Andrey Vasnetsov

Andrey Vladimirovich Vasnetsov (Russian: Андре́й Влади́мирович Васнецо́в; 24 February 1924 – 6 December 2009) was a Soviet and Russian painter and art educator. He was an important figure in the Moscow art scene of the post-Stalin era and one of the founders of the Severe Style (Russian: surovy stil), a major current in Soviet art from the late 1950s. In 1962 his painting Breakfast was among the works denounced by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev during his visit to the "30 Years of the Moscow Union of Artists" exhibition at the Moscow Manege. The episode limited Vasnetsov's exhibitions of easel painting for years afterward and redirected his career toward monumental art. He was the grandson of the famous painter Viktor Vasnetsov. He was a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Arts from 1988 and a full member of the Russian Academy of Arts from 1991. He was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1991 and was a recipient of the USSR State Prize in 1979, the Lenin Komsomol Prize in 1972, and the Russian Federation Presidential Prize in Literature and Art (1999).