Kaleriya Kukulieva

Kaleriya Vasilyevna Kukulieva was born on 30 August 1937 in Ivanovo, in central Russia, into a family of hereditary painters. Her grandfather, Ivan Ivanovich Zubkov (1883 to 1938), was a member of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR and one of the founders of the Artel of Ancient Painting in Palekh, which turned the village's icon painting tradition into the art of lacquer miniature.

From 1952 to 1957 she studied at the A. M. Gorky Palekh Art School. Her teachers included F. A. Kaurtsev, A. V. Kotukhin, M. I. Shemarov, D. N. Butorin and A. V. Borunov.

From 1957 Kukulieva worked at the Palekh art production workshops of the USSR Art Fund. Her work covered folklore, revolutionary and contemporary subjects, genre scenes and, later, religious themes, with Russian fairy tales and the works of Pushkin holding a special place.

From 1958 she and her husband, Boris Kukuliev, also worked on theatre design and book illustration. Their books included Sadko and other Novgorod byliny (1974, reissued 1980 and 2000), A. Mityaev's Krasnaya stroka (1976), Zdravstvuyte, bratushki! (1978), marking the centenary of Bulgaria's liberation from Ottoman rule, Albert Likhanov's Syn Rossii (1982) and Pushkin's Ruslan and Lyudmila (1985). She was awarded the Ivan Fyodorov diploma of the All-Russian Art of the Book competition in 1975 and a Grand Gold Medal at an international book fair in 1977.

Under Boris Kukuliev's direction and with her direct participation, the couple painted murals including the ballet room of the Ivanovo Palace of Pioneers (1962), the Mugreyevo pioneer camp (1966), a banquet hall in Obninsk on the theme of Ruslan and Lyudmila (1978) and a room in the Palace of Pioneers in Belovo, Kemerovo Oblast (1986).

In 1990 she and her husband took part in founding the Paleshane workshop, devoted to reviving icon painting traditions. She contributed to Palekh editions such as The Life of Jesus Christ in the Colours of Palekh (1995), The Gospel in the Colours of Palekh (2005), the Bible in Palekh miniatures (2004 and 2011) and Holy Patrons of the Russian Land (2017). She exhibited from 1958 onwards and joined the Union of Artists of the RSFSR in 1966.

Kukulieva was married to Boris Nikolayevich Kukuliev, a People's Artist of the RSFSR, with whom she worked for decades. Their son, Nikolai Borisovich Kukuliev, born in 1966, became an Honoured Artist of the Russian Federation, continuing the family dynasty, and an exhibition of the Kukuliev dynasty, The Battle for a Dream, was held in Palekh.

Kaleriya Kukulieva died on 29 October 2026, in her 90th year. She was 89. Her death was reported on 30 and 31 October by the Palekh district administration and regional media in Ivanovo. The cause of death was not made public.

The government of Ivanovo Oblast and Governor Stanislav Voskresensky expressed condolences to her family, describing her as an outstanding master of Palekh art and a continuer of a glorious dynasty of Palekh masters whose lacquer miniatures, murals, book graphics and icons were recognised in Russia and abroad.

Kukulieva was one of the most decorated Palekh painters of her generation, linking the founders of the Palekh artel, through her grandfather Ivan Zubkov, with the post-Soviet revival of Palekh icon painting. Her works are held in the State Museum of Palekh Art, the State Russian Museum, the Ivanovo Regional Art Museum and the State Historical Museum, and the books she illustrated with her husband remain among the best known examples of Palekh book art.