THE VISIONARY - Oleg Vinogradov

Oleg Vinogradov was raised in the Russian artistic community, tasting all of the arts and finding his talents in both painting and in ballet. As Principal Artistic Director of Character Actors with the Maly Theatre for Ballet and Opera in Leningrad, Oleg's innovative work drew the curious, if somewhat tentative, admiration of his peers.

By 1977 Vinogradov was appointed Director of the Kirov, one of the oldest and most respected ballet institutions in Russia. He is credited with maintaining their classical traditions while venturing into more contemporary choreographic statements. The first director to invite Western choreographers to make guest appearances in Russia, his visionary expansion of the Kirov's international reputation is now legendary.

To portray his gentle yet commanding presence, Vinogradov is sculpted here in an attentive, affable stance. He was given expansive wings to see him through his many solo flights of entrepreneurial leadership.

"The composition for the new theatre
will consist of these three elements:
musical movement, pictorial movement, and physical movement;
and these three, properly combined, make up the spiritual movement
- which is the working of inner harmony."

-- Wassily Kandinsky