Valentina Rybalko

Sculptress, graphic artist, teacher. Wife of Yevsei Moiseyenko. Born in the family of Lavrenty Rybalko in the city of Simferopole in the Crimea (1918). Studied at the Nikolai Samokish Studio of Art in Simferopole (1937), preparatory courses of the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Leningrad (1937–38), under Alexander Matveyev and Victor Sinaisky at the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Leningrad (1938–46) and as a post-graduate student of the Ilya Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Leningrad (1946–49). Member of the Union of Artists (1946). Taught at the Ilya Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1946–47) and the Vera Mukhina School of Art in Leningrad (1951–89). People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1979), corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1988). Died in St Petersburg and buried alongside her husband at the Volkovo Cemetery (1991). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1946), including Times of Change: Art in the Soviet Union (1960–85) at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (2006).