Soviet realist painter Akhmed Kitayev 1925-1996

Soviet realist painter Akhmed Kitayev (15 February 1925 – 13 July 1996) – Member of the USSR Union of Artists.
Born in the village of Tatar Yunki, Mordovia, Akhmed Ibadullovich Kitayev grew up in the religious family (his grandfather was a mullah). When the boy was 5 years old, his family was exiled to Siberia (1930). Meanwhile, drawing accompanied the talented boy in grief and joy. Aged 10, Akhmed won the All-Union competition of young artists. And he decides on a brave act: he writes a letter to Stalin, in which he expresses a desire to learn to draw and asks him to help. A few weeks later, to the Siberian settlement where they lived, a military man appeared. He told Akhmed to get ready and put him on a train to Leningrad.
So, in the 1940-1945’s he studied at the Moscow Secondary Art School. And then, at the Moscow State Academic Art Institute of VI Surikov (1945-1950). After graduation from the institute he worked in Moscow. Starting exhibiting since 1950, he took part in All-Union art exhibitions of Soviet Art in Moscow (1950, 1955), and “Soviet Russia” (Moscow, 1960). He mostly specialized in genre paintings, and since the 1960s – in portraits. Besides, in the 1950-1952 he taught at the Moscow Secondary Art School.
Ahmed Ibadullovich died on July 13, 1996 (Moscow).

Soviet realist painter Akhmed Kitayev