The artist Anatoly Zaslavsky. Biography

St. Petersburg artist Anatoly Zaslavsky, a living classic of the St. Petersburg school of painting and founder of the Hopeless Painters association, died at the age of 87 after a long illness. His works are kept in the Russian Museum, the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg and other major collections. About his creative path and legacy — in the material of Izvestia.

Early years and education

Anatoly Zaslavsky was born on November 2, 1939 in Kiev. During the war, he was evacuated to Turkmenistan, after the end of the war, the family returned to Kiev, where the future artist graduated from secondary art school. In 1957, he entered the Taras Shevchenko Kyiv State Institute of Education, and was later transferred to the painting faculty, from where he was expelled for his poor knowledge of the Ukrainian language.

This prompted him to move to Leningrad, where he entered the Mukhina Higher School of Art and Industry in the department of Monumental Painting, from which he graduated in 1965. In 1977 he joined the Union of Artists of Russia.

The creative path

At the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, Zaslavsky's painting differed from dry academicism in its cheerfulness, looseness and love of color. His style was also far from unofficial art — he adhered to the "golden mean", which turned out to be the most natural way out of the confrontation between the two poles of Soviet art. Similar views were shared by artists Zaven Arshakuni and German Egoshin, who influenced Zaslavsky's style.

In 2002, Zaslavsky organized the Hopeless Painters creative association. It included Boris Borsch, I. Vasilyeva, A. Molev, Y. Sopina, V. Yashke, G. Mudrenov, A. Rumyantsev and others. The name originated as an ironic response to an era when painting was considered irrelevant, and meant "hopeless love" for this type of art. The members of the association were united by the perception of color not as a surface coloring, but as a deep emotional experience. The master himself was considered an unsurpassed master of color, for whom painting remained a means of self-education and knowledge of the world.

Zaslavsky was also the author of monumental and decorative works installed in St. Petersburg, Gatchina, Strelna, Kaliningrad, Kostroma, Nerekhta and other cities.

Exhibitions and recognition

Zaslavsky participated in more than 200 exhibitions in Russia and abroad, of which more than 30 were solo exhibitions. His works have been exhibited in the USA, Israel, Germany, Denmark and other countries. In 1991, the Marble Palace of Leningrad hosted a personal exhibition of the artist. In March 2020, the St. Petersburg Museum of Art of the XX-XXI centuries opened the exhibition "Workshop in Faces" to mark the 80th anniversary of the artist. The Self-Portrait exhibition was held in January 2026.

In 2008, he was awarded the Silver Medal of the Academy of Arts of the Russian Federation. Zaslavsky's works are in the collections of the State Russian Museum, the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, the All-Russian Pushkin Museum, the Museum of Theater and Musical Art, the Erarta Museum of Modern Art, as well as in museums in Perm, Petrozavodsk, Khabarovsk, Astrakhan, Kazan, Murmansk and private collections around the world.

Personal life and death

Anatoly Zaslavsky has two daughters, Polina and Lisa Maria. The artist died on July 15, 2026 in St. Petersburg after a long illness at the age of 87. His death was announced by the St. Petersburg Union of Artists, noting that his passing was an irreparable loss for the entire artistic community of the Northern capital. Art critic Dmitry Pilikin noted that Leningrad-Petersburg art can be described in different ways, but it is almost impossible to separate it from the city itself, just as it is impossible to separate the urban image and its text from Zaslavsky.