Evgeny Mikhnov-Voitenko, untitled

Professor Norton Dodge, President of the Cremona Foundation, considers Mikhnov-Voitenko "to be one of the most important and significant of the Russian nonconformist painters" Born in Kherson near the Black Sea in 1932, Evgeny Mikhnov-Voitenko was an only child. His father died while he was young, so he was very close to his mother, Valentina Alexandrovna, an English teacher. She - along with his recent wife - were very supportive of this art, helping not only with household matters but also with art supplies and other needs. In addition to his immediate family, he had a very supportive group of close friends, primarily people associated with the arts - writers, poets, theatre people, musicians, photographers - who could add variety to a rather reclusive lifestyle intensely devoted to artistic creation. Mikhnov's early education was along conventional Soviet lines, emphasizing the basic arts and sciences. He continued his self education throughout the rest of his life. His early artistic training was in the classical 19th century tradition characteristic of Soviet art schools up to today.