Boris Amstislavski

Boris Amstislavski (born in 1948, in Moscow, Russia) is a Russian-born artist who now lives in United States. Boris came to Minnesota in February of 1991 where he is mainly known for his painting with oil on canvas. He received Classical art training in Russia from an early age and achieved a notable career producing graphic design for various industries prior to coming to the United States. His paintings are displayed in London, Zurich, New York, Helsinki, Tokyo, and many cities of Russia.

Education
Boris started drawing in early childhood and at the age of 11, he attended the Academy of Arts. He later advanced to the art college also at the Academy of Arts where he majored in art and design.

Working Life
Following his graduation, Boris was commissioned to perform all artistic work on several plays with well known theatre directors. The commissions included theatre posters which drew the attention of the art director of the largest graphic design firm in Moscow who subsequently offered Boris a position with their firm to work in graphic design.

Over the years Boris Amstislavski became one of the leading graphic designers in the country. He completed commissions for the largest Soviet enterprises in the areas of radio, television, medicine, education, and space exploration. He designed and developed the corporate image for the Central Space Technology Administration (Glavkosmos USSR), which is the Soviet's equivalent of NASA. This work included the graphic design for many Soviet rockets. His work on the space theme brought him world wide exposure and several international graphic design commissions. For the following several years, he had his own graphic design studio. In addition, Boris was Art Director of the Graphic Design Association in Moscow.

His painting became known both in the country and abroad. His paintings are in museums, private collections and corporate collections in London, Zurich, New York, Helsinki, Tokyo, and many cities of Russia.

Style
Amstislavski's oil painting style could be classified as post-realism. His early work as a graphic design artist involved various mediums though was active developing his own style of painting during this period. His work can contain people set in large scenes that express some of the hope (See Candles of Light) and despair (See Climbing the Crumbling) he's observed in his home land. Without making specific political or social commentary, he captures actions of people in dealing with the difficult societal circumstances of life.

An example depicting frustrated efforts is seen in his painting entitled The Rope that shows just the forearms of one effortlessly holding one end of a rope while the other end in the distance has several men toiling to pull the rope in an uncoordinated effort as they ease perilessly toward a cliff behind them. His Climbing the Crumbling shows people eagerly ascending a massive eagle made of stone while all seeming unaware the Russian icon of strength has deep fissures and is structurally decaying.

Works
His complete list of his works are not included here, but some are noted.

Exhibitions

 * ''Soviet Russia (Moscow, 1977, 1979, 1980)
 * Artists for the People (Moscow, 1981)
 * Moscow Artists (Lenigrad, 1987)
 * International Exhibition of Graphic Design (Belgrad,1990)
 * Art Moderne Gallery (Moscow, 1990)
 * ''Artists and Music" (Vasa, 1990)
 * Douglas Baker Gallery (Minneapolis, 1991)
 * Dolly Fiterman Fine Aits (Minneapolis, 1992)
 * Howard Conn Fine Arts Center (Minneapolis, 1993)

Documentaries
In October 1992, UHB television company from Supporo, Japan shot a documentary about Boris which was later shown on the nationally broadcast Fuji channel. In April 1993, Paragon Cable featured Boris and his work on the half hour program "Accent on Art" hosted by Chris Matteson.

Collections
A collection Boris created using mixed medium (pencil and pastels) in 1993 was a series of 12 drawings of fish, butterflies, or birds. The bright colors, small format and simple thematic material was a departure from his familiar contemplative works.


 * 1) Moody Fish
 * 2) Fish in the Sand
 * 3) Flying Bird
 * 4) Butterfly in Flowers
 * 5) Sweet Bird
 * 6) Paradice Birds
 * 7) Summer Butterfly
 * 8) Fish and Weeds
 * 9) A School of Fish
 * 10) Fish in Blue
 * 11) Night Butterfly
 * 12) Fish in Violet

Oil Paintings
Oil painting list is currently incomplete.