Sergei Vasilyevich Gerasimov

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For the actor and film director, see Sergei Appolinarevich Gerasimov

Sergei Vasilyevich Gerasimov (Сергей Васильевич Герасимов; 26 September [O.S. 14 September] 1885 in Mozhaisk, current Moscow Oblast - 20 April 1964 in Moscow was a Soviet Russian painter.

Sergei V. Gerasimov was one of the most important of all Soviet Artists. A student of Konstantin Korovin as a young artist he later went on to join the Makovets group. His early watercolors are considered masterpieces and show a tendency toward modernism that is less pronounced in his later work. In the twenties and thirties he designed posters and painted works sympathetic to the new communist government in a style later known as Socialist Realism. Despite this he was known throughout the Russian art world to be a liberal thinker whose paintings showed the influences of Impressionism and other modern movements. Under Stalin these tendencies placed him in aesthetic opposition to his arch nemesis (and ironic namesake) Alexander Gerasimov. During the Stalin era Sergei Gerasimov was demoted from his position of director of the Russian Artists' Union and replaced by Alexander Gerasimov. During the period of World War II Sergei Gerasimov, along with most of the faculty and student body of the Surikov Art Institute were moved from Moscow to the ancient caravan city of Samarkand. Some of Sergei Gerasmiov's most famous works were painted during this period and show scenes of the oriental old city in Samarkand. Many of these paintings are on display to this day at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. With the death of Stalin and the rise of Khruschev Sergei Gerasmimov was re-instated as the head of the Russian Artists' Union- a position he held until his death in 1964.

Some of Sergei Gerasimov's most famous students that he came in contact with and taught at the Surikov Art Institute include; Fedor Z. Zakharov, Vladimir Stozharov, Aleksei & Sergei Tkachev, Yuri P. Kugach, Aleksei M. Gritsai, Geli Korzhev and many other important Soviet artists.