June 9: Vladimir Yukin's birthday – the "Soviet Matisse and Van Gogh" from Mstera
Vladimir Yukin was born on June 9, 1920, in the Vladimir region. A landscape artist and one of the founders of the Vladimir School of Painting, he served at the front and in captivity. After the war, he developed his own visual language, the vibrancy and power of which earned critics comparisons to Matisse and Van Gogh.
Mstera: Icon Painters, Restorers, and the First Paints
Yukin was born in the village of Mstera, historically renowned for its icon painters and restorers. His father was a paramedic, but his ancestors included painters.
"Our relative, the famous artist Fyodor Modorov, often visited our family. Sometimes I posed for him. The multitude of paints in the sketchbook, the palette, the brushes—all of it made a strong impression on me. I began to dream of art," Yukin recalled.
He entered the creative world through his uncle, a restorer in Igor Grabar's workshop. At the age of 20, he graduated from the Ivanovo Art School, where he studied under Mikhail Pyrin, a student of Valentin Serov.
War, captivity and return
At the age of 21, with the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, Yukin was called up to the front. He spent over three years in captivity. After his liberation in the spring of 1945, he fought in battles in Poland. He was awarded the medals "For the Victory over Germany" and "For the Liberation of Prague," as well as the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd Class.
After the war, he remained in the army. He worked as an artist at the Lviv Officers' Club and studied at the local Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts.
"When you come back from the front, it's as if you're no longer you, and the nature around you isn't the same either. It took a long time to be alone with nature and, as it were, to merge with the land where you were born. Gradually, the wonder that had always surrounded us returned," the artist said.
The Birth of Style
To express the joy of returning to his native land, Yukin studied the landscapes of Isaac Levitan and Arkhip Kuindzhi and was inspired by the works of the masters of the Jack of Diamonds association.
He created a pictorial language that reflected the vibrant colors of his native land in all its beauty and power. This was a sharp contrast to the characteristic gray landscapes of the time. Yukin rarely mixed paints, often working with pure tones—achieving this through texture, experimenting with primers, and adding sawdust to his palette.
Confession
In 1948, 28-year-old Yukin dropped out of school due to his mother's illness and returned to his homeland in the Vladimir region. He worked as a teacher at the Mstera School of Art and Design and began exhibiting his paintings at regional exhibitions.
By the age of 30, his paintings were already being exhibited in Moscow at a republican art exhibition. One of them, "Spring," received a ministerial award.
At 40, he became famous at the "Soviet Russia" exhibition. At that time, during the "Thaw," a craze for folk art began in the USSR—and it was Vladimir artists, including Yukin, who pioneered this approach in painting. Their paintings seemed to emanate streams of color energy, distinguished by their vibrant colors and bold experiments. Critics dubbed the artists "Vladimir Impressionists."
Yukin's mastery of the brush has been compared to Matisse, Van Gogh, and the world's greatest painters. Among his most famous paintings are "Hay Carriers," "Winter," "Autumn," "Hoarfrost," "Beginning of Spring," "March," "Autumn Melody," "Snow and Flowers," and "March Evening."
"Even a rude person can be frank, and a kind person can be frank. I think the most important thing in art is revelation," Yukin said.
Late bloomer
Until his final days, the artist lived in Vladimir. He headed the city's art studio and is considered one of the founders of the Vladimir School of Landscape Painting.
The 90s marked his peak creative flowering. Despite his advanced age, he continued to paint and exhibit actively, remaining true to his signature style: pure and vibrant colors, textured brushstrokes, and profound decorativeness. His works were almost immediately snapped up by Russian and international collectors.
"One artist said, 'I don't see anything wrong with my work.' Perhaps one should be wary of such words," Yukin noted.
In 1995, he received the title of People's Artist of the Russian Federation. He died in 2000 in Vladimir, at the age of 80.
"You can compare artists to gold prospectors. Gold prospectors go, searching... And some of them die along the way, but then suddenly someone finds a grain of gold, a vein. And eventually, they find an ingot. Someone is lucky!"
