In Kuindzhi’s Homeland

Volodymyr Illich Zarbi was a Ukrainian painter and a member of the Union of Artists of Ukraine from 1992. He was born on April 4, 1940 in the village of Stara Karan (now the village of Granitne, Donetsk region, Ukraine). During 1962-1967, he studied at the Rostov Art School under his teachers Viktor Lien, Feliks Domanskyi, and Oleksii Rezvan. He worked in Mariupol: from 1968 to 2000, in an art studio; from 1970, as the chief artist of the Ordzhonikidze district of Mariupol, from 1974-1992, at the Azovstal plant (Mariupol). Zarbi worked in the field of easel painting (landscape, portrait, still life). His works were shown at exhibitions abroad on the ships of the Azov Sea Shipping Company. He was a participant in the All-Union Festival of Greeks in Moscow (1990), and participated in the work of creative groups of Ukrainian artists on the construction of important industrial facilities. Among his works are "Girl with a Book" (1968), "Artist" (1969), "Earth" (1975), "Bread" (1984), "Mountain Lake" (1996), "Chornobyl Spring" (1993), "Rocks of Stara Karan" (2004), and others. Zarbi died on November 6, 2007 in Mariupol. His works are in museums and private collections in Ukraine and abroad.