Vladimir Aleksandrovich Serov

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Serov (1910-1968) was a Soviet painter, illustrator and teacher born into a family of rural teachers. He belongs to the Soviet period, and his work is notable for showing how painting of the era reflected the political and social events of the country.

He studied at the Leningrad Institute of Proletarian Fine Arts, now the Repin Institute, graduating in 1931, and then studied under Isaak Brodsky until 1933. He afterwards taught at the same institute. During the Second World War he stayed in besieged Leningrad and, as president of the Leningrad Union of Artists, took part in the work of the artist group Boyevoi Karandash (Fighting Pencil).

His paintings covered historical-revolutionary themes, portraits, landscapes and still lifes. In works dedicated to the October Revolution and the first years of Soviet power, historical events are interpreted in line with official Soviet historiography of the 1940s and 1960s.

He also held a significant institutional career: he was a member of the Soviet Academy of Arts from 1951 and its president from 1962, and in 1960 became First Secretary of the Board of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR, a post he held until his death. He joined the Communist Party in 1942 and was a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR from 1958. He was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.