National Art Museum of the Rubublic of Belarus - Oleg Sursky. Portrait of Generation. Dedicated to the eightieth birthday anniversary

Oleg Sursky. Portrait of Generation. Dedicated to the eightieth birthday anniversary

Oleg Sursky is a well-known Belarusian journalist, art critic, and artist (decorative and applied arts and design). His credo matured in the period of the Khrushchyov Thaw, when many stereotypes and ideological taboos were reconsidered. Oleg Sursky was always among those men of culture, who uphold everything new and “alive” in struggle against false ideals of the past. Outstanding and precise mind, wide education, fortunate combination of an art critic and an artist in one person, usual friendliness, and uncommon personal charm made him a bright figure in the Belarusian culture.
Being a typical representative of brilliant and courageous “generation of the sixties”, he himself in a certain sense is a portrait of this generation. In his books and articles Oleg Sursky created portraits of artists who shared his views. That’s why works of Gavrila Vashchenko, Abram Krol, Konstantin Tsvirko, Vasily Sumarev, Mai Dantsig etc. from the museum collection are included into the exhibition.

Oleg Sursky was born on April 16, 1928 in Tbilisi. After finishing school he studied at the Tbilisi Flight School, then since 1947 till 1952 – at the Belarusian State University (Journalism Department). He worked as a journalist for the newspapers “Znamya Yunosti”, “Sovetskaya Belorussiya”, “Litaratura i Mastatstva”, as an artist for the Leningrad and Minsk art workshops complexes in the system of the USSR Art Fund, as a technician and architect at the Institute “Belgosproekt”.
In 1968 Oleg Sursky completed the postgraduate study at the Belarusian Polytechnic Institute (Philosophy Department), worked out and lectured course “Introduction into technical aesthetics for engineers”, lectured aesthetics and theory of industrial design at the Belarusian Polytechnic Institute and at the Belarusian Theatre and Art Institute, worked as a senior researcher at the Belarusian branch of the All-Union Scientific and Research Institute of Technical Aesthetics. His main sphere of work involves art history and criticism, creative work in the field of decorative and applied arts and design.
Oleg Sursky is a member of several creative unions: Journalists’ Union (since 1960), Artists’ Union (since 1964), and Designers’ Union (since 1998). He is also a member of International Association of Art Critics (AICA) since 1986 and International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) Congress since 1976.
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Oleg Sursky worked at the trade Art Councils of the Ministry of Building Materials, the Ministry of Local Industry, and the Ministry of Culture in the system of the USSR Art Fund. He participated in seminars in Palanga, on Senezh, seminars for monumental propaganda in Central Asia, in work of AICA Congress in Tbilisi in 1989.
He worked in Norway as an art expert for the project of the monument to the End of the Cold War under the auspices of “Gorbachyov-Foundation”. He participated in the design seminar in Poland.
From 1976 to 1985 Oleg Sursky was the reviewer of degree works at the Industrial Design Department, Decorative and Applied Arts Department, and Painting Department of the Belarusian Theatre and Art Institute.
Within the framework of public activities Oleg Sursky worked at the at the Critique Committee of the USSR Artists’ Union, was elected to the executive committee of the BSSR Artists’ Union, and for many years was the chairman of Critique Section of the BSSR Artists’ Union.
His main articles were published in the magazines “Tvorchestvo”, “Iskusstvo”, “Dekorativnoye Iskusstvo of the USSR”, “Druzhba Narodov”, “Nyoman”, “Polymya”, in the newspapers “Sovetskaya Kultura”, “Litaratura i Mastatstva”, “Zvyazda”, “Sovetskaya Belorussiya”, “Znamya Yunosti”, “Chyrvonaya Zmena” etc.