
Oleg Vladimirovich Vasiliev (1931-2013) — artist, illustrator of children’s books.
He was born in Moscow, graduated from the graphic department of the Moscow State Art Institute named after Surikov. Since the 60s of the last century, he has been designing children’s books for more than thirty years together with another talented illustrator — Eric Bulatov.
In 1990, he emigrated to New York, where he died in January 2013.
After the Moscow Art School with unforgettable summer practices in Polenov, there was already a way to retreat — I would be an artist. I selflessly painted sketches. I got up early in the morning. Forest, field, fog from the Oka River, distant quarries, brushstrokes of paint on cardboard. The world was seen from a distance, like in the sketches of Polenov, Korovin, especially Levitan. It was easy to paint, because the paints, the grass, the sky seemed to be phenomena of the same order. I walked around covered in paints and did not know that I was happy.
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I called my state “the unity of the world has fallen apart”. Previously, the world of paints and reality were a single stream of light, color, there was a Levitan world all around. Now everything has changed. Of course, the changes did not happen immediately, but somehow I suddenly realized the catastrophic discrepancy between “professional” skills and my perception of the world. Especially when working on location: I wanted to include in the picture not only what was in front of me, but also impressions from the path to the chosen place, what was in my memory. I described my state this way: “Everything visible and alive before the moment of my touch immediately curled up, turned into strokes of disgusting paint, as soon as I “professionally” looked at the depicted motif. This was repeated over and over again. I walked for many hours, days in search of a motive, and when I began to paint, life invariably died under my gaze. I received that motionless, melancholy picture that I had expected in advance.”
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The moment when a person first felt an urgent need to express something, when his worldview first took shape into some semblance of an image, that is, acquired the quality of a form that could be set out, is one of the most significant in the life of an artist. This is the beginning of all beginnings. Wherever the circumstances of his path subsequently lead a person, in the end he must necessarily turn to face “home”, to his beginning. Without this, he cannot avoid the feeling of some kind of loss, the consciousness of inferiority will haunt him. At any cost, the figure of the path must be perfect, closed in a circle, must become complete in itself.
Amazon | Oleg Vassiliev
Books

Sleeping Beauty
Original title: Spyashchaya krasavitsa The main thing is the idea of a fairy tale in general and the child’s memory of what a real fairy-tale prince should be like, what a real fairy-tale princess should be like. I am convinced that children’s illustrations should not be stylized to match the […]