SHEVCHENKO Alexander Vasilievich

June 7, 1883 (Kharkov) — August 26, 1948 (Moscow)

Painter, graphic artist, art theoretician

Aleksander Shevchenko was born to a family of merchant employee. In 1890–1898 he studied at Kharkov non-classical secondary school. In 1899 Shevchenko together with his family moved to Moscow. He entered the faculty of metalworking at the Stroganov School of Industrial Art. In 1905–1906 he took lessons of J.-P. Laurens in the Academy of R. Julien; studied under the guidance of A. Dinet in the Academy of E. Carriere.  In the same years he made a trip to Spain. In 1907 Shevchenko graduated from the faculty of decorative art at the Stroganov School. He entered Moscow School of painting, sculpture and architecture (MUZhVZ), where he studied under A. E. Arkhipov and K. A. Korovin. Shevchenko met A. V. Kuprin, R. R. Falk, M. F. Larionov, and N. S. Goncharova. In 1909 he was expelled from the School. In 1910 Shevchenko exposed his works at the first exhibition of the group Bubnovy Valet (“Jack of Diamonds”). After the split between left artists, Shevchenko joined the group of Larionov and Goncharova. In 1910–1911 he participated in the Second Salon of V. A. Izdebsky. In 1911 he exposed his works at the exhibition Osliniy Khvost (“Donkey’s Tail”), in 1914 — at the exhibitions Mishen (“The Target”) and No. 4. In 1913 Shevchenko published a series of theoretical works: Neo-primitivism. Its theory. Its opportunities. Its achievements; Principle of cubism and other movements in art of all times and all nations.

In 1915 Shevchenko was called up for military service, served in Byelorussia and Lithuania. In 1916 he was contused; in 1917 he was demobilized. Since 1917 Shevchenko was a member of the group Mir Iskusstva (“World of Art”). After the revolution, he headed the department of art and literature of the National commissariat of education (Narkompros). He also was a member of the Commission for Protection of works of art and antiquities of Moscow Soviet of People’s Deputies (Mossovet). In 1919 Shevchenko together with A. V. Grishchenko founded the Museum of painting culture. In 1919 he published the manifest Color dynamos and tectonic primitivism. Since 1920 Shevchenko was a professor in the Higher State Artistic and Technical Workshops (VKhUTEMAS). He also lectured at the Institute of Art Culture (Inkhuk). In 1921 he joined Moscow Association of Artists. Since 1922 he was a member of the union of artists and poets Art — life, which was renamed Makovets in 1924. In 1926 Shevchenko was one of the founders of the group Tsekh Zhivopistsev (“The guild of painters”).

In 1929, 1930, 1932 Shevchenko traveled to the Caucasus (Dagestan, Adzharia, Azerbaijan). He was interested in the technique of monotype, which he studied in the workshop of E. S. Kruglikova in Paris.

In the last years of his life Shevchenko was often accused of formalism, but he continued to paint. In 1940–1942 he headed the department of painting and drawing at the Textile Institute.

Although Shevchenko was in the thick of struggle for new forms in art in 1910s, he was the most traditional artist among other ones. Larionov wrote about the painting of Shevchenko, “Cubistic, futuristic and rayonistic forms were included into the picture with academic composition.” Most of all Shevchenko was interested in neo-primitivism. In early 1920s he studied art of P. Sezanne. Works by Shevchenko of that period had analogy with the works of the French master. Paintings and drawing of 1930s (especially the Caucasus subject) were characterized by monumentality, but at the same time by simple motifs, emotional colors, lyricism and romantic interpretation of landscape. In 1940s Shevchenko painted landscapes and genre scenes.

Works by Aleksander Shevchenko are in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, and the State Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg.