Kurdov Valentin is a painter, graphic artist, draughtsman, watercolorist, posterist, and illustrator. He had the title of People’s Artist of the RSFSR and was the winner of the Repin State Prize of the RSFSR.

Valentin Kurdov was born in the settlement of Mikhailovsky Zavod, Krasnoufimsky uyezd, Perm province (now the town of Mikhailovsk, Nizhneserginsk municipal district, Sverdlovsk region). In 1916 he studied at the art school in Yekaterinburg, then in 1918-1919 he studied in the studio at the Perm Art College. In 1921 he also studied at the Perm Higher Art and Industrial Workshops. In 1922-1923 Kurdov studied at the jewelry department at the Yekaterinburg Art and Industry School. In 1923 he entered the Higher Art and Technical Institute. His teachers were Alexei Karev, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Mikhail Matyushin, and Alexander Savinov. There he attended the workshop of Filonov and was close to the artists of the group «Masters of Analytical Art». In 1926-1927 he studied cubism under the guidance of Kazimir Malevich at the Leningrad State Institute of Artistic Culture.

The work of Valentin Kurdov is a world combined with many faces and many people, multi-colored and many voices, full of movement and contrasts. This world has no struggle between good and evil, new and old, beautiful and ugly, but where ardent romance and heartfelt lyricism are woven together. He was the artist who let all subjects of his artworks pass through his heart. It was a real driving force and an essence of his art which is fully shown in his work called the Talk.