STERLIGOV Vladimir Vasil’evich

March 18, 1904 (Warsaw) — November 1, 1973 (Peterhof)

Painter, graphic artist

Vladimir Sterligov was born to a family of University professor. He spent his childhood in Moscow, studied in the gymnasium. In 1921 he worked in the library of the Sokolnicheskye Ermolovskye workshops. In the same year Sterligov served in the military forces in the Red Air Fleet. He was demobilized in 1923. Later Sterligov attended the literary courses under the All-Russian union of poets. In 1925 Vladimir Sterligov met the painter V. M. Ermolaeva in Moscow. She advised Sterligov to move to Leningrad, where he entered the State Institute of Artistic Culture (GINKhUK). He studied principles of cubism and suprematism in the studio of K. S. Malevich.

In 1929 — early 1930s Vladimir Sterligov worked as an artist and writer in the children’s comic magazines YeZh (“Monthly Magazine” or “Hedgehog”) and ChIZh (“Extremely Interesting Magazine” or “Siskin”). He was close to the poets-Oberiuts (OBERIU, the Association of Real Art). Sterligov illustrated works by A. I. Vvedensky and D. I. Kharms. He wrote and published in the State Publishing House of Children’s Literature (Detgiz) his books The Garden, On the plane to America with his own illustrations. Sterligov joined the group of painting-plastic realism, which members also were L. A. Yudin, V. M. Ermolaeva, and K. I. Rozhdestvensky.

In 1934, after the death of S. M. Kirov, Vladimir Sterligov was arrested by false denunciation and was convicted. He was imprisoned in the camp near Karaganda. In 1938 he was released. In 1939 Streligov worked as a chairman of the Organizational Bureau of the Union of artists in Karaganda. In 1940 Sterligov settled in Petushki because he was forbidden to live in big cities. In 1941 he moved to Malaya Vishera near Leningrad.

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Sterligov was called up for the military service to the Karelian Front. After a concussion he was demobilized and evacuated to Alma-Ata. Sterligov worked in the studio of the children’s Kazakh radio broadcasting. He also taught perspective and art history in the Art School. In evacuation Sterligov met the painter, pupil of P. N. Filonov, T. N. Glebova. He married her soon.

In 1945 Sterligov together with Glebova returned to Leningrad. He continued to work as a painter and graphic artist. In late 1940s — early 1970s he created the series Memoirs of suprematism, The Evangelical cycle, Seas, Deacons, Choristers, The Crucifixion, Golgotha, The Nativity of Christ, The Mount Zion. There was a group of young artists the School of Sterligov. Sterligov together with his pupils studied the color theory of M. V. Matyushin and searched for the new plastic language.

In 1965 the first personal exhibition of the artist was held in the studio in the Lesnoy prospect in Leningrad. In 1966 the joint exhibition of works by Sterligov and Glebova was organized in the halls of Leningrad Union of Artists of the RSFSR (LOSKh), but the exhibition was closed in four hours after opening. In 1970 one-day exhibition of the masters was held in the Research Institute of the history and theory of architecture and in the Engraving Cabinet of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. In 1973 the last exhibition in Sterligov’s lifetime The hidden geometry of forms was organized in the studio in the Petrogradskaya storona in Leningrad. Pupils of Sterligov also took part in this exhibition.

Vladimir Sterligov was buried at the cemetery in Peterhof.

In 1995 the retrospective exhibition of the works by Sterligov The wind blows where it wishes was held in the State Russian Museum.

In his early works Sterligov was under the influence of cubism and suprematism. Later, after study under K. S. Malevich in the State Institute of Artistic Culture (GINKhUK), Sterligov created his own pictorial and plastic system of the bowl-dome space. Vladimir Sterligov impacted on the development of the non-official art of 1960s–1980s. The pupils of Sterligov were the painters S. Spitsyn, E. Aleksandrova, G. Zubkov, G. Moiseeva, V. Matyukh, A. Kiselev and others.

Works by Vladimir Sterligov are in many museum collections, including the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, the State Russian Museum and others.