Vladimir Vetrogonsky’s Graphics

The name of Vladimir Vetrogonsky is inextricably linked with the Vologda region, he left his mark in Belozersk. Vladimir Vetrogonsky was born on November 25, 1923 in Petrograd but spent his childhood in his father's homeland in the village of Pukhtaevo (the Babaevo district now). During the Great Patriotic War, he volunteered as part of an emergency recovery battalion to the front, serving in a rifle regiment. After the war, he studied in Leningrad and achieved certain success in his work. Since the early 1950s, he had been constantly coming to Cherepovets creating a series of paintings dedicated to the Northern Magnitogorsk as well as the Around the Native North-West series while traveling along the Volga-Baltic waterway. Members of each creative expedition trips along the Volga-Baltic waterway which included artists, journalists, literary critics, publishers led by Vladimir Vetrogonsky considered it their duty to visit the ancient Belozersk, and, starting from the 1980s, the Sergey Orlov Museum. Vladimir Vetrogonsky is from the same generation to which Sergey Orlov belonged. Our other countryman Sergey Vikulov wrote: “The fate of my peers is worthy of glory and sadness. Guys born in the early twenties…”. The generation that gave its youth to the war, the generation that built the world. And how touching it is to read the words that Vladimir dedicated to the memory of his friend Sergey Orlov. The artist of the brush – to the artist of the word: “Today we sailed on the Razliv motor vessel. We only reached Vytegra. We recall our meetings with Belozersk and the house museum of Sergey Orlov. Take care of the Russian word. August 28, 1996. Dear keepers of the memory of Sergey Orlov! Together we think, feel, hear the powerful wise poetic word of our friend Sergey Orlov”. These lines are written on a special postcard – an author's postcard with a black and white lithograph depicting a water landscape. On another branded message with a simple title “Russian Bathhouses” and a picture of a village, we read: “The scientific and creative expedition trip members bow to Belozeriye, the birthplace of the Great Citizen of Russia, Sergey Orlov. On the eve of his 80th birthday. Friends of the poet academics Vladimir Vetrogonsky, V. Pimenov. Belozersk August 1, 2001”. The portrait of the poet, which the artist captured at one of the meetings in the 1970s, is also kept in our museum. Attentive, serious, thinking… Just a few works of the famous and awarded with honorary titles of artist Vladimir Vetrogonsky are in our museum. But how much they give us for study, for history, for memory!

Chief Curator Tatyana Bogomolova

1. White Lake postcard. Paper, lithography, felt-tip pen, watercolor, print. St. Petersburg, 1996. 10.9 х 29.4 cm

2. The Merciful Savior postcard. Paper, lithography, paint, print. St. Petersburg, 2001. 10.1 х 15.1 cm

3. Russian Bathhouses postcard. Paper, lithography, paint, print. St. Petersburg, 2000. 10.8 х 15 cm, 2 sheets

4. Old Kadui postcard. Paper, lithography, paint, print. St. Petersburg. 2001. 10.2 х 15 cm

5. Ferapontovo postcard. Paper, manuscript, paint, print. St. Petersburg. 1999. 10 х 15 cm

6. Belozersk Backyards lithograph. Paper, engraving, paint, print. St. Petersburg. 1994. 29.8 х 10.5 cm

7. Bathhouses near the Road postcard. Lithography. Ink, manuscript, paper, paint, lithography. St. Petersburg. 1995. 10.5 х 14.3 cm

8. Sergey Orlov at the Meeting of the Discussion Group. Lithography. Paper, paint, lithograph, print. Leningrad region, Leningrad , 1970. 23.2 х 31.1 cm