Yelena Osipova (Russian activist)
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Yelena Osipova | |
|---|---|
Елена Андреевна Осипова | |
.jpg) Osipova at Nemtsov memorial meeting, 2019 | |
| Born | 11 November 1945 |
Yelena Andreyevna Osipova (Russian: Елена Андреевна Осипова; born November 11, 1945) is an artist and political activist from Saint Petersburg. She became known for her active civic stance — she draws placards on topical political issues and expresses her support for all victims of violence and state repression. Her distinctive artistic style is close to the primitivism and originates in Andrei Rublev's and Dionisy's frescoes.
Yelena Andreyevna Osipova was born on November 11, 1945, in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). Her mother was a veteran of the World War II, a senior sergeant in the medical service, a chevalier of the medal "For Combat Merit". Her father is a radiologist. Yelena's parents met at the war front. Her mother was discharged from the army due to pregnancy, she worked as an accountant at a bread factory in Leningrad, while her father left for the war with Japan and came to see his daughter only once afterwards.[1][2][3][4]
Osipova's parents survived the Siege of Leningrad, but her grandfather died from hunger.[4][2][5][6] Her grandmother had previously worked as a security guard in the Russian Museum. Osipova studied at the Tavricheskaya Art School.[7]
In 1962, at the second attempt, she enrolled in the pedagogical department of Tavricheskaya Art School.[2][8] Her diploma work was completed in 1965-1967 and dedicated to Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theater which she had been fond of since her youth, however, the committee considered her painting "redolent" and "too surreal".[2][9] Later she made four unsuccessful attempts to continue artistic education and tried to enroll in Repin Imperial Academy of Arts and Saint Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design.[2]
In 1967, she started working as an art teacher in a village school in Vaganovo. Later she transferred to Metallostroy, after some time she got to work at an evening art school in Saint Petersburg.[4][2] She also worked for ten years in an art studio at the Yusupov Palace, which she considers to be her most fruitful years as a painter.[2] She retired in 2009.[10][11]
Osipova was married to Gennady Harvardt, who died prematurely during a trip to Sweden. Their mutual son Ivan (1981-2009) worked as a stagehand for the Lensovet Theater, the Komissarzhevskaya Theater, and the Baltic House. He died in 2009 at the age of 28 of tuberculosis, a consequence of drug abuse.[2][5][3]
As of 2023, Osipova lives alone in a communal apartment on Furshtatskaya Street, where the second room is used as a storage for paintings.[12][13] She receives a pension of 6,000 a month, due to which she no longer receives fines after street arrests, as she has nothing to pay them from.[11][14] She refuses to sell her own work, including political posters, or accept monetary aid, lest she be seen as selling her beliefs.[4][11]
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