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Popkov, Viktor (Yefimovich)
(b Moscow, 9 March 1932; d Moscow, 12 Dec 1974). Russian painter. He studied at the Surikov Art Institute in Moscow (1952–8) under Yevgeny Kibrik. He became one the most influential Russian artists of the 1960s, developing a particular type of metaphorical picture that combines accurate observation of life with allegories and dramatic generalizations. Builders of the Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station (1961; Moscow, Tret’yakov Gal.) is mainly executed in the spirit of the ‘Severe style’ (Rus. Surovyy stil’) that characterized official Russian painting of that time, with its hard Neo-realism (with Symbolist overtones) and precise rhythm. The lovers in the picture The Couple (1966; Moscow, Tret’yakov Gal.), already a shift towards a more parable-like art, represent not simply two young people but personifications of youth. In the series of canvases Mezen’ Widows (1965–8; examples in Moscow, Tret’yakov Gal.), impressions from journeys to the northern Russian villages, with their increasingly deserted and dilapidated huts and the mournful memory of their owners, sons and husbands who have not returned from the War, are transformed into dramatic images with expressive colour contrasts and monumental draughtsmanship. The central work of the large autobiographical series Reflections on Life is Father’s Greatcoat (1972; Moscow, Tret’yakov Gal.), in which the artist is depicted trying on a greatcoat from the time of the Civil War of 1918–20—another picture symbolic of the fates of generations. A number of works by Popkov are dedicated to Russian culture: to the world of medieval painting (Northern Chapel, 1972; St Petersburg, Rus. Mus.) and to Aleksandr Pushkin (Autumn Rains, 1974; Moscow, Tret’yakov Gal.). Popkov’s last large painting, Grandma Anis’ya was a Good Person (1973; Moscow, Tret’yakov Gal.), which depicts a country funeral, represents, in its epic scope, a modern iconographic analogue of Gustave Courbet’s Burial at Ornans (1849–50; Paris, Mus. d’Orsay).
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