Vasily Konovalenko

Vasily Vasilivich Konovalenko (Василий Васильевич Коноваленко, koʊ-noʊ-VA-ɪŋ-koʊ; 5 July 1929 – 27 January 1989) was a Soviet artist, known for creating unique three dimensional gemstone sculptures.

Konovalenko was born in Petrovka, a village in east-central Ukraine on July 5, 1929 to a Ukrainian father, Basil Vasily Konovalenko (1900-1946), and a Russian mother, Galiguzova Theodosius Tikhonovna (1899 -?).

He was the couple's fifth child and only son, and his documents listed him as "Ukrainian".

After spending his first few years in Petrovka, the family moved to the mining center of Donetsk (which at that time was called Stalino), a larger and more cosmopolitan city in eastern Ukraine.

The remainder of his childhood was spent there, with the exception of the two years of Nazi occupation, October 1941 through September 1943.

In 1944 at the age of fifteen, he began work in the Donetsk National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre as an apprentice set designer.

Between March 1944 and June 1945 he was recalled to attend a factory trade school, a so-called FZO.

(At that time in the Soviet Union, attending a trade school was compulsory. ref) In 1945 he moved to the Stalino Theater for Opera and Ballet and the following year he enrolled in the art and architecture school at Donetsk Polytechnic Institute where he received specialized training.

Between March 1949 and January 1950, Konovalenko worked in sculpture at the Stalino Regional Association of Artists.

In October 1950 Konovalenko was drafted into the Soviet navy but he was discharged only five months later due to unspecified and unrecorded medical reasons.

At some point during this service, he visited Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and he was taken by the artistic, historic and cultural environment of the city and he perceived career opportunities there.

Shortly after his military discharge, he moved to Leningrad and he found employment with the prestigious Mariinsky Theater, then the Kirov State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet (Государственный академический театр оперы и балета имени С.М. Кирова).

Konovalenko's engagement with the Mariinsky launched him on the path of his life's work.

(The Tale of the Stone Flower was premiered in 1954 by the Bolshoi Theater. The production proved to be a public disappointment and it was not produced again for another five years. ) Among Konovalenko's many tasks for the production was the creation of a large malachite box as a prop.

At this point he was not known as a gem carver but he had had sculptural experience as far back as his apprenticeship at the Donetsk National Theater.

With the malachite box, Konovaleko would find his life's calling.

'The Tale of the Stone Flower' is based on the Russian Ural folk tale The Stone Flower by Pavel Bazhov.

Briefly, the story takes place in the Ural Mountains of central Russia.

The male lead, young Danilo, is engaged to the beautiful Katarina.

Unfortunately the Mistress of Malachite Mountain tempts Danilo with a legendary stone flower.

As a gem carver himself, Danilo becomes entranced with the stone flower and he sets out to make one of his own out of the beautiful black- and green-banded mineral malachite.

In the process, Danilo becomes entranced with the Mistress of Malachite Mountain.

After a long period in which Danilo developed extraordinary gem carving skills, he again professes his love for Katarina.

Appreciating Danilo's honesty and loyalty, the Mistress of Malachite Mountain blesses the reunion.

The blessed couple live happily ever after and Danilo becomes an extraordinary gem carver.

Konovalenko continued to work at the Mariinsky Theater for the next 16 years but at the same time he continued to hone his gem carving skills.

Many of his pieces from this period are on display at the State Gemstone Museum in Moscow.

During this period he also traveled extensively to visit mineral sources in the Urals, Siberia and Ukraine and to meet with geologists and mineralogists.

On April 25, 1957, the Mariinsky Theater opened Sergei Prokofiev's eighth and final ballet, 'The Tale of the Stone Flower', for which Konovalenko served as the lead set designer.

By 1971, Konovalenko's theatrical reputation was at its zenith, but his gem carving reputation was lagging because he had never had a public exhibition.

Vasily's wife, Anna, decided that Vasily should be the focus of such an exhibition and that they should try to meet with authorities in Moscow toward this end.

This was a bold approach, considering that they had no letter of introduction from party officials in Leningrad.

That was bad enough but in addition the example of Vasily's work that they chose to present was an early version of Bosom Pals (Brazhniki), a rather ill-advised choice as it depicted three men carousing, definitely not the Soviet Realism style then favored by the Communist Party.

Anna and Vasily were summarily dismissed and they returned to Leningrad, rejected but unscathed.

Two years later the couple decided to make a second approach and they returned to Moscow better prepared.

Through mutual acquaintances, Anna obtained a meeting with Sergey Mikhalkov, a well-known and well-connected author.

(Also the author of the lyrics of the Soviet national anthem.) They also brought two more-appropriate works, Warrior and The Tsar's Henchman.

The meeting was a complete success — Mikhalkov loved the sculptures and he immediately contacted Mikhail Solomentsev, chairman of the Council of Ministers.

Solomentsev also loved the pieces and within minutes he decided that an exhibition should be arranged and that it should be at the State Russian Museum in Leningrad.

Solomentsev's position in the hierarchy was such that once he voiced his approval, everyone fell into line.