Boris Lavrenko

Boris Mikhailovich Lavrenko (Бори́с Миха́йлович Лавре́нко; 6 May 1920 – 7 June 2001) was a Russian Soviet realist painter, People's Artist of the Russian Federation, professor of the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after Ilya Repin, who lived and worked in Saint Petersburg (former Leningrad), regarded as one of the major representatives of the Leningrad school of painting.

Biography
Boris Mikhailovich Lavrenko was born on 6 May 1920 in the city of Rostov on Don, Soviet Russia.

In 1936–1940 years Boris Lavrenko studied at the Rostov on Don Art School. In Autumn of 1940, he was drafted into the Red Army. Boris Lavrenko was a veteran of World War II. As an artilleryman, he went all the way from Moscow to Berlin. His front-line drawings, sketches, portraits are interesting as a documentary and truth.

After demobilization in 1946, Boris Lavrenko entered at the first course of the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after Ilya Repin. There he studied under Mikhail Avilov, Ivan Stepashkin, Genrikh Pavlovsky, Joseph Serebriany.

In 1952, Boris Lavrenko graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture as artist of painting in Rudolf Frentz workshop, together with Sergei Babkov, Leonid Baykov, Irina Baldina, Dmitry Beliaev, Abram Grushko, Marina Kozlovskaya, Boris Korneev, Elena Kostenko, Oleg Lomakin, Piotr Fomin, Vladimir Chekalov, and other young artists. His graduated work was genre painting named "At the collective farm Stadium".

Since 1936, Boris Lavrenko has participated in Art Exhibitions. He painted portraits, genre and historical paintings, landscapes, still lifes, sketches from the life. It became the leading genre portrait of a contemporary. Boris Lavrenko’s works were exhibited in 1972 in Moscow, Leningrad, and Rostov on Don, to great acclaim. Later his art were exhibited in Leningrad in 1986 and in 1996.

His style distinguish a broad painting, energetic brushstroke, artistic transfer of tonal relations and states of lighting and air, palpable materiality of volumes and forms. In the works of 1970–80 years we see growing decorative qualities of painting and generalized drawing.

Since 1953, Boris Lavrenko was a member of the Leningrad Union of Artists (since 1992, named as Saint Petersburg Union of Artists).

Over the 40 years, Boris Lavrenko combined her creative activities with pedagogical work. Since 1954 he taught in the Repin Institute of Arts. He was Doctor of art-criticism (1983), professor of painting, a head of personal workshop and graphical department of the Repin Institute of Arts.

In 1976 Boris Lavrenko was awarded the honorary title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR. In 1994 he was awarded the honorary title of People's Artist of the Russian Federation.

Boris Mikhailovich Lavrenko died on 7 June 2001 in Saint Petersburg at the eighty-first year of life. His paintings reside in State Russian Museum, State Tretyakov Gallery, in art museums and private collections in Russia, England, Germany, France, Italy, the U.S., and others.