Selected dates:
September 13, 1926
Born in the village of Soloni (USSR, today the Russian Federation).
1943–1944
At the age of 17, he participated in the partisan movement .
Since 1944
He was in the army and took part in the battles in the Baltic states and on the Karelian Isthmus. Subsequently, Alexander Aleksandrovich Solovyov was awarded the Order of the Red Star , as well as commemorative medals in honor of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War.
1949
After demobilization, the artist went to his mother in Madona (Latvia).
1955
Enrolled in LVHPU them. V. I. Mukhina (Leningrad Higher School of Industrial Art named after Vera Ignatievna Mukhina, today St. Petersburg State Art and Industrial Academy named after A. L. Stieglitz) to the department of masters of monumental and decorative painting. After graduation, he worked for some time as a teacher of drawing and drafting at a secondary school in Madona.
1959–1965
He studied at the Belarusian State Theater and Art Institute .
Since 1965
He worked as a production designer at the Ya. Kolas National Academic Drama Theater, and later (until 1995) as its chief artist.
Since 1966
Became a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR .
1968–1969
Chairman of the artistic council of the Vitebsk art production workshops .
1973–1977
Chairman of the board of the Vitebsk regional organization of the Union of Artists of the BSSR.
1982
Awarded the title of Honored Artist of the BSSR .
2017
Alexander Solovyov was awarded the Order of Francysk Skaryna in accordance with the presidential decree for many years of fruitful work, a significant personal contribution to the development of art and culture of Belarus.
May 24, 2021
The artist has passed away .
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Alexander Maley:
"Soloviev was the chief artist of the Yakub Kolas Theater, but, according to his revelation, he got on the stage not as a result of a passionate love for the theater. Soloviev chose the Theater as a refuge where he could demonstrate his true aesthetic affections. Scenography (Soloviev did not like this term) made it possible to avoid censorship. It was possible to improvise under it, passing off abstract works as a search for a stage solution for the performance. However, this was also difficult to implement. The ideological instinct of the inspectors was always excellent. I witnessed the censorship of the master's anniversary exhibition. culture of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee G. I. Klyosova. She walked around the hall and inserted white pieces of paper into the gaps between the frame and the picture, thus marking the works that should have been removed from the exposition. A good half of the exhibition hall was full of white pieces of paper. I stood at a distance and with sadness I watched how San Sanych followed the “head of culture” with a shuffling gait , defending the right to life of one or another of his paintings. Nothing could be more humiliating for an artist. I was then 25, he was 50, and I thought with horror about my upcoming creative activity, which can be evaluated in the same humiliating way.
[...]
Of the older generation, they demonstrated their disloyalty to official art more clearly than others. The official status of the chief artist of the academic theater helped organize exhibitions and exhibit non-objective paintings. Alexander Solovyov, while on tour, had the opportunity to demonstrate his art in all major cities of Belarus; in this way he influenced not only the art of his city, but also the art of the republic as a whole. Possessing a powerful talent from God, he perceived the inherent value of art outside of any ideology, denying eclecticism in art and its existence outside the world process. Solovyov was a representative of the traditions of the Russian avant-garde at the national level, and hardly anyone in our country could be placed next to him. His work and courage as an artist inspired hope and taught us to look at the world with different eyes.".
Vitebsk "Square": An Artistic Study of the Nonconformist Movement of Artists in Vitebsk and Minsk (1987–2000), pp. 14–15