About the artist:

Tatyana Konovalova Kovrigina was born in 1915 in the town of Nerchensky, (near lake Baikal in Siberia). She began her studies of Art of Soviet Russia and Russian Impressionism under the tutelage of C. A. Matveen, in 1932, at the Art Techinical Institute. In 1936 she was accepted into the prestigious Surikov Institute, based on her high level of achievement in the Art techinical Institute. At the Surikov Tatyana Konovalova Kovrigina came under the influence of Petr Dmitrievich Pokarzhevski, one of the leading Moscow painters working in the area of revolution, battle, political leaders and themes of the Russian peasant. Times became turbulent as the Great Patriotic War approached, before Moscow could be shut off by the Fascists the Surikov faculty and students were evacuated to Perm in the Ural Mountains. Here, the students formed a forceful creative collective. While in Perm Tatyana Kovrigina married V. A. Konovalov. In 1943 she returned to his hometown near the town of Vladimir while he was serving at the front. With a young son to raise and the land ravaged and barren she nonetheless finished her diploma works and graduated with honors. These works caught the attention of the great Moscow artist, P. Konchalovsky, who was moved by her portrayal of the Fascists being driven from Moscow. At this time Tatiana Konovalova Kovrigina was also commissioned to produce posters for the war effort. During her years of hardship in the small village where she waited out the war she developed a deep spiritural feeling for the people who struggled there. She began to develop her own distinctive sytle that shows the strength of her character. Many of her works depict this hardship, always portrayed with strength and dignity. Tatyana Konovalova Kovrigina creates with a vitality that shows her strong character but is never harsh or cold. There is great warmth and saturation in her colors. Tatyana Konovalova Kovrigina belives that to be a true artist one must create with a sense of the order of one's own roots. She believes that the artist cannot take a passive role in history. History itself is culture. Here is an artist who believes that images of all people are beautiful if they are honest. During the 1950's Tatyana Konovalova Kovrigina and her husband, (monumentalist, V. A. Konovalova), were commissioned by the Russian Association of Public Transport to help design and finish frescoes and mosaics for the Moscow subway system. For this work her husband was named a People's Artist of the USSR and Tatyana was named Honored Artist. Since the 1950's she has participated in all union and republican Russian and her satellite republics Exhibitions. In 2000 the Moscow Union of Artists gave her a retrospective exhibition. Tatyana Konovalova Kovrigina maintains her studio in Moscow where she continues to live and paint. Tatyana died 2008 at her home in Moscow.