Artist Vasily Polevoy — Vasily Polevoy gallery of Artist

To be an artist is not just to create, but to remain honest with yourself. Vasyl Polevyi went through a difficult path, searching for the truth in art. The artist's works are real non-conformism and deep reflections on the world.

… «In that "Soviet" life there were not only all sorts of nastiness, but also the joys of communicating with Shcherbatenko and Selsky, the path was traversed from the ex-libris of K. Kozlovsky to the engravings of V. Favorsky, the paintings of M. Selskaya, Misha Shteinberg, Vasily Polеvoy, the graphics of Yu. Charyshnikov. In my declining years, after becoming acquainted with the art of Moscow, New York, Tel Aviv, I firmly assert that it was a very good school, and it will stand comparison with any other, and this comparison will be in its favor.» (Grigory Ostrovsky, Doctor of Art History, Member of the International Association of Art Critics 01/17/1998, Israel, Tel Aviv. From a letter to D. Perelman.)

Vasily Polevoy stands out as one of the painters, who found his artistic creed in the former USSR in the sixties.

It seems that, from that very time on, he has gone deep into his own “inner emigration” remaining himself all these years in all his “creative leaps” from graphic arts to monumental decorative painting and mosaic. The style of his works fantastic and realistic at the same time is permeated with kind humor sometimes stretching out to grotesque and caricature with an incredible combination of both trickery and simple-heartedness.

His themes and their styles used to put him in one row with the so called “modernistic” and “lacking proper ideological orientation” artists. One amusing example: in Moscow in 1973, an exhibition of avant-garde Moscow artists took place, where Vasiliy presented his lovely painting “Kurochka Ryaba” (“Little Spotted Chicken”) inspired by a well-known little children’s story. This painting was commissioned by a center for graphic arts for one establishment for children. On a 60×80 cm canvas, there were depicted old man and woman mourning over a golden egg laid by their little spotted chicken and broken when fell down. This exhibition caused an extreme resentment in the upper echelons of the Communist Party, which was expressed in a smashing article in one of the central newspapers. The entire exhibition and its every participant were harshly criticized. Vasiliy Polevoy’s painting was apparently singled out as the most resentful and lacking proper ideological orientation. The author even entitled his article “Kurochka Ryaba” and castigated the artist in the worst manner possible. After his immigration in the United States in 1990, the struggle for the daily bread for his family has not weakened the artist’s creative fever. There appeared a plethora of new works, numerous exhibitions took place. The artist’s life perception has always remained fresh, forbearing and full of optimism despite a certain melancholy touch. Carefree living is a game one wants to entirely to be immersed into. Peculiarity, unconcern and even some nonsense are nothing else but desire to forget the horrors of wars, terrorism and other nightmares.In the works of Polevoy, there is no “drum” optimism, petty-bourgeois orthodoxy or pleasing the market demand; there is a freedom of world view, mere beauty. That is where his unique style and the charm of acutely detected characters and images come from. The everyday life becoming increasingly serious, the “clown behavior” of Vasiliy Polevoy remains the keeper of good traditions of folklore: fairy tales, epic poems, people’s splint and primitivism.Let us not analyze a lot, let us simply enjoy the originality of style and unpredictable colorful miracle of the creations of the artist.

Artist Vasily Polevoy: Five periods of the Creative Experience:

Study at Yelets Art School (Yelets, Russia).
Study at Tavrian Highest Art School, Leningrad, USSR.
Leningrad (The Interior design program) at V. Mukhina Memorial Leningrad Higher Arts and Industries School,
Moscow,
Lviv (Ukraine),
United States of America.

Polevoy’s monumental installations: The period of time in Moscow: 1. A mural for Temir-Tau Restaurant (Kazakhstan); 2. Cheremushki Restaurant (Moscow); 3. Graffiti (carving done using multilayered tinted plasters) for the Air Defense Forces Club (Moscow); 4. A panel entitled «Russian Fairy Tales» for the Embassy of Colombia in Moscow; 5. A theatre curtain in the city Blagoveshchensk-on-Amur; 6. Murals for the Palace of Culture in Arzamas (a closed military city on Volga). The period of time in L’viv (Ukraine) from 1971: 1. A mural «Friendship Among the Nations» at the Palace of Culture in the Moldavian city of Rybnitsa, 2. A sea-themed mosaic for the Yunost summer camp in Simferopol (Crimea, Ukraine), 3. Five mosaics for bus stations around L’viv. The period of time in USA (from 1990)

A mosaic titled «North Carolina Nature» on Main Street in Hendersonville, NC,
A mosaic titled «The Baptism of Christ» in the sanctuary of Naples Baptist Church (Hendersonville, NC.)
A mosaic “Angels” for the healing Center (Greenville, SC).

Other Creative Experience

The illustrations for 5 children’s books in Russia, Moldavia and Ukraine,
The number of the art exhibits in Russia and most European countries from 1965 to 1990.
The number of exhibits in L’viv from 1971 to 1988.
Five exhibits in Atlanta, (Georgia) from January to May of 1995.
A big exhibit in Art museum in Greenville, SC, on 2000.