On April 21, 1989, by the 119th anniversary of Vladimir Lenin, a monument to the world revolution leader and his wife Nadezhda Krupskaya was opened in Moscow. The work by Oleg Komov is the only sculpture of that couple in Moscow. The author’s miniature replica of the monument cast in bronze is held by the Belgorod State Art Museum, which got it for permanent display from Rosizopropaganda, an art exhibition centre, in the 1980’s.

Soviet artists and sculptors would often depict Lenin during rallies and demonstrations, next to common workers, peasants, or sailors. In such works of art, he looked a hero of the revolution — purposeful, resolute, often severe. Oleg Komov deviated from that template and depicted Lenin’s family, rather than political, life.

More often than not, Oleg Komov made sculptures only slightly taller than the size of humans. His models included famous artists, musicians, generals, rulers: Peter I, Ilya Repin, Alexander Suvorov, Pyotr Tchaikovsky.

Komov graduated from the Moscow Region Art School in Memory of 1905 and continued his studies at the Surikov Art Institute, where he was a student of sculptor Nikolai Tomsky. Tomsky was interested in the Russian traditional school of plastic arts, which originated in the 19th century, and was fascinated by sculpture portraits. He paid a lot of attention to face modelling, trying to reproduce his models’ various emotions. Oleg Komov borrowed that interest in details from his professor.

Since he was 18, Komov co-operated with prominent anthropologist Mikhail Gerasimov and helped him restore the looks of history characters from their skulls. The experience he thus obtained he used in his art works. For instance, the monument to Yaroslav the Wise installed in Yaroslavl was sculpted by Komov on the basis of the grand prince’s looks reconstructed by Komov and Gerasimov.

Oleg Komov’s sculptures are installed in Russia and abroad – in Austria, Japan, Finland, and other countries.