Gurin, Vasili

1939 - 

Vasili Ivanovich Gurin was born March 18,1939 in the Crimean village of Pervomaiskoe. His family was of very modest means but the young artist’s talents were sufficient to earn him admission to the Simferopol Art College in 1954. Following his graduation in 1959, Gurin won acceptance into the prestigious Kiev Art Institute. While at the Institute, he studied under noted professors Nikilai Pysanski, Karp Trokhimenko and Nikolai Storozhenko, graduating in 1965. For the next two years he studied in workshops of the Academy of Arts under the direction of the famed S.A. Grigoriev.

In 1968, Gurin became a member of the Artists’ Union of the Ukraine and, in 1969, he joined the faculty of his alma mater, the Kiev Art Institute. Since 1989, Gurin has been head of the faculty of painting and composition. Also, since 1993, he has been head of teaching creative easel painting. In 1979, he won the title of "Honored Artist of Ukraine" and in 1992 he was given the highest honor a Ukrainian artist can receive when he was entitled, "Peoples’ Artist of Ukraine".

Vasili Gurin has participated in virtually all major art exhibitions in the former Soviet Union and Ukraine since 1965. His works may be found in the permanent collections of every major Ukrainian art museum as well as in prominent private collections in Russia, Ukraine, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. Gurin is a member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Ukraine, a position bestowed on artists of immense importance to their native country. He is listed in Matthew Bown’s, A Dictionary of Twentieth Century Russian and Soviet Painters, 1900-1980’s.