Vladimir Sakhnenko

Vladimir Sakhnenko (Russian: Влади́мир Сахне́нко; born 10 January 1930, in the Sumy region of Ukraine  – 31 July 2008, Tula) was a painter and ceramist, and a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR since 1967. He is the father of artist Ivan Sakhnenko.

Sakhnenko finished the art school in Voroshilovograd in 1951 and then studied at the Surikov Academic Institute in Moscow, where he met Ilya Kabakov and his future wife – sculptor Zoya Riabchenko. He took part in art exhibitions since 1957. He lived and worked in Tula.

Ceramics
Vladimir Sakhnenko created monumental objects, exterior ceramics and pottery houseware. The utility and decorativeness of his works served to conceal experiments with design and form, seditious for the Soviet period, which he continued in painting.

Many of his works still adorn cultural centres, Tula Drama Theatre, Intourist hotel in Yalta and the government dacha in Foros. State Museum of Culture History of Uzbekistan in Samarkand and World Trade Centre in Moscow are also the holders of Vladimir Sakhnenko's ceramics.

He worked daily in his workroom at Kislotoupor Shchyokino factory making crocks, vases, amphorae, flowerpots, multiple ceramic constructions, and ceramic sculptures of various creatures, almost until the end of his life.

He used chamotte, mostly with glaze. In the late 1970s he discovered a temperature-resistant composition of blue-green glaze that could survive extreme weather conditions, including frost. Sakhnenko's glazed ceramics have been held out of doors in Samarkand and Crimea for almost 40 years.

Painting
In the 1970s the artist created 13 large black and white canvases (held in Erarta Museum ). In the early 1980s, Vladimir Sakhnenko turned to making bright paintings: portraits, still lives and works that depict biblical scenes. His personal style (both in painting and pottery) features easy switch from figurativeness to abstraction and ornamentality.

Art collections

 * Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art, Saint Petersburg
 * Art Season Gallery and Art Caravan Gallery, Moscow
 * State Museum of Culture History of Uzbekistan, Samarkand
 * Tula Museum of Fine Arts

Recent exhibitions

 * 1999 — On the Staraya Basmannaya Street Gallery, Moscow, featuring his son Ivan Sakhnenko
 * 2005 — Autumn Marathon, Central House of Artists, Moscow, featuring Ivan Sakhnenko, Avetik and others
 * 2006 — Revelation of Colour, Central House of Artists, Moscow, solo exhibition, Art Caravan Gallery
 * 2007 — Abstract Art. The Early 21st Century, Central House of Artists, Moscow