On August 27 it’s the 90th anniversary of the birth of Sergey Vakar (1928, Orsha – 1998) , sculptor, honored art worker of Belarus.
To breathe life into clay, wood, stone or metal and spiritualize them with the flame of feeling is the main task of the sculptor. And it is far from simple, because it requires a lot of time, energy, skill, life experience and daily work. The life path of the famous sculptor, honored art worker of Belarus, Sergey Vakar, was marked with self-denying work.
The son of a hereditary railway worker, he began himself as worker in locomotive depot, graduated from the school of working young people, learned to be machinist. His natural artistic talent required more, and in 1948, Sergey Vakar entered the sculptural department of the Minsk Art College. In 1957 the first great success came to him: his thesis "Rail War" was purchased by the State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War. Sergey Vakar decided to continue his artistic education and in 1960 entered the sculpture department of the Belarusian Art Theater Institute.
The Belarusian sculpture of the 1960s and 1970s was characterized by the widespread use of the portrait, which became the main genre for Sergey Vakar. The artist is the author of a whole gallery of sculptural portraits of historical figures, statesmen, war heroes, writers, workers and athletes. The plastic accuracy of his works is combined with the depth and clarity of the images, and the distinctive feature was the desire for the greatest accuracy in conveying the content of a work through outwardly simple, monumental forms. The military theme, the reflection of the courage and heroism of the Belarusian people, these are the main direction of the artist's work.
One of the best works of Sergey Vakar is the portrait of Hero of the Soviet Union of the underground Nikolay Kedyshko (1967). With the course of time a whole gallery of sculptural portraits of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War appeared in the workshop of Sergey Vakar: P. Golovacheva (1961), S. Shutova (1967), M. Shmyreva (1969, 1974), K. Orlovsky (1972), etc. Significant monumental works were the monuments of V. Drozd (1964) in his homeland in Buda-Koshelev and F. Dzerzhinsky (1977) in the Dzerzhinovo manor in the Stolbtsy district.
Sergey Vakar is a wonderful master of the portrait genre, the author of the portraits gallery of the Belarusian culture figures F. Skorina (1964), R. Borodulin (1965), V. Korotkevich (1968), P. Panchenko (1969), Y. Kolas (1972, 1973) , A. Kashkurevich (1975), Y. Bryl (1976), G. Buravkin (1978), N. Gusovsky (1980). A special place in the artist's creative path takes the creation of a monument dedicated to Maxim Bogdanovich, whose works inspired Sergey Vakar since his youth. For fifteen years the artist, together with the architects Y. Kazakov and L. Moskalevich, have been working on his best sculptural portrait. On December 9, 1981, on the 90th birthday of the poet, the grand opening of the monument took place.
Another genre of sculpture, in which Sergey Vakar worked successfully, was the creation of memorial plaques. The first work was a bas-relief portrait of academician N. Nikolsky (1970). Among the most interesting works in this genre there is the memorial plaque dedicated to the outstanding musician, I. Zhinovich (1975), USSR People's Artist.
The images created by the artist are attracted by deep and precise characteristics, simple and understandable solutions. The main thing in his sculptures is inner truth, something beautiful, which is often hidden in the depths of each person. Today the monumental works by Sergey Vakar decorate the streets of Minsk, Polotsk, Buda-Koshelev, his easel works are in the collections of the largest museums in Belarus.
The information about S. Vakar can be found in the factual database "Belarus in persons and events".
