Mikhail N. Grebyekov

Mikhail N. Grebyekov
1922-1995

Mikhail Nikolaevich Grebyekov was born in 1922. From a very early age he attended art school beginning with the Leningrad Children's Art School from 1933 to 1936. This was a boarding school for gifted children. This artists' work was shown for the first time in 1934 in an international exhibit of children's art in Leningrad. Some of his drawings were also published in a book called Children's Art. An entire chapter of this book was dedicated to his work. From 1939 to 1941 he studied art at a secondary school. This school was directed by the Soviet Ministry of Culture in partnership with the Surikov Institute.

Grebyekov's studies were interrupted in 1942 when he volunteered in the army. He was severely wounded and as a result had a portion of his leg amputated. In 1944 he resumed his studies at the Surikov Institute and attended the school off and on until 1954. From the mid-1950's through the end of the 1960's, Mikhail worked in the Metrostroi as an artist/designer of batik. During this period he also completed side projects for several magazines and newspapers. In 1969 he came under the direction of P.D. Baranovskii and began to study architectural monuments, their restoration and reconstruction.

The remainder of Mikhail Grebyekov's life was spent working with architecture. He worked for ten years with other architects to restore the entire architectural complex of Krutitskii. He also worked with a group that inspected and prevented the demolition of over 450 structures in the heart of Moscow. He taught, beginning in 1975, at the St. Tikhonovskii Bogoslovskii Institute where he impressed upon his students not to tolerate phoniness or imitation in drawing and painting, as in life. He also taught the students the recognition of the true representation of God's creation and the selfless righteousness of the Truth. His favorite subjects were views that contained architectural interest. He was known as a master of form and space. Grebyekov continued to live and work by these principles until is death in 1995.