KIBRIK Evgeny (in 1920s — Herz) Adolfovich

February 8 (21), 1906 (Voznesensk, Kherson province) — July 16, 1978 (Moscow)

Graphic artist, painter, scene-designer

Evgeny Kibrik was born to family of bread export company. He studied at Odessa Art Institute in 1922–1925 under the guidance of P. G. Volokidin and T. B. Freierman. He also studied at the Higher Art Technical Institute (VKhUTEIN) in 1925–1927 under K. S. Petrov-Vodkin, S. V. Priselkov, and A. I. Savinov.

Kibrik lived in Leningrad (1925–1930, 1932–1943) and in Moscow (1930–1932, 1943–1978). He was married to the painter L. Y. Timoshenko (1938–1959). Kibrik was engaged in easel, book and magazine graphic art. In 1920s he drew illustrations to the newspapers Molodaya Gvardia (“Young Guard”, Odessa), Smena (“Shift”, Leningrad), and the magazine Yuny Proletary (“Young proletarian”, Leningrad). In 1928–1932 Kibrik designed the performances in the Theatre for working youth: production by S. Ershov and A. Korovin Call the Fabkom! (Fabkom — Fabric committee, 1928).

In 1926–1930 Kibrik was a member of the society Masters of Analytic Art (MAI) headed by P. N. Filonov. After clearage of MAI, Kibrik was one of the founders of the group Izoram (art studio for working youth) in 1930–1932. When P. N. Filonov suffered persecution, Kibrik published articles with critics of his teacher in the newspaper Sovetskoye Iskusstvo (“Soviet Art”) and the magazine Yuny Proletary (“Young proletarian”).

Kibrik designed books for the State Publishing House of Children’s Literature Detgiz, the Publishing House Molodaya Gvardia and others. He made illustrations to the books Death of Vazir Mukhtar by Y. N. Tynyanov (1932); The Neva story by D. M. Lavrukhin (1934); Fairy tales (1936) and Boris Godunov (1965, gold medal of the USSR Academy of Arts, silver medal at the International exhibition Art of the Book in Leipzig in 1965) by A. S. Pushkin; Colas Breugnon (1935, silver medal at the World exhibition in Paris in 1937) and The Enchanted Soul (1959) by Romain Rolland; The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel by Ch. De Coster (1938); Taras Bulba by N. V. Gogol (1946); Russian heroic bylinas (1951), How the Steel Was Tempered (1958, bronze medal at the World exhibition in Brussels in 1958) by N. A. Ostrovsky and others.

Kibrik painted a lot of easel pictures about Revolution: S. N. Khalturin and V. P. Obnorsky working on the program of the Northern Union of Russian Workers, 1878 (1940); series V. I. Lenin in 1917 (1946–1947), 1917 (1968–1971). He also painted portraits of the artists S. B. Yudovin (1934), Y. I. Pimenov (1965), A. V. Kokorin (1977), writer R. Rolland (1935), art historian A. D. Chegodaev (1954). Kibrik drew several graphic series: Commune New way (1930), The North Caucasus series (1937) and series on the motifs of the story Portrait by N. V. Gogol (1973–1975). After journey abroad, Kibrik created cycles of drawings and watercolors: Italy (1956, 1962, 1966–1968), France (1959), Munich(1965). He always drew landscape, portrait and genre sketches.

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Kibrik created a number of posters. He took part in work of the association Boevoy Karandash (“Fighting pencil”) in 1941. In 1942–1943 he was evacuated to Samarkand. He drew a series of drawings Farkhad construction (1942–1943), Uzbekistan (1942–1943). In 1943 Kibrik was sent on a mission to Stalingrad by the Committee of Arts; he created cycle of drawings Stalingrad.

Since 1927 Kibrik participated in different exhibitions; he took part in the exhibition of the society Masters of Analytic Art (MAI) in the Leningrad House of Press in 1927. He exposed his works at the exhibition The modern Leningrad art groups (1928–1929), the First Public Exhibition of Fine Arts (1930), the First exhibition of Leningrad artists (1935), the exhibition of autolithography of Leningrad artists (1939), the exhibition of the Soviet colored etching (1937), the All-Union art exhibitions (1939, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1957, 1965, 1969, and 1973), the exhibition N. V. Gogol in works of Soviet artists (1952) in Moscow and many others. Kibrik took part in different international exhibitions and the exhibitions of Soviet art abroad: in France (1936, 1960), Bulgaria (1936, 1956), England (1938, 1945, and 1961), USA (1940, 1959, 1963, and 1973), Poland (1946, 1954), Italy (1956, 1962, and 1976), Hungary (1956, 1973), Czechoslovakia (1960, 1974), Brazil (1961). The personal exhibitions of the artist were held in Leningrad (1937, 1966, 1978), in Moscow (1946, 1952, 1956, 1959, 1966, 1975, 1976), in Odessa, in Kharkov (1952, 1976), in Lvov (1952), in Kiev, Kishinev (1976), Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Vologda (1977).

Kibrik taught in the art studio for working youth Izoram (1930–1932), the Institute of painting, sculpture and architecture (1942–1943) during his evacuation in Samarkand, Moscow Art Institute named after V. I. Surikov (1953–1976). Kibrik was a professor since 1954. He also headed workshop of easel graphic art. Kibrik also taught graphic art at the USSR Academy of Arts in Moscow (1967–1976). His students were A. P. Munkhalov, V. E. Popkov, E. S. Sivtsev, and N. V. Shcheglov. Kibrik published articles and books, which were dedicated to history and practice of visual arts; he wrote memoirs Work and thoughts of an artist (Moscow, 1984).
Kibrik was laureate of the State (Stalin) Prize (1948); the Honoured Art Worker of RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1948); corresponding member (1949), member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1962); the People’s Artist of the USSR (1967). Kibrik was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1956) and the Order of V. I. Lenin (1976).

Kibrik was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

Evgeny Kibrik was one of the significant masters of the Soviet graphic art. His early works (illustrations to the books by Y. N. Tynyanov) were created under the influence of P. N. Filonov and his method of analytic art. Later Kibrik painted in academic realism style. His preferable techniques were drawings by charcoal and pencil, black watercolor, and lithography. The most significant graphical cycles were series of illustrations to the Colas Breugnon by R. Rolland (1934–1936), The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel by Ch. De Coster (1937–1938), Taras Bulba by N. V. Gogol (1943–1945), Russian heroic bylinas (1948–1950).

Works by Evgeny Kibrik are in many museum collections, including the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Musem, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and others. The Art Museum named after E. A. Kibrik was founded in the native town of the artist Voznesensk (branch of the Nikolaevsky Art Museum named after V. V. Vereshchagin).