Andrey Vystropov Art SchoolVolgograd

Andrey Vystropov

(born December 26, 1961, Volgograd) — Soviet and Russian artist, painter and teacher, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts (2022).

Andrey Vystropov was born in Volgograd. His father was an amateur artist, his mother was good at embroidery, but Andrey became interested in painting only at the age of 15. In 1979, after finishing secondary school, he entered the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute, Faculty of Art and Graphics. In 1982, having completed three years there, he was admitted as an exception, without examinations, to the second year of the Leningrad Academy of Arts (studio of E. E. Moiseenko), graduating with honors in 1987. His work of that period was influenced by Kandinsky, Cézanne and the old Italian masters. His graduation painting «Widows» took part in the All-Union competition for the best diploma work and won a silver medal (no gold medal was awarded that year). Later the painting was exhibited at the New York Academy of Art among the best student works of the USSR Academy of Arts. In 1989, at the age of 28, Vystropov was accepted into the Union of Artists of the USSR.

In the early 1990s Vystropov left Russia for six years. Together with his elder brother he founded the art agency «Stalker» in Prague. Abroad he created more than a thousand paintings and held over a hundred solo exhibitions. During this time he also worked on large projects: the stained-glass windows of the church in Fürstenhagen near Berlin, and a cycle of four large-scale canvases for the premiere of Lloyd Webber's musical «Sunset Boulevard», timed to the opening of the Rhein-Main-Theater in Niedernhausen.