SHUGRIN Anatoly Ivanovich

January 28, 1906 (Moscow) — September 21, 1987 (Moscow)

Painter, graphic artist, sculptor

Anatoly Shugrin studied at the municipal elementary boy’s school (1914–1918). At the same time he attended the art school named after A. V. Lunacharsky (1919–1925). Later Shugrin studied at the department of art and education in Moscow State College of Fine Arts in memory of the revolt of 1905, under the guidance of N. M. Grigoriev and M. K. Sokolov (1925–1930).

Shugrin was a member of the Union of Art Workers (Rabis, 1929) and the Society of Moscow artists (OMKh, 1930).

In 1931–1933 Shugrin worked in studios of industrial art MASTOMKh (workshops of the Society of Moscow artists, OMKh). He also collaborated with Moscow Assosiation of Artists (MTKh) and the All-Russian co-operative society Vsekokhedozhnik (“Artist”).

Shugrin created scene design to the performances Slava (“Fame”) by V. Gusev in the First Moscow Worker’s Comedy Theatre; The Miser by J.-B. Molière at Moscow State Drama Theatre, together with S. K. Eiges and L. A. Nikitin, in 1936. He also designed the performance Cabals and Love by F. Schiller in the Club named after E. Thälmann in Moscow in 1939 (together with Y. P. Shchepansky).

During the World War II, Shugrin served in the Red Army. He participated in exhibitions of painters — Red Army soldiers. He painted pictures, which were dedicated to historical personalities: K. Minin, D. M. Pozharsky, A. V. Suvorov, and M. I. Kutuzov. Shugrin also painted portrait of I. V. Stalin.

Since 1945 Shugrin was a member of Moscow Section of the Union of Artists (MOSKh). In his art Shugrin was original; he created his own recognizable style. He painted portraits of scientists, cultural workers and leaders of USSR.

Shugrin taught painting and drawing in Moscow municipal art school (1948–1966), in Stroganov School of Industrial Art (1952).

Shugrin began to expose his works in 1933. He took part in exhibition Artists of USSR for 15 years (1933, Moscow); exhibition of the Municipal Committee of Artists (Gorkom, 1939, Moscow); exhibition of works of artists, sent on summer missions in 1939 (1940, Moscow); exhibition Young artists of RSFSR (1941, Moscow).

In 1991 Shugrin’s paintings were exposed at the exhibition Moscow artists of 1920s–1930s in Moscow.

Personal exhibitions of Shugrin were held in Washington in 1982 (retrospective exhibition); in Moscow in 1987 (one-day exhibition, dedicated to the Shugrin’s commemoration meeting); and in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow in 2009.

Shugrin died in 1987 in Moscow. He was buried in the Smolensk cemetery in Rzhev.

Shugrin was interested in theatre scene design at the beginning of his art life. In painting he followed the traditions of Moscow school. A lot of early works of Shugrin were lost during the World War II; it made difficult to study evolution of his art. Experts supposed that important period of Shugrin’s art life was in 1930s–1940s, when he experimented with color, texture and forms. His paintings of that period were characterized by decorative expression, geometrical forms, and intensive colors. Shugrin’s late works (abstract collages and sculpture) were similar to non-figurative art of 1910s–1920s. Shugrin continued traditions of Russian avant-garde.

In 1980s I. V. Savitsky bought several works by Shugrin for the State Museum of Art in Karakalpakstan ASSR (Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic) in Nukus. Works by Anatoly Shugrin are in the museums of Nukus, Yaroslavl, Novosibirsk, Tbilisi and in private collections in Russia, France, Hungary, USA and others.