Ivanov Konstantin Kirillovich

    Artist, member of Russia's Artists Association, member of the Petrovskaya Academy of Arts and Sciences, member of the Trustee Council of the Baltic Fund.
    Many of his works are property of the Artists Association, of Russia's Exhibitions Direction, of Russia's Artistic Fund, of the State Art Museum of Belorussia. They are exhibited at museums in Moscow, at the St. Petersburg City Museum, in private collections, in Russia and abroad.
    The well-known sculptor B.A. Svinyin (1938-1994) has written in one of his articles: "... Konstantin Ivanov's painting titled "The Cathedral" is both interesting visually and philosophical in its meaning. The painter seems to say that although the temple's walls and domes have been destroyed, although there are hardly any frescos remaining, its beauty and attractiveness has not disappeared... Great relics do not die, even when their walls are destroyed. For the main thing is to build a Temple inside your soul..." ("Artist" magazine, issue 1, 1980).
    Konstantin Ivanov is not only an excellent painter. He is a thoughtful, spiritual, deeply philosophical man.
    He has developed an artistic language and, through complete mastery of the artist's craft, he is able to solve complex spatial compositional tasks with amazing integrity. His images possess musical and poetic qualities.
    In 1956 he has graduated from secondary school and was admitted into the Art School on Tavricheskaya Street in St. Petersburg.
    In 1958 he was admitted to the Leningrad Higher School of Art.
    In 1963 he has begun studying at the Painting Department of the I.E. Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of the U.S.S.R. Artists Academy.
    In 1969 he has graduated from the Repin Institute, where he has been studying at the studio of the prominent scholar Aleksander Dmitrievich Zaitsev.
    Immediately after graduation the young artist has begun his independent artistic career.
    In 1970 his exhibiting activities have begun.
    Konstantin Ivanov is one of the few artists of our time of whom it is difficult to say anything without knowing his biography, his background, the origins of his creativity.
    Konstantin Kirillovich was born on August 1, 1938 in Leningrad in a native Petersburgers' family.
    His father, Kirill Konstantinovich Ivanov (1900-1969) was a nobleman. During the 1920's he has been made a deacon by the Metropolitan of Petrograd and Gdov Veniamin Kazansky. He has dedicated more than 40 years of his life to serving the Russian Orthodox Church. During the post-war years he has been occupying an important position related to meeting and accompanying foreign Church delegations arriving in Leningrad. He has received high Church awards for his service.
    His mother, Nina Nikolayevna Popova by maiden name (1907-1987), was a daughter of a well-known merchant trading at the Gostinyi Dvor, honorary citizen of St. Petersburg Nikolai Sergeyevich Popov, who had owned a famous store at the Gostinyi Dvor, called "News Trading House".
    N.S. Popov was the founder and first chairman of the Izhoro-Lisinsk Hunters' Society (1891).
    His great-grandfather Mikhail Mikhailovich Dikov was a well-known historian. He originated from the Vorotynsky ancient boyar family. The family has always been preserving the commandments of the Orthodox Church. M.M. Dikov was a highly educated man, who studied the history of the Orthodox Church.
    Thus the circumstances of the future artist's childhood and adolescence were somewhat unusual for the time.
    Many spiritual and cultural issues have been opened to Konstantin through his family.
    Thus it is not surprising that Konstantin Ivanov's biography, written by V.A. Ushakova (Liki Rossii Publishers, St. Petersburg, 1999) is titled "To Build the TEmple of One's Soul". His entire work has been dedicated to finding spiritual meaning in the world.
    In 1990 he has become a member of the Society for the religious and moral enlightenment in the spirit of the Orthodox Church. A few years later he has become a member of the Theological and Philosophical Department of the Petrovskaya Academy of Arts and Sciences, founded with the blessing of St. Petersburg Metropolitan John.
    K.K. Ivanov has dedicated more than 10 years to charity work aimed at the revival of Orthodox churches, participating in the creation of icons.
    Konstantin Ivanov has begun his artistic work as soon as he graduated from the I.E. Repin Institute. His first works have been well received at the Artists Association's exhibitions. He has become a permanent participant of these exhibitions.
    In 1971 K. Ivanov has started to teach at the B.V. Iohanson Secondary Art School at the Repin Academy of Arts, and became the school's director in several years.
    However, the young artist's creative energy led him to leave the school and to dedicate himself to art completely.
    It is impossible not to mention the period in Ivanov's life, when his style has been determined by the Russian subject matter. His representations of natural settings have forever acquired an epic and musical quality.
    Starting from 1964, the artist has been spending a lot of time in the country side, in the summer residence of a well-known landscape painter V.K. Belynitsky-Biruli. During the years 1964-1974, the main theme of his work has been shaped: nature, its gifts and the human being in the light of the Divine Beauty and Joy, the happiness of living and the grief of parting. Now he has approached his task of buiding a Temple inside his soul.

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