Seraphim Petrovich Altaev is an Honored Worker of Culture RSFSR. He was born in the village of Krasny Log Voronezh region in 1931. He graduated from the Higher School of Industrial Art (former Stroganov) under the leadership of AV Kuprin, VA Vasilyev, SV Gerasimov, N. H. Maksimova, VP Komardenkova, VE Egorova and VF Bordichenko. He worked in State History Museum Fellow for the restoration of paintings and in the Arts Fund of the RSFSR. Since 1960, he began to exhibit in Moscow, Russian Union and foreign exhibitions. He participated in teaching at a Military Publishing to improve the skills of staff of artists. His works are in the style of thematic picture, portrait, landscape and still life.
From 1960 to 1966, Altaev worked as Chief artist at Moscow’s transport (rail, road and water). In his collection there are more than 50 works on the railways of Russia. Among them are such well-known as “An Honored targeted inventor-Moscow railway,” “My name is on the road traffic lights”, “Lenin and the People’s Commissar of Railways FE Dzerzhinsky in the scheme of railways of the RSFSR “,” Machinist Test Tarasov SF. In 1960, he organized the art room at the House of culture of railwaymen “Red Baltiets”, which was led for nearly forty years, over the years, he had nurtured many students. Many graduates of the studio came in higher art education and became well-known Russian artists.
Altaev is a member of USSR Artists’ Union since 1963 and served as University professor of culture and art. In 1980 he was awarded the title “Honored Worker of Culture”. Many years engaged in social activities in the Moscow Union of Artists. He has participated in numerous exhibitions – All-Union, republican, Moscow and abroad. Paintings of Seraphim Petrovich Altaev are stored at the State Historical Museum, the Museum of Railway Transport, Museum of Contemporary Art, in the regional museums in the former Soviet Union, in galleries and private collections in Russia and abroad (in Italy, China, Germany, USA, Portugal, France, China) .
Altaev has always been at the enterprises of the road and especially at the locomotive depot near Moscow. There, the leaders of the road asked him to create portraits of the best people in line. Among them, for example, was the hero of Socialist Labor Maksimovna Ekaterina Ermakova. Forty years ago, she was full of strength and energy, a young and beautiful woman.
In the opening ceremony of one of his solo exhibitions in Moscow in 2008, his guests include
President of JSC “RZD” Vladimir Yakunin, Head of the Moscow Railway Vladimir Starostenko, Director of Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Zurab Tsereteli, Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Arts Tair Teymurovich Salakhov, Director of the State Museum of Fine Arts named after AS Pushkin, Irina A. Antonova, pop singer Eugene Poplar, Director of the State Museum of AS Pushkin’s Eugene A. Bogatyrev, well-known historian and writer, Konstantin Petrovich Kovalev, Director of the Central Museum of Armed Forces Alexander K. Nikonov, Head of the Department of ways and structures, Alexei Borisovich Kireevnin, Head of the Moscow-Kursk branch of MOR Pavel Ivanov and Director of Railway Transport Museum Alexander Bochkov.
The artist’s works bring back the flavor of the time, show the audience to understand how people lived, whose hands created in the second half of the twentieth century the power of the largest trunk of the Union. They amused those who are interested in the history of transport. The artist recorded the details of the tailored suit, settlement, and the tools of the time. And of course, he left to posterity the portraits of his contemporaries, the heroes of the time, forever gone down in history.
