Vasily Nechitailo

Painter, graphic artist, teacher. Born in the family of agricultural labourer Kirill Nechitailo and his wife Xenia in the village of Vorontsovo-Nikolaevskoe in the Province of the Don Cossack Host (1915). Attended school in the nearby town of Salsk (1921–28). Studied under Nikolai Sharikov and Mikhail Ruzheinikov at the Krasnodar Technical College of Art (1931–35) and under Sergei Gerasimov at the Moscow Institute of Fine Arts (1936–41). Joined the People’s Militia during the Second World War (1941–42). Completed his education at the Moscow Institute of Fine Arts in evacuation in Samarkand (1942–43) and worked as a war artist at the front (1944). Member of the Union of Artists (from 1944), bureau member of the painting section (1946–80), deputy chairman for exhibitions (1963–65), board member of the Moscow branch (1950–76), Union of Artists of the RSFSR (1960–80) and Union of Artists of the USSR (1963–80). Married artist Maria Savchenkova (born 1917) and had sons Dmitry (1940) and Sergei (1952). Taught painting at the Vasily Surikov Institute of Art in Moscow (1948–56). Awarded a silver medal of the Ministry of Culture of the USSR (1957) and the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1965), winner of the Ilya Repin Prize (1971). People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1965), corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1973). Visited China (1964), Spain (1970), Bulgaria (1971) and Italy (1974). Lived and worked in the Kuban and Don region (1946, 1961–63), Mikhailovskaya (1947–48), Bakinskaya and Goryachy Klyuch (1949–51), Altai (1954), Zagorsky district (1956), Peredovaya (1957), Starotitarovskaya (1958–59), Sanskoe (1960), Tarusa and Pereslavl-Zalessky (1961–62), Vesyoly, Proletarskaya, Salsk, Verkhovya Dona and Ust-Bystry (1963–66), Verkhny Chegem (1967–68), Goryachy Klyuch (1967–70), Chuvashia (1969), Vologda Region (1969), Salsk district (1972, 1975, 1979), Staroleushkovskaya (1973), Pereslavl-Zalessky (1976–78) and Budyonnovskaya (1976–79). Died in Moscow and buried at the Vagankovo Cemetery (1980). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1939). Contributed to the All-Union Exhibition of Young Artists Dedicated to the Twentieth Anniversary of the Komsomol at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1939), Exhibition of Graphic Art on Themes from the History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow (1940), Art Exhibition of Graphic Art in Commemoration of Pilot Valery Chkalov at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow (1941), Art Exhibition Dedicated to the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Red Army and Navy at the House of the Red Army in Samarkand (1943), Exhibition of Diploma Works of the Moscow Institute of Fine Arts and Ukrainian Branch in Moscow (1943), Exhibition of Works by Young Artists Dedicated to the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Lenin Komsomol at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1943), Travelling Exhibition of Soviet Fine Art at the House of the Navy in Polyarny (1945), Travelling Exhibition of Soviet Painting and Graphic Art in Vladivostok and Khabarovsk (1946), Exhibition of Works by Moscow Artists at Stalin (renamed Izmailovo in 1956) Park 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), 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 Soviet Painting and Graphic Art in Donskoe, Stalinogorsk (renamed Novomoskovsk in 1961), Zadonskaya, Uzlovaya, Kashira, Ozherelye and Skuratovo (1949), Exhibition of Soviet Painting and Graphic Art in Moscow (1949), Travelling Exhibition of Works by Young Soviet Artists at the Georgian Picture Gallery in Tbilisi, Art Salon in Baku, in Makhachkala, House of Engineering Technical Workers in Grozny and the Art Salon in Rostov-on-Don (1949), Exhibition of Works by Moscow Artists at Stalin (renamed Izmailovo in 1956) Park in Moscow (1949), All-Union Art Exhibition of 1949 at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1949), Exhibition of Works by Moscow Artists in the Moscow Fellowship of Artists at 11 Kuznetsky Most in Moscow (1950), 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 in the Moscow Fellowship of Artists at 11 Kuznetsky Most in Moscow (1953), Exhibition of Painting by Moscow Artists at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1954), 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), Exhibition of Works by Moscow Artists Made on Trips to the Virgin and Fallow Lands in 1954 at the ZiL Palace of Culture in Moscow (1955), Exhibition of Painting, Sculpture, Graphic Art and Works by Artists of the Theatre and Cinema of Moscow and Leningrad at Gorky Park in Moscow (1955), Exhibition of Painting and Graphic Art by Moscow Artists at Sokolniki Park in Moscow (1955), Travelling Exhibition of Works by Moscow Artists at the Central House of Workers of the Arts in Moscow, State District Power Plant Club in Kemerovo, House of Culture in Novoorsk, Miner Club in Belovo and Technical House in Kiselyovsk (1956), Travelling Exhibition of Works by Soviet Artists at the Yaroslavl Museum of Art in Yaroslavl, Vologda Regional Picture Gallery in Vologda and Molotov Gallery of Art in Molotov (1956), Travelling Exhibition of Works by Soviet Artists in Simferopole, Sebastopole and Theodosia (1957), Exhibition of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Art on the Occasion of the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Artists at the Union of Artists, Academy of Arts of the USSR, House of the Artist, ZiL Palace of Culture and Central House of Workers of the Arts in Moscow (1957), Travelling Exhibition of Soviet Artists at Izmailovo Park in Moscow, Smolensk Museum of Fine and Applied Art, Railway Worker’s Palace of Culture in Homel, House of Folk Creativity in Mohilev and the Park of Culture and Relaxation in Babruysk (1957), Socialist Moscow in the Works of Moscow Artists at the House of the Artist, Academy of Arts of the USSR and Union of Artists at 20 Kuznetsky Most and 17 Yermolai Lane in Moscow (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), Forty Years of the Soviet Armed Forces at the Academy of Arts of the USSR in Moscow (1958), I Soviet Russia Republican Exhibition at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1960), All-Union Art Exhibition Coinciding with the XXII Communist Party Congress in Moscow (1961), Thirty Years of the Moscow Branch of the Union of Artists at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1962), Flourish, Land of the Collective Farm! Art Exhibition Dedicated to the Toilers of Agriculture and Conquerors of the Virgin Lands at the Exhibition of Economic Achievements in Moscow (1964), Moscow is the Capital of Our Homeland at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1964–65), II Soviet Russia Republican Exhibition at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1965), Artists of Moscow to the Fiftieth Anniversary of October at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1967), III Soviet Russia Republican Exhibition at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1967), Moscow Artists on the Centenary of the Birth of Vladimir Lenin at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1970), IV Soviet Russia Republican Exhibition at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1970), Jubilee Exhibition on the Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Lenin at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1970), USSR is Our Motherland in Moscow, Chi?in?u, Kiev, Odessa and Baku (1972), Exhibition of Works by Members of the Academy of Arts of the USSR on the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Transformation of the All-Russian Academy of Arts into the Academy of Arts of the USSR at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1974), Zonal Exhibition of Works by Moscow Artists at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1975), Moscow Artists on the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Great Victory in Moscow (1975), V Soviet Russia Republican Exhibition at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1975), XII Exhibition of Works by Members of the Academy of Arts of the USSR at the Academy of Arts of the USSR in Moscow (1976), XIII Exhibition of Works by Members of the Academy of Arts of the USSR at the Academy of Arts of the USSR in Moscow (1977), Sixty Years of Great October at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1977), XIV Exhibition of Works by Members of the Academy of Arts of the USSR at the Academy of Arts of the USSR in Moscow (1979), VI Soviet Russia Republican Exhibition at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall, House of the Artist on Kuznetsky Most and Union of Artists at 46 Gorky (now Tver) Street in Moscow (1980), We Are Building Communism at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1981), The Road to Russian Impressionism at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (2003), In the Russian Tradition: A Historic Collection of 20th Century Russian Paintings at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC (2004–05) and the Museum of Russian Art in Minneapolis (2005), Times of Change: Art in the Soviet Union (1960–85) at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (2006), Exhibition of Soviet Fine Art at the III World Festival of Youth and Students in East Berlin (1951), 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 Works by Soviet Artists in the People’s Republic of China at the Palace Museum in Beijing (1958), Travelling Exhibition of Soviet Fine Art in the Group of Soviet Forces in the German Democratic Republic at the Haus der Offiziere in Wünsdorf (1958), Potsdam (1958) and Dresden (1958–59), Exhibition of Works of Fine Art of Socialist Countries at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1958–59), one-man shows in Moscow (1964, 1982) and posthumous exhibitions at the Central House of the Artist in Moscow (2006), Fyodor Kovalenko Museum of Art in Krasnodar (2010) and the Museum of Russian Art in Minneapolis (2010–11).