Yuri Smirin was born in Moscow on 18 May 1936; his father was a historian-medievalist. There were 4 kids in the family. Yuri started drawing since a very young age and soon became the member of the Young Biologists Club at the Moscow zoo where he started drawing different animals. Also Yuri and his brother were the members of A.I. Grigoriev’s club where he studied sculpture.

In 1953, after graduating the school with the golden medal, Yuri entered the biological faculty of the State Moscow University. His permanent workplace was a biological station in Zvenigorod, where he studied the population dynamics of small mammals. At the same time, Yuri continued working as an artist, improving his skills in pencil drawings. Wood and bone carving was especially important in his creative works.

Yuri Smirin gave lectures at the faculty and organised student practices. Some of these practices included expeditions to explore different natural zones of the USSR. Numerous folders with his drawings remained in the family, later he transformed his drawings into sculptures made of natural materials.

Yuri participated in many exhibitions of animal artists. In 1994 the exhibition of the brothers Smirin took place in Anchorage (Alaska, the USA). Similar exhibitions were part of work of all Zoological conferences in Moscow. In 1998 the exhibition of their works was located in the Consulate of the United Kingdom in Moscow.

Yuri Smirin belongs to the rare kind of scientists who managed to combine science and art into united creative process. This expanded his opportunities to study animals and made his heritage especially significant for a new generation of people interested in biology and nature.

Until recent times, the museum’s collections included only 4 sculptures by Yuri Smirin. This year the relatives of a scientist and an artist, Ella Smirina and Elena Borisoglebskaya, donated to the museum a collection of sculptures and graphics which will be exhibited for the first time at the State Darwin Museum.  

Y.Smirin. Rhinoceros. 1960-1980. Wood carving. State Darwin Museum

Y.Smirin. Elephant. 1990es. Bone carving. State Darwin Museum

Y.Smirin. Gorilla. 1990es. Wood carving. State Darwin Museum