On January 29, 2014 a public lecture and video presentation “Life and work of P.Pokarzhevski (1889-1968)” dedicated to the 125th anniversary of the fellow-painter took place in A.A.Osmerkin Art-Memorial Museum within the framework of a scientific and educational project “Lectures on art history” founded by the museum.
   Ludmila Frenchko,a laureate of Regional Award in the sphere of fine arts and study of art named after A.Osmerkin in nomination "study and history of arts", a lecturer and methodologist of Kirovograd Music College together with her students prepared an interesting performance.
   A famous painter and pedagogue Petr Pokarzhevski received his first art education in Evening Drawing Classes under Elizabethgrad non-classical secondary school. Then he studied in Kiev art school and in St.Petersburg in Higher Art School under the Academy of Art. For some time he had lived in Tula, where State artistic workshops and art museum were formed, where he worked and taught. In 1922 moved to Moscow, worked on a publishing house “Molodaya gvardiya”, was a member of Moscow organization of the Union of artists. The leading genre of his works was theme picture with plot on modern life, carried out in traditional realistic manner. P.Pokarzhevski’s works adorn collections of such famous museum as the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, Russian Museum in St.Petersburg, and also art museums of Tula, Nizhny Novgorod, Astrakhan, Irkutsk, Kiev. The painter presented many f his works to his native town Kirovograd.
   It is symbolic that event took place in the museum of A.A.Osmerkin who was a fellow-townsman and friend of P.Pokarzhevski, fates of whom were intertwined in Elizabethgrad during their studies in Evening Drawing Classes and later in Moscow. Both of them were active members of the association of artists “Bytie” and “AHRR” (Association of artists of evolutionary Russia), professors of painting in Moscow State Art Institute named after V.Surikov.
   It is notable that both listeners of an interesting story about the painter were not random – students of Kirovograd Machine Building College, where earlier Elizabethgrad non-classical secondary school situated. And in the end of the event the audience admired concert performances by students of Kirovograd Musical College.