One-picture show takes place at Gomel Palace and Park Estate

One-picture show takes place at Gomel Palace and Park Estate

On August 8th, 2016, at eight seconds past 8.08am, Vladimir Prokoptsov’s My Polesie picture went on show inside the tower of Gomel’s Palace, which can hold just eight people. The artwork was displayed for eight hours, eight minutes and eight seconds and was then donated to Gomel’s Palace and Park Estate.


From time to time, everyone, especially artists, feels like stopping to reflect on what has been achieved, to better move forward. This is the purpose of artistic showcases, which can answer numerous questions.

The interactive art event by Mr. Prokoptsov is part of many marking the Year of Culture in Belarus. The Director of the National Art Museum was born on August 8th, 1953, in the village of Zhgunskaya Buda, in the Dobrush District of the Gomel Region. After finishing eight years of schooling in his home village, he continued his studies at a general school in Dobrush. He then entered the Art and Graphics Department of the S. M. Kirov Vitebsk Pedagogical Institute (studying there from 1970 to 1975), under such famous artists of Vitebsk’s art school as I. Stolyarov, D. Generalnitsky, F. Gumen, O. Orlov, and A. Nekrasov. Vladimir became a postgraduate with the Institute for Art History, Ethnography and Folklore of the BSSR Academy of Sciences, and holds a PhD in art history. He is also an Honoured Artist of Belarus and an honorary member of the Russian Art Academy.

Wherever the artist has lived and worked, he has dreamed of returning to his dear home, to his homeland of Polesie, in Dobrush: the land that influenced his life and work. His paintings In Father’s Garden, Banya, The Street of My Childhood, Father’s Home, and Old Nests are well known in contemporary Belarusian art and occupy a special niche in the painter’s artistic biography. My Polesie continues the artist’s homeland series, in realistic-style, created this year.

Mr. Prokoptsov views painting as a means of conveying the tension of his feelings and thoughts. His pictures fuse lyrical and pragmatic principles, creating vivid metaphors and making them aesthetically significant. His inner analyst builds a composition and fills it with meaning, while his inner lyricist and romanticist adds emotional warmth, making the image multi-faceted. These two approaches work well together, being balanced and harmoniously matched.

Many of the author’s romantic, sentimental paintings depict nostalgic themes, or a sense of regret. However, his compositions lack pathos, rather accenting lyricism and cordiality. My Polesie depicts a generalised image of the Homeland, filled with touching nostalgia for this land where his dear parents lived, and the village in which the artist was born and spent his childhood.

Chronology is of no importance to Vladimir Prokoptsov, although past decades have seen great shifts in public consciousness; spiritual life and culture have undergone certain changes. His poetic soul, amidst the fuss of change, has been preserved and affirmed. His personal beliefs have always been important to him, as he prefers to keep a distance between the subjective world of art and reality. Meanwhile, we, viewers, see the artist’s personality through his artworks, more effectively than verbal interpretation. We see the genuine face of the creator, at his most frank and honest. His imagery world, based on reality, shows the world where his soul lives: a world filled with genuine feelings, where the artist appears in his real guise. He’ll be a romantic forever, despite his high-ranking position at work and in society, which requires certain pragmatism.

Vladimir Prokoptsov plays a unique melody, leaving his trace in time, turning page after page in the fascinating book entitled ‘creativity’. One of Vladimir Prokoptsov’s first pictures was Present Indefinite. My Polesie, displayed for just eight hours, eight minutes and eight seconds could be named Present Infinity.