Vitaly Babaykin was born in Vologda and never left his hometown. For many years, he was a supervised patient in a psychiatric clinic. As he failed to pay for electricity, the authorities cut power to his apartment. Then he was deprived of other communal amenities, and regularly received subpoenas for several years. When the amount of debt exceeded 10 thousand rubles, the authorities rehoused him from his small but still separate apartment into a 15-meter room.
“But for the restoration of icons, I would not require anything from this life,” he used to say.
In addition to the restoration of icons, Vitaliy made popular prints on peasant themes stylized like the nineteenth century art, as well as painted semi-antique icons. All his works irradiate goodness and childish naivety. They are made in an ancient technique known since the second flourishing of monumental painting in Byzantium: egg tempera on gesso (chalk ground). Now his works have become more popular among contemporary connoisseurs of naive art.
Vitaly Babaykin. Exhibitions
