Bio

Vladimir Minasyan was born in 1922, in Yerevan, Armenia. In 1938, he entered the Art College named after P. Terlemezyan. The World War II interrupted his studies and in January 1942 he went to war. In the ranks of the famous 89th Taman Division he took part in the battles of the Caucasus, Stalingrad, Kerch, Warsaw, Prague and Berlin liberation. During the war many military orders and medals were awarded to him. After war’s end Vladimir Minasyan returned to Armenia and in 1946 continued interrupted studies in the college. After graduation from the college in 1947, he entered the Yerevan State Institute of Theater and Fine Arts, from which he was graduated in 1953. In 1956-1985 he taught painting at the Department of Drawing and Painting of the Yerevan Polytechnic Institute.

Art

In the beginning of painting activity almost all the post-war Soviet Art development moods reflected in the artist's paintings.

After World War II the economy of the country, which won the Great Patriotic War, was rapidly developing. On the Soviet art scene the Socialist Realism was dominating. The choice of the artist’s work “Going for a walk” for the USSR exhibition of diploma works in 1953 and highest appreciation of the painting by the Academy of Arts of the Soviet Union gave a huge impact on the artist’s artworks for following years. Paintings with themes of war, social upbringing of children and showing happy Soviet working people lives engaged in peaceful work, were dominating in the works of that period. However, beautiful landscapes completely free of politics, always accompanied artist through his life.

From the end of 1950s the Socialist Realism went into “severe style” phase, which shows the country's political mood toward the gradual democratization in the Soviet society and art. In pictorial art the main genre of the new stage became portraits sincerely showing the real life of Soviet people. Portraits of workers truly revealing their tired faces became dominant in the artist's works. This period also includes beautiful industrial landscapes and portraits made at Alaverdi Copper-molybdenum factory.

After 1964-1965, the politics completely disappeared from the artist's paintings. Along with art teaching in university, he continued to paint actually in all genres searching new ways for self-expression. In later years he mainly used palette knife instead of brush getting richly variegated paint surfaces.

Vladimir Minasyan participated in many Republican and Union exhibitions at Soviet times. The personal exhibition of the artist's works was organized after his death, in Yerevan, in 1995.

Vladimir Minasyan was the Member of the Artists' Union of the Armenian SSR since 1954 and the Member of the Artists' Union of the USSR since 1956.