be the breadwinners.  But Piotr was eager to draw and began attending painting courses in the evenings.  Once his tutor visited Piotr’s mother and told her that her son was a gifted painter and his talent needed to be nurtured.  He advised her to let him go on studying art.

Soon after that Piotr resumed his school studies in the tenth grade of fine art school. He studied at the art college from 1937-1939 (from age 21 to 23).  He was older than most of the other students, but his desire to learn was unquenchable.

At Piotr’s last school exhibitionhis his work drew the attention of Igor Grabar, rector of the Moscow Fine Art Institute and one of Russia’s greatest painters in his own right.  Igor Grabar invited Piotr Andrianov to join his first year students at their practical work session in Troitskoe Village near Moscow.  The young artist did so and began a period of fruitful and difficult study.

Impressed by his young protégé’s talent, Grabar decided to patronize him further by enrolling him in the Moscow Fine Art Institute without a formal entrance examination.

During the Second World War all students and professors of the school were evacuated to Samarkand. As a top student Andrianov was transferred to the fourth year, skipping his third.

In 1948 Piotr graduated with honors from the Art Institute and joined the Moscow Painter’s Union as a professional.  Everything portended a brilliant career.  However, he chose a different path led by his innate “intelligentnost” and became known as a dissenter, stunting his career for the sake of principle.

Piotr Andrianov began exhibiting his artworks publicly in 1954.

At this time he turned his attention to nature and the study of landscape apart from the political world.  Harmony, love of family, nature and life became the most important things in the life of the artist.  He built a house in the country near Moscow and became so attached to the place that he had little interest in the hectic life of the city.

Throughout his career Piotr Andrianov never lost the sense of wonder for nature and its ever changing subject matter.  He saw the enigmatic whole of the natural world.  The integrity of his art is due to this fidelity of study. His brushwork is confident and creates an immaculate impression of volume and atmosphere.  The energy of his art is apparent. His palette is harmonious and restful.  His goal as an artist was to make himself and his unique vision of the natural world as clear as possible to the spectator.  In this he has succeeded.

Mr. Andrianov passed away in 1995, at age 79.

Since the fall of Communism, Piotr Andrianov’s art has risen in stature and is now placed in the front rank of painters from the second half of the Twentieth Century.

Piotr Andrianov’s paintings are in the permanent collection of the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow and the Russian State Museum in St. Petersburg.

Mr. Andrianov is listed in the book “A Dictionary Of Twentieth Century Russian And Soviet Painters 1900’s – 1980’s” by Matthew Cullerne Bown.