Valeri B. Skuridin

Valeri B. Skuridin (1917-1983) was a decorated war hero, a master painter, and a pivotal figure in Soviet art education who rose to become a Professor and then Rector at the prestigious Surikov Institute. His extensive training began at the Orlovski Art School and the Art Institute in Memory of the 1905 Revolution, where he graduated in 1938. His studies at the Leningrad Academy of Art were interrupted by World War II, during which he served in combat throughout Europe to Berlin and endured the Leningrad Blockade. After the war, he enrolled at the Surikov Institute, graduating with honors in 1949, and eventually received a scholarship as a doctoral candidate.

Skuridin was a remarkably versatile artist, known for his war themes, Crimean paintings, still lifes, and literary illustrations. He was known for painting the same subject multiple times to explore different techniques or the changing light of day. The works in the Lazare Gallery collection showcase his mastery of the Russian landscape. In "Siberian Village," he captures the vastness and quiet dignity of the remote landscape with an authentic, realist touch. In "Crimean Coast," he turns his attention to a completely different environment, skillfully rendering the brilliant light and atmosphere of the southern sea.

The legacy of Valeri Skuridin is immense. He was a war hero awarded the Red Star Medal, an artist, a scholar who published art articles, a restorer for The Hermitage Museum, and the leader of Russia's most important art academy. For the collector, owning a painting by Skuridin is to acquire a work by a true "renaissance man" of the Soviet art world. His art is not only masterfully executed but is also imbued with the profound life experience of a painter who was also a soldier, a scholar, and a top educator.