III. Read and translate the text.

Omsk and its Painters

Culture in Omsk is very active. The city is famous for its wonderful painters whose works are exhibited in various city galleries. One of the Fine Arts Gallery is named after the Great Russian painter Vrubel who was born in Omsk. Some people prefer visiting the Below Museum to have a look at the pictures, while others go to the Liberov Centre to see the pictures by Aleksei Liberov exhibited there.

Fine Arts Society in Omsk was formed in 1907. Anton Sorkin, a poet and a painter, was and talented people. Thanks to this friends efforts an Arts Industrial School was established in Omsk. It was named after Vrubel. Later it became a college. Its teachers and students took an active part in various Siberian exhibitions. In 1937 the Omsk Union of Artists was formed.

Soon the Great Patriotic War began and many Omsk painters became soldiers. When the survived of them returned to their painting, the Omsk Union of Artists became famous among other artists’ unions in the USSR.

Among the painters of that period one should mention Ivan Zhelyostov (Born in 1931), a Krasnodar Arts School graduate, interested in the folk Russia (“Rus”); Yevgeniy Kupriyanov (Born in 1929), a graduate of the Omsk Arts Industrial School who mostly portrayed people of labors an also the Altai natives; R. Cherepanov, interested in the industrial power in Omsk, he also wonderful frescoes which may still be seen on the walls of the Physical Training Academy and at the Aircraft Factory.

Kondraty Belov was born in 1900. In 1928 he graduated from the Arts Industrial School. People called him a “living legend” because his landscapes are very emotional. To commemorate his life and creative work in 1991 the Belov Museum was opened in the house where he lived and worked. His museum provides a shelter for Arts because not only wonderful pictures by this great painter are kept there, but also musical pieces by great.

Russian composers are performed and songs are sung by marveled Omsk soloists. One more distinguished artist of Russia that the people of Omsk are proud of is Aleksei Liberov who was born in 1911 in Tomsk. In 1926 he moved to Omsk and studied painting under his teacher Ufimtsev. In 1939 he graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Arts, Sculpture and Architecture. He was a soldier in the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. After the War A. Liberov came to Omsk and founded the Arts and Designing Department at the Pedagogical institute. He is mostly landscape painter. His main theme is Siberian nature. His favorite colures are silver and grey that render defenselessness of the nature. Some European Museum collections have some of his works. His pictures painted in 1980s-1990s are collected and exhibited in a special museum named after him, the Liberov Centre.

III. Tell a story using the following words:

City of culture, wonderful painters, was born,

drama theatre, people prefer, outstanding person,

gifted and talented people, the pictures are exhibited in.