Vladislav Alekseevich Provotorov (born 1947) is one of the representatives of Russian Visionary Art. He studied at the Moscow State Academic Art Institute named after V.I. Surikov and graduated from the Moscow Higher School of Art and Industry (Moscow Stroganov Academy) in 1972. He was part of the 'Twenty Moscow Artists' group and is considered one of the leaders of contemporary religious-mystical painting. In the mid-1990s, he withdrew from active artistic activity and is currently a protopriest and rector of the Church of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos in the village of Pavlovskaya Sloboda (Russian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate); he has two children. Vladislav Alekseevich Provotorov is both a spiritual artist and a priest with a deeply Russian destiny. He was born in Potsdam, Germany, on June 26, 1947, to a military family. From 1975, he worked at the RSFSR Art Fund. He was baptized at the age of 26 and was for a long time a parishioner and member of the 'twenty' of the Church of St. Nicholas in Kuznetsy. On December 25, 1994, he was ordained a priest by Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna. In 2004, he was elevated to protopriest and graduated from the Kolomenskoye Theological Seminary the same year. He is now secretary of the diocesan department. Provotorov's artistic worldview is often characterized as apocalyptic, reflected in his works. This led to repeated accusations of sadism, sexual pathologies, cruelty, etc., by critics. Many of his paintings and drawings have a repellent effect on the viewer. His paintings explore biblical visions and religious symbolism, standing apart from traditional Russian Orthodoxy, which highly values iconographic continuity and often views artistic originality with suspicion. Despite the difficulties and even prohibition surrounding religious art in the USSR, Provotorov, like a few others, managed to embody Christian preaching and masterful technique in his works. His most famous paintings include 'The Kiss of Judas' (1983-84), 'Noah's Ark' (1994), a series on the Apocalypse such as 'The Four Horsemen' (1985), 'Vision of the Prophet Ezekiel' (1986), 'The Trojan Horse' (1987), and the chilling 'Four Elements' series (1987-88). He also created the diptych 'Cosmogony No. 666' and 'Tower of Babel' (1989), rethinking classical biblical symbols through his unique, mystical symbolism. Many of his works are difficult to interpret and evoke strong, sometimes disturbing emotions. Yet, their depth and emotional saturation make them accessible to different audiences, and their core is teaching the dichotomy of Good and Evil. Provotorov’s 'Noah's Ark', exhibited at the Museum of the Cathedral, is considered the culmination of his eschatological cycle, symbolizing hope as the Ark is mounted atop the crumbling Tower of Babel, suggesting the triumph of divine providence over human folly.
