Master of Portraits

Minsk’s House of Officers has hosted a personal display of paintings of the honored art worker of Belarus Nikolai Opiok
Besides thousands of ordinary viewers attending the display were the protagonists of Nikolai Opiok’s oeuvres — people of name, the close ones and those who love his historical portraits, landscapes, still lifes. Nikolai Opiok is also known as one of the best scene designers of the country.

Theater and cinema directors, playwrights, actors, poets and singers… Those who are still with us and those who have left… Vladimir Mulyavin, composer Yevgeny Glebov, great dramatic actress Stephania Stanyuta… The faces of the past that stay with us in the present. They stay with us now and will live with us in the future owing to the mastery of Nikolai Opiok. They will always remain at the height of powers and in the bloom of their careers.

Many well-known faces could be seen not only on portraits, but also “live”.
Playwright Alexei Dudarev, art director of the Yanka Kupala National Academic Drama Theater Valery Rayevsky, former director of the theater, actor (and also politician) Gennady Davydko. They seem to be looking on their portraits and they certainly like what they see. We are not the only visitors of the display that admire Opiok’s works. I guess all people simply love him for his immense love for the men of art. His paintings emit warmth and admiration at the work of all his “brothers-in-arms”. Opiok knows all of them, he has been working for theaters for years. He has created more than 30 unique stage designs for theaters in Grodno, Vitebsk and Minsk.

His landscapes are beaming with positive energy, they convey pure happiness and the beauty of the world.

The pearl of this collection is the portrait of Opiok’s daughter Natalya, a prize-winning sculptor recognized in Belarus and abroad. She has created numerous sculptured reliefs and ensembles and continues the famous artistic tradition of her family. Her portrait is so romantic and subtle that it seems fatherly love for his first and most loyal student is tangible.

The Opioks are a very artistic family: his spouse Tamara Opiok-Nikolayeva is an honored actress of Belarus, and the husband of Opiok’s daughter is a well-known artist Alexei Parfyonov.

— It is so easy to live and work with your family. I’m so grateful for their understanding, Nikolay says when I ask him whether he has enough time for his family.

Galia Fatykhova, Valentina Cherkashina
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