Vitaly Ilyich Kandyba is the first art critic of Primorye: materials for biography
Vitaly I. Kandyba (1943-2016) is the first and for decades the only art critic in Primorye, a teacher of art history at the Far Eastern Institute of Arts, versatile and deeply immersed in the artistic process of contemporary regional art. He not only represented artists of the Far East at the All-Russian and All-Union level during the Soviet period, but also to some extent indicated the direction of development of Far Eastern art. Vitaly Kandyba is the author of books about the history of the emergence and development of fine art of Primorye, Khabarovsk Krai, Amur Region from the 1860s to the 1930s, about the formation and activities of the Primorye Organization of the Union of Artists of Russia, which are still a mandatory source for art historians who have devoted themselves to studying the creativity of artists of the region. Nevertheless, his life and work have not been sufficiently studied to date. The article attempts to present an outline of the creative biography of V.I. Kandyba, to assess the role and significance of his activities.