Valentina Kropivnitskaia was born in 1924 to a family of artists, Evgenii Kropivnitsky and Olga Potapova. From her early childhood she was surrounded by an artistic, poetic atmosphere that was the world of her father, an artist and a poet, one of the representatives of the early century avant-garde.
Together with her brother, Lev Kropivnitsky, and her husband, Oscar Rabin, she joined the Lianozovo Group (Lianozovskoe sodruzhestvo) in 1966. The group was one of the centers generating new ideas within Moscow nonconformist art movement. Her work was present at every underground art exhibition, creating a special metaphysical atmosphere, full of mystery and magic.
In 1978 she and her husband emigrated to France. Her artistic perception develops within the same world, the childhood of humanity, «golden age», enclosed within idyllic space, full of harmony and light. Valentina lives and works in Paris.