Alexei Gritsai

Painter, graphic artist, teacher, writer on art. Father of artist Alexander Gritsai (1950–1988). Born in St Petersburg (1914) in the family of a mathematics teacher called Mikhail Gritsai who was killed fighting for the Reds in the Civil War (1919). Studied at Savely Seidenberg’s studio in Leningrad (1930–32) and under Isaac Brodsky, Vasily Yakovlev and Alexander Lyubimov at the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Leningrad (1932–39). Taught at the 1905 School of Art in Moscow (1939–40). Conscripted into the Red Army (1940) and served in the artillery during the Second World War (1941–45), fighting at the Battle of Stalingrad (1942–43). Visited the Urals (1946). Taught at the Vasily Surikov Institute of Art in Moscow (1948–52, 1964–74), professor (1966). Contributed to Meeting of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1951) and worked at the Academy Dacha near Vyshny Volochyok in Tver Region (1950s). Winner of the Stalin Prize (1951, 1952), Ilya Repin Prize (1973) and State Prize (1978). Honoured Artist of the RSFSR (1959), People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1963), People’s Artist of the USSR (1974), full member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1964). Signed a letter published in Pravda attacking Soviet dissident and human-rights activist Andrei Sakharov (1973). Taught at the creative studios of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (early 1980s). Died in Moscow and buried at the Vagankovo Cemetery (1998). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1946). Contributed to the All-Union Art Exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1946), All-Union Art Exhibition of 1947 at the Tretyakov Gallery and Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow (1947), Travelling Exhibition of Works of Painting and Graphic Art by Soviet Artists at Molotov Gallery of Art in Molotov (renamed Perm in 1957), Nizhny Tagil Museum of Fine Arts in Nizhny Tagil, Sverdlovsk Picture Gallery in Sverdlovsk (renamed Ekaterinburg in 1991) and the Kirov Factory Palace of Culture in Chelyabinsk (1948), Travelling Exhibition of Works by Artists of Moscow and Leningrad in Kharkiv, Yasynuvata, Horlivka and Donbass (1948), All-Union Exhibition of Works by Young Artists Dedicated to the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Komsomol at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow (1948), Travelling Exhibition of Works by Young Soviet Artists at the Georgian Picture Gallery in Tbilisi, Art Salon in Baku, Makhachkala, House of Engineering Technical Workers in Grozny and the Art Salon in Rostov-on-Don (1949), All-Union Art Exhibition of 1949 at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1949), All-Union Art Exhibition of 1950 at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1950–51), All-Union Art Exhibition of 1951 at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1951–52), Travelling Exhibition of Soviet Artists in Dnepropetrovsk, Lviv, Art Foundation of the USSR in Rostov-on-Don, Municipal Club in Shakhty, Cinema in Donetsk, House of the Teacher in Makiivka, Palace of Culture of the Miner in Horlivka and the Palace of Culture in Voroshilovgrad (1952), Spring Exhibition of Painting by Moscow Artists at the Moscow Fellowship of Artists in Moscow (1952), All-Union Art Exhibition of 1952 at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1952–53), Exhibition of Works of Soviet Art from the Collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery at the Russian Museum in Leningrad (1953), Travelling Exhibition of Works by Soviet Artists in Nebit Dag (now Balkanabat), Yerevan, Grozny, Stavropole, Krasnodar, Transcaucasia and Kuban (1953), Travelling Exhibition of Works of Russian Pre-Revolutionary and Soviet Art from the Reserves of the State Tretyakov Gallery in Kaunas (1954), Vilnius (1954–55), Nizhny Tagil (1955), Molotov (1955), Kirov (1955–56), Ulan-Ude (1956), Irkutsk (1956) and Novosibirsk (1956), All-Union Art Exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery, House of the Artist and Union of Artists at 25/9 Gorky (now Tver) Street in Moscow (1955), VII Exhibition of Folk Creativity of 1955 in Lviv (1955), Travelling Exhibition of Works by Soviet Artists in Ulan-Ude (1955), Irkutsk (1955), Krasnoyarsk (1955), Tomsk (1955), Kurgan (1955), Chelyabinsk (1955), Kustanay (1955), Chkalov (1956), Kuibyshev (1956), Penza (1956), Novocherkassk (1956), Saransk (1956) and Kazan (1956), Travelling Exhibition of Works by Soviet Artists at the Kaluga Regional Museum of Art in Kaluga (1955–56), Museum of Local Studies in Zlatoust (1956), Museum of Local Studies in Magnitogorsk (1956), Regional Museum of Local Studies in Chkalov (1956) and Simferopole Museum of Art in Simferopole (1956), Exhibition of Works by Soviet Artists at the Mikhail Gabyshev Republican Museum of Fine Arts in Yakutsk (1956), Travelling Exhibition of Works by Soviet Artists at the House of Architects in Stalingrad (1956), Boris Kustodiev Regional Picture Gallery in Astrakhan (1956), Sailors’ Club in Krasnovodsk (1956–57), Turkmen Museum of Fine Arts in Ashgabat (1957), Mämmetweli Kemine Municipal Theatre in Mary (1957), Bukhara Regional Museum of Local Studies in Bukhara (1957), Republican Museum of the History, Culture and Art of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic in Samarkand (1957), Kam?l ud-D?n Behz?d Regional Unified Museum of the History, Local Studies and Fine Art of Tajikistan in Stalinabad (1957) and the Alexander Pushkin Theatre in Leninabad (1957), Fourth Exhibition of Works by Full and Corresponding Members of the Academy of Arts of the USSR at the Academy of Arts of the USSR in Moscow (1957), Travelling Exhibition of Works by Soviet Artists at the House of Officers in Blagoveschensk, Museum of Local Studies in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Sovetskaya Gavan, House of Officers in Vladivostok, House of Officers in Voroshilov and the Museum of Local Studies in Stalinsk (1957), Travelling Exhibition of Russian Pre-Revolutionary and Soviet Art from the Reserves of the State Tretyakov Gallery at the Museum of Local Studies in Krasnoyarsk, Pacific Fleet House of Naval Officers in Vladivostok and the Far Eastern Museum of Art in Khabarovsk (1957), Exhibition of Works of Soviet Art from the Reserves of the Kazakh Gallery of Art at the Kazakh Gallery of Art in Almaty (1957), All-Union Art Exhibition Dedicated to the Fortieth Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall, Academy of Arts of the USSR, House of the Artist, Union of Artists and Central House of Workers of the Arts in Moscow (1957–58), Travelling Exhibition of Works by Soviet Artists at the Turkmen Museum of Fine Arts in Ashgabat (1958), Travelling Exhibition of Works by Soviet Artists Created in 1955–57 at Murmansk Regional Museum of Local Studies in Murmansk, Karelian Union of Artists in Petrozavodsk, Regional Theatre of Drama in Arkhangelsk, Vologda Regional Picture Gallery in Vologda, Maxim Gorky Regional Museum of Art in Kirov, Konstantin Savitsky Picture Gallery in Penza, Konstantin Savitsky School of Art in Penza and Oryol Picture Gallery in Oryol (1958), Travelling Exhibition of Works by Soviet Artists Created in 1955–57 at the Sailors’ Club in Sebastopole, Theodosia, Kerch, Poti, House of Officers in Batumi and Anatoly Lunacharsky Museum of Art in Krasnodar (1958), Travelling Exhibition of Works by Soviet Artists at the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic Museum of Art in Chi?in?u (1958), Exhibition of Works by Moscow Artists Dedicated to the XXV Communist Party Congress in Moscow (1975), Portraiture in Russia: XX Century at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (2001–02), The Four Seasons: Landscapes in Russia (19th–20th Centuries) at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (2006–07), Realism in the Russian Art of the Second Half of the Twentieth Century from a Private Collection in Moscow at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (2012), Attraction of Realism at the Izmailovo Gallery in Moscow (2012–13), Exhibition of Soviet Painting in East Berlin, Dresden and Budapest (1949), Exhibition of Soviet Fine Art in Helsinki (1950), Exhibition of Works by Soviet Artists in Warsaw (1951), Exhibition of Soviet Fine Art at the III World Festival of Youth and Students in East Berlin (1951), Exhibition of Soviet Fine Art in Delhi, Calcutta and Bombay (1952), Soviet and Classical Russian Art at the Staatlichen Museen in East Berlin (1953), Dresden (1953), Staatliche Galerie Moritzburg in Halle (1953) and the Szépm?vészeti Múzeum in Budapest (1953–54), Exhibition of Soviet Fine Art in the Czechoslovak Republic in Prague, Bratislava and Brno (1954), Soviet Fine Art in the People’s Republic of China in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hankou (1954–56), Travelling Exhibition of Soviet Art in Syria, Lebanon and the United Arab Republic at the National Museum in Damascus (1955), UNESCO in Beirut (1956) and the Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries in Cairo (1956), Exhibition of Soviet Fine Art in the People’s Republic of Bulgaria and the Socialist Republic of Romania in Sofia, Plovdiv and Bucharest (1956), Exhibition of Soviet Fine Art in Indonesia at the Railway Workers’ Trade Union Club in Jakarta (1956), Exhibition of Works by Soviet Artists in the People’s Republic of China at the Palace Museum in Beijing (1958), Venice Biennale (1956, 1958), 3rd International Contemporary Art Exhibition in Delhi, Ahmedebad, Hyderabad, Calcutta and Amritsar (1957), Expo ‘58 in Brussels (1958, bronze medal) and one-man shows in Tokyo (1979), Moscow (1984), Prague (1984) and East Berlin (1984).