Painter, graphic
artist, engraver, book designer, art theoretician, educator.
He was born into a
family of a lawyer. He got his first lessons of drawing at Konstantin Yuon’s
private studio (1915). In 1918, he was admitted to the 2nd State Free Studios (former
School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture), where he studied at Iliya
Mashkov’s studio, and a year later he went to Alexander Shevchenko. In 1921, he entered the Graphic Department of
the Higher Art and Technical Studios (VHUTEMAS) and studied at the Xylography
Section under Vladimir Favorsky.
From 1923, he
worked as an illustrator for newspapers, magazines, and publishing houses (Izvestiya
TsIK, Academia, Molodaya Gvardiya, etc.). In 1924, he became assistant to Vladimir
Favorsky who taught the course of Graphic Disciplines. In the same year, he became
a member and founder of the Society of Easel Painters and participated in all
its exhibitions. In 1927, he graduated with honours from the Graphic Department
of the Higher Art and Technical Institute (VHUTEIN) and after graduation worked
as a theatre designer – he designed Solomennaya shliapka [“The Italian Straw
Hat”] at the V.I. Nemirovich-Dancheko Theatre and Strast mistera Marapitta
[“The Passion of Mr. Marapitt”] at the 4th Studio of the Moscow Art Academic
Theatre (jointly with Yuri Pimenov). He taught painting, drawing, xylography and
book composition at the Publishing Department of the Moscow Institute of
Graphic Arts (1930-1934, 1948-1979), had a Chair of Drawing and Painting there (1950-1974).
He designed and illustrated a lot of books, including Miatezh [“Riot”] by
Dmitry Furmanov (1932), a collection of stories Dikiye Liudi [“Wild People”] by
Vsevolod Ivanov (1934), Pamphlets by Jean-Paul Marat (1934), The Adventure of
Peregrine Pickle by Tobias Smollett (1934-1935), Tragedies by Sophocles (1936).
In 1937, he was awarded Grand-Prix and a gold medal at the International
Exhibition in Paris, and diplomas at the exhibitions in Milan and Warsaw. In
1956, he was awarded a I degree diploma at the All-Union Books, Prints and
Posters Exhibition for designing and illustrating Francesco Petrarca’s selected
lyric poems Izbrannaya Lirika and a II degree diploma for designing and
illustrating Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust. In 1957, the Polish-Soviet
Friendship Society awarded Goncharov a medal for illustrations to Adam Mickiewicz’
poem Pan Tadeuszh. In 1971, Goncharov received the Gutenberg Award from the City
Council of Leipzig for outstanding achievements in the development of Soviet
book culture and international publishing business, there he also received a
gold medal for illustrations to Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s works. Goncharov was a
master of different techniques, made a huge contribution to the development of
Soviet art and trained a multitude of Soviet book designers.
