Vadim Sidur was born in 1924 in Dnepropetrovsk. In 1941 he was sent to fight in the war, where he was wounded. Following World War II he studied at the Moscow Medical Institute, but later entered the Monumental Art Department of the Institute of Industrial Art. After graduation in 1952, Sidur began working in sculpture and graphic art.
In the 1950s during the so-called thaw period, Sidur formed a group with Silis and Lemport. He presented his work at several exhibitions of alternative art and was well received.
Following a heart attack in 1961, his art became more dramatic, tense, and internally focused. During this transition he began to create assemblages and Object Art. Pain and human suffering became a major theme of his work, which gradually transformed itself into conversations about life and death. Sidur’s design for Monument to the Victims of Violence was erected in the German city of Kassel in 1974.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s Sidur’s work was shown all over Europe. Numerous articles and books were devoted to the analysis of his art, which became a symbol of opposition to any form of totalitarianism. Sidur died in Moscow in 1986.
