Studied at the Repin Institute of Arts (1937–1946) in the Faculty of Architecture and the Faculty of Painting under I. E. Grabar, V. M. Oreshnikov, A. I. Savinov and V. A. Obolensky. Exhibited from 1946. Member of the Leningrad Union of Soviet Artists (1946). Taught at the Repin Institute of Arts (1947–2012), head of the Monumental Painting Studio (1953–2012), Professor (1957), head of the Creative Workshop of the USSR Academy of Arts – Russian Academy of Arts (1960–2012); vice-president of the Russian Academy of Arts (1997–2012). Honoured Artist of the RSFSR (1963), People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1968), People’s Artist of the USSR (1976), Hero of Socialist Labour (1990); Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1962), Academician of the USSR Academy of Arts (1966). Awarded the Stalin Prize, 3rd class (1951), the State Prize of the USSR (1977), the State Prize of the RSFSR (1979), the Lenin Prize (1984). Main collections: Moscow Museum of Modern Art, ROSIZO, State Tretyakov Gallery (all Moscow), State Russian Museum (St Petersburg), State art museums in Arkhangelsk, Bryansk, Kazan, Kirov, Volgograd, Voronezh, Yekaterinburg and others.

© Museum of 20th–21st Century Art of St Petersburg, 2022