Mihail Chemiakin

Mihail Chemiakin (Russian: Михаи́л Михайлович Шемя́кин, Mikhail Shemyakin, or Mikhail Shemiakin, born 4 May 1943, Moscow) is a Russian (ethnic Circassian (Kabardian)) painter, stage designer, sculptor and publisher, and a controversial representative of the nonconformist art tradition of St. Petersburg.

Early life

Chemiakin was born to a military family. His father, a Kabardian from the Caucasus Mountains surnamed Kardanov, had lost his parents and was adopted by a friend of his father's, White Army officer Piotr Chemiakin. The artist's father eventually became a Soviet Army officer. He received one of the first Orders of the Red Banner at the age of thirteen.

Mihail Chemiakin spent his early years in East Germany. His father served in the Army there. His family returned to the Soviet Union in 1957 and he studied at the secondary school of art affiliated with the Il’ya Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). In 1961 he was subjected to forced psychiatric treatment to "cure" him of views that did not conform to Soviet norms.