I love when I find a (new to me) artist with work centering on fat people.

I had about given up on finding any new fat artists; but there was Mr. Gubarev just waiting for me to check out Pinterest! 

Valentin Gubarev, as you might guess from his name, is from Russia (Gorky – now Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Federation); born in 1948.  He studied in Russia, first at the Gorky Art College and then at Moscow University. 

Looking at his work, it does not surprise me that he started as an illustrator.  Most of his work is appears deceptively simple and primitive.  However, behind the art there is always emotion coming through.  Sometimes a sense of loneliness / desolation; sometimes of love; but as Mr. Gubarev puts it:

According to the painter, the characters of his works are “ordinary people”, who didn’t read Hegel and Kant. His characters are people with pure heart, who weren’t born to be entrepreneurs, but have a strong desire to be happy. The plot of his works often incorporates the painter’s memories of childhood and adolescence, nostalgic motifs and details of the life of the Soviet era.

• Valentin Gubarev https://prabook.com/web/valentin.gubarev/3749899

His characters are most often fat but have thin limbs (although many of the females have thick thighs).  There are many paintings with couples and it is clear that the men (some fat and some not-so-fat) are very pleased with their fat partners.  I most enjoy his paintings of groups – these tend to be the most fun and there is so much going on that you can get lost in trying to take it all in.  Most of his characters are older; and you might notice that in most cases, the backgrounds are in subdued colors which (to me) suggest the difficult life of the typical citizen of Russia. Here are some of my favorites, and there are many more on my Pinterest Board devoted to Valentin Gubarev (so glad I found you!) https://www.pinterest.com/terriweitze/fat-art-valentin-gubarev/