On July 13, Vitebsk /Olga Bogacheva - BELTA/. The awarding of the Union State Prize in Literature and Art encourages new creative achievements. This opinion was expressed today to a BELTA correspondent by the laureate of this high award for 2011-2012, People's Artist of Belarus Georgy Poplavsky. "It is pleasant and always unexpected when your work, your creativity receive such wide recognition and high appraisal. It encourages new creative heights, as Faina Ranevskaya used to say, it invigorates," the artist admitted. He noted that he had never separated Belarus and Russia in his work: "I do not feel myself to be only a Belarusian or a Russian artist. I am a Soviet person and have never separated our countries and peoples. For example, my relatives are buried in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine." The artist also emphasized that he created all his works solely based on what he saw. As noted by Vladimir Tovstik, Head of the Department of the Belarusian State Academy of Arts, People's Artist of Belarus, Georgy Georgievich had to travel almost all over the globe for this. Georgy Georgievich Poplavsky is a People's Artist of Belarus, laureate of the State Prize of the Republic of Belarus, holder of the Order of Friendship of Peoples, full member of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, full member of the Russian Academy of Arts, laureate of the Union State Prize in Literature and Art for 2011-2012 for the series of paintings and graphic works "History and Modernity"; the series of graphic cycles "High Sky", "Cosmonauts' Motherland", "Northern Sea Route", "Chernobyl. Belarusian Daily Life", "Time of Long Knives"; graphic series of etchings and lithographs for the books "The Tale of Igor's Campaign", "Stories" by Vasil Bykov, "She and I" by Yanka Kupala, "Selected Works" by Yakub Kolas. -0-

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