Oleg Vassiliev is a Russian painter educated at the V.I. Surikov State Art Institute. Born in 1931, Vassiliev graduated at an age of 27. From the 1950s through the 1980s, he collaborated with Erik Bulatov as a celebrated illustrator of children’s books. Together they developed their very own style which combined realist elements with graphic elements, e.g. texts.
Since Oleg Vassiliev could support himself by illustrating children’s books, it became possible for him to take part in the Soviet Nonconformist Art movement. The art was labelled “dissident art” by the government.
After the death of Stalin in 1953, the Khrushchev era commenced and the Soviet Union became more open for Western cultural elements. Oleg Vassiliev was one of several notable Russian artists that benefited from this change and it was during this period that he developed what is considered to be his mature style; a mixture of traditional 19th century Russian realism and 20th century Russian avant-garde.
Oleg Vassiliev paintings typically incorporate elements from his life, such as family, friends, forests and houses. He is experiments with a lot with light and shade; where light is used as a symbol of consciousness and dark as a symbol of the subconscious.
