Bidspirit auction | Fyodor Filippovich Konyukhov (b. 1951).

Fyodor Filippovich Konyukhov (b. 1951). Setting the Sail. Lithograph 1/9. 1982. - Paper, lithograph. Sheet: 44.5 × 50.5 cm Image: 35 × 41 cm Fyodor Filippovich Konyukhov (born 1951) is a Russian traveller, writer, artist, and Orthodox priest. Internationally renowned for his extraordinary expeditions, he occupies a unique position at the intersection of exploration, spirituality, and artistic practice. Konyukhov studied wood carving and marquetry at Vocational School No. 15 in Bobruisk, later graduating from the Odessa Maritime School as a navigator and subsequently from the Leningrad Arctic School as a marine engineer. He also studied at the St Petersburg Theological Seminary. In 1974, he settled in Nakhodka in the Russian Far East, where he lived until 1995. During this period, he worked as a rigger at a ship-repair yard and served aboard fishing vessels. Since 1995, he has lived and worked in Moscow. Konyukhov is widely recognized as one of the greatest explorers of the modern era. He has completed five solo circumnavigations of the globe and crossed the Atlantic Ocean seventeen times, including one crossing by rowing boat. He became the first Russian to complete the Seven Summits challenge and to reach both the North and South Poles solo, achieving the so-called Explorer’s Grand Slam. He is the recipient of the national Crystal Compass Award and multiple Guinness World Records. Konyukhov was the first person in history to reach five symbolic poles of the Earth: the Geographic North Pole (three times), the Geographic South Pole, the Pole of Relative Inaccessibility in the Arctic Ocean, Mount Everest (the Pole of Altitude), and Cape Horn (the Pole of Sailors). Among his many achievements, he was the first Russian to reach both the North and South Poles on skis, the first Russian to complete a solo circumnavigation by yacht, the first Russian to complete the Seven Summits programme, and the second person in the world to complete a solo circumnavigation in a hot-air balloon, setting two absolute world records in the process. Alongside his achievements as an explorer, Konyukhov has maintained a lifelong artistic practice. His graphic works and paintings are deeply informed by his experiences at sea and in some of the most remote regions of the world, reflecting themes of adventure, faith, endurance, and humanity’s relationship with nature.