Artist of the week: Alexander Drevin
ARTinvestment.RU   30 марта 2020

History, pricing and marketing metrics Alexander Davidovich Drevin — one of the leaders of Russian avant-garde 1920-30-х years

That can be for the artist more necessary
how to feel that you are getting power
from two great sources:
the power of life and strong nature.

Alexander Drevin. 1934

life Years: 1889-1938

Period: vanguard

Directions: the painting, graphics

Life and work

In his relatively short-lived, about 30 years, the creative life of the artist Alexander Drevin had a lot: they created paintings and drawings in the style of expressionism, abstraction, close lucismo, and dozens of figurative and landscape compositions, he participated in exhibitions of "Jack of diamonds", directed museums and taught in VKhUTEMAS, was highly valued by his contemporaries, especially Vladimir Tatlin.

Alexander (Alexander Rudolph) Davidovich Drevin (the Drawings) was born on 3 July 1889 in the town of Wenden Livonia of the Russian Empire (today — Cesis, Latvia). In 1895, the family of the future artist moved to Riga, and in 1914 the First world war and forced them to flee and Riga and to move to Moscow.

unlike many other artists Drevin was not one of those who drew from childhood. Interested in the art of the future artist after study in seaworthy school (1904-1907), and took part in revolutionary activities (and even hung around for-то time under arrest in 1906). However, the rise of the writer has been meteoric: since 1912, a student of the Riga city art school, where he studied from 1908 to 1914, Drevin began to take part in city exhibitions. Moreover, in the same 1912-м year, 2-й the exhibition of Latvian artists in Riga one of the three artist's works were acquired by Riga city art Museum directly from the exhibition.

a Huge impact on the creative life of Drevin had his move to Moscow in the end of 1914. In the first years in a new place, from 1915 to 1917, the artist was busy working on close to him the series of paintings "the Refugee", in which he rethought recently experienced his family fleeing from the war. Then, in 1915, he took part in the group exhibition "Jack of diamonds", however, as he later wrote, until 1917 he was not familiar with Russian artists.

"the Rapprochement with Russian artists occurred after 9-й Latvian rifle regiment has nominated me for social work in the Latvian national Commissariat; I took part in the exhibition in the Kremlin, arranged by the arrows, where do I put the primitives and figurative works. After 1-й exhibition of the Union of artists of Moscow, where I first exhibited with Russian artists V. E. Tatlin invited me to a fine arts Department where I worked until 1920", — Drevin wrote in his autobiography. The fact that leadership is the art Studio for the Latvian Riflemen in Latvian National Commissariat will play in his life not the last role.

In 1920-м year in the life of an artist has seen several important changes. He was invited as a Professor at VKhUTEMAS, where he taught for ten years, till the close of the Institute in 1930. In the same year he married one of the "Amazons of the avant-garde", a pupil of Malevich and one of the leading artists of the first half of the XX century Nadezhda Andreevna Udaltsova.

Changed and creative manner Drevin from early created largely under the influence of impressionism (with the exception of a terse series "a Refugee) compositions he was under the influence of the environment in the first place Udaltsova, moving towards a more avant-garde, abstract, reminiscent of leucism Mikhail Larionov and Natalia Goncharova, manner.

However, by the mid 1920-х years, the artist turns to landscape painting and more figurative subjects. Landscapes will be the main focus of his painting over the next 10 years.

In search of inspiration and new views of nature Drevin, from the first half of 1920-х years and prior to 1930-х, makes several journeys, each of which is afterwards embodied in a separate scenic loop.

So, summer country trip in 1923 and 1924 has inspired him to create a series of landscapes of the village Sokolniki, near Savelovskaya railway and Dmitrov. Creative trip to the Urals in 1926-1928 embodied in the extensive "Ural cycle" and work "Altaic series", created on motives of travel to the Altai mountains in Eastern Kazakhstan, was shown at the famous exhibition of group "13" in 1931.

About the years of hard creative searches of the artist wrote: "I have dealt with the environment limits for yourself. And always astounded me is that things don't reach the goal. Not everything that I write only from nature, is a work of art... Since 1930, I tried to write the same nature, but in the Studio, and strangely, she began to turn gradually into something else; nature disappeared, and the language of painting intensified, it created another reality."

the Landscapes painted after 1930, in the late period of the artist's work has also found its audience. In 1934 drawings and paintings made by Drevenym during her visit to Armenia in 1933-1934, was exhibited at the specially organized exhibition in the State cultural-историческом the Museum of Yerevan.

Not accidentally 1930-е years are estimated by experts as the most productive (and valuable for the market) in the artist's work. Numerous masterfully executed landscapes in addition to unique in their interpretation of nature the hand of a master and a subtle but recognizable at first glance, the spirit of freedom, power, and endless, like a vibrating space, inherent in the works of Drevin. In 1937, the artist repeatedly visited on the Mologa river, and probably planned the new infinity cycle.

18 Dec 1937 Alexander Drevin was called as a witness for questioningthe organs of the NKVD. 17 Jan 1938 — arrested and 26 Feb — shot at Butovo in Moscow, convicted on the case "Latvian Riflemen". In 1957, the artist was rehabilitated posthumously, two years after his work first appeared in a group exhibition of artists — "Latvian Riflemen" in Riga. In 1979 in Moscow and Leningrad were the first retrospective exhibition of Alexander Drevin.

Since the mid-1970-х years the works of Alexander Drevin and have been exhibited abroad in Dusseldorf (1977, from the collection of G. Kostaki), in new-Йорке (1981-1982, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum), in Cologne (1984, "Seven Russian artists. 1910-1930"), in Tokyo, Budapest and Vienna (1987-1988, "Art and revolution"), in Helsinki (1988, "Russian avant-garde"). In the twenty-first century his works were exhibited at the Museum of contemporary art, Thessaloniki, Greece (2005), Nadja Brykina Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland (2007) and the Museo Casa del Mantegna, Mantova, Italy (2009).

the artist's Works are in many Museum and private collections, including the State Tretyakov gallery, Pushkin Museum im. Alexander Pushkin (both — Moscow), State Russian Museum (Saint-Петербург), the Museum of contemporary art in Thessaloniki (Greece), State art Museum in Riga, the Museum in new-Хейвене (Connecticut, USA), the Museum Ludwig in Cologne and private collections in Russia, Europe and the United States. Outside of Russia the artist on a regular basis submit Galerie Gmurzynska (Zurich, Switzerland) and Galerie Karenina (Vienna, Austria).

Financial performance

According to the database ARTinvestment.RU by the time of publication, the artist has 54 auction sale. The average cost of sold work — $39.3 thousand, the Total capitalization on the public market — $1.18 million Has a positive balance of sold and unsold works: 30 on the 24th (56 % of all trading completed sales). Ratings indexes:

• the index of the painting: 34 (2014) → 43 (2019), growth
• the Index charts: 148 (2014) → 84 (2016), the fall

the Three most expensive works of the author are paintings relating to the same creative period, the late 1920-х — early 1930-х years:

• Landscape with figures ($157 388, 2013, Macdougall's, London);
• the view from the window. Menshikov tower ($145 000, 2005, SOVKOM, Moscow);
• section. The Stubble ($141 400, 2007, SOVKOM, Moscow).

table 1. Sales on the periods of conduction of auctions

table 2. Sales by country the auction

table 3. Repeat sales

Alexander Drevin has 10 repeat sales,2 of them were sold at auction 3 times. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR): -12,0 %. The main reasons for negative values of average annual growth rate — make a purchase on the "superheated" market of 2007-2009, and small for the Russian avant-garde period of possession of those works, which were purchased in 2010-х.

noteworthy is the increase in the number of successful sales over time, and resumed in the last decade, interest in the artist among foreign museums and dealers.

On the current 323-м AI Auction exhibited the work of Alexander Drevin "Zavod. The River Mologa" (1937).

Maria Kuznetsova, AI
Denis Belkevich, AI

Sources: latvjustrelnieki.lv, artinvestment.ru, w.histrf.ru