Valentin Galochkin

Valentin Andreevich Galochkin (Валенти́н Андре́евич Га́лочкин) (November 22, 1928 – November 3, 2006) was a prominent Soviet (Ukrainian, Russian) sculptor.

Biography
Galochkin was born in Dnipropetrovsk (USSR) on November 22, 1928. His father Andrey Andreevich Galochkin (Ukrainian, in the soviet passport: Russian) came from the Kaluga region and was a restaurant chef, later a modeler. Mother Golda Gorkhovna (in the soviet passport: Olga Grigorievna) Liberman (Jewish) came from the town of Chyhyryn (Ukraine) and worked as an accountant.

When World War II began in 1941 the family was evacuated to the Krasnodar region, then to Uzbekistan, returning in 1944 to Dnipropetrovsk. From 1944 till 1949 Valentin Galochkin attended an art school in Dnipropetrovsk and learned from Professor Zhiradkov. From 1949 till 1955 he studied sculpture at Kyiv Institute of Fine Arts. His favorite professor was Max Isaevich Gelmann.

Galochkin's graduation work "Steel smelter" (1956) was cast in bronze by the institute and sold to the USSR Ministry of Culture to exhibit in Lvov State Art Museum (Ukraine). Galochkin was appointed head artist of Kyiv sculpture works and remained at this post till 1959.

At the age of 29, Galochkin was nominated for the Lenin Prize for his work "Hiroshima" (1957), however the prize went to 83-year-old Sergey Konenkov.

In 1968, Valentin Galochkin won a prize in a Festival of young artists in Vienna. In 1960s and 1970s he visited the UK, France, Egypt and Greece. He was impressed by the Louvre in Paris. As he later recalled, he had so long waited to see this "temple of art" that right at the entrance, after having seen the statue of Nike of Samothrace, he couldn't help crying and for two hours didn't dare to enter the museum.

Valentin Galochkin was married three times. The first marriage in (1958) was to Yulia Ukader (Soviet, Ukrainian sculptor). A daughter from the first marriage is Tatiana Galochkina (painter). The second marriage in (1978) was to Alena Bokshitskaya (film expert). A daughter from the second marriage is Anna Bokshitskaya (journalist). The third marriage in (1980) was to Lidia Galochkina, born Abramenko (Russian sculptor, graphic artist). Sons from the third marriage are Igor Galochkin (game developer) and Andre Galkin (programmer). Valentin Galochkin was a sportsman, a Master of Sports in swimming and volleyball, hunter and fisherman.

In 1986, after the Chernobyl disaster, the sculptor moved with his family from Kyiv to Moscow. In 1999 he emigrated to Wismar in Germany, and in 2002 moved to Hamburg. He died from a heart attack on 3 November 2006 on a trip to Russia, in Moscow. He was buried in Nakhabino cemetery on November 8, 2006.

Artistic style
His early works, including the graduation work "Steel smelter" (1956) follow the standards of soviet realism set up by Vera Mukhina, Ivan Shadr, Sergey Merkurov.

The first significant work "Hiroshima" (1957) which made Galochkin well known in the USSR is devoted to the victims of atomic bombing of Hiroshima in World War II. "Hiroshima" expresses the sculptor's protest against nuclear weapons, a call for humanness.

Citations (from working notes)
Even beautiful but designed and therefore annoying rhythms and silhouettes are also lies, a make-up, so empty and distant.

Only the passionless can have a quality of the eternal.

If there is an objective concept of "beauty" and if beautiful, in this case, should remain forever beautiful, one should create in accordance with the laws of the universe.

Not precocity makes a work of art timeless and great, but its naked, sincere truth and purity, so simple as the earth itself, faceup opened to people.

''What does this beauty of a thing consist of? Perhaps, first of all, of harmony and inner rhythm and cohesion, rationality and hidden appropriateness.''

For your inner world to become valuable to others, not to yourself only, it must be humane.

In a piece of art there must be a mystery.