Artist of the week: Basil Komardenkov
ARTinvestment.RU   06 апреля 2020

History, pricing and marketing indicators Vasily Petrovich Komardenkova — one of the creators of the Russian avant-garde

the Sign of a true artist —
to work for anybody, only for myself.
the need of the soul.
V. V. Rozov on Komardenkova. MOSH, 1986

Years of life: 1897-1973

Period: modernism

Directions: painting, graphics, scenography

Basil Komardenkov — artist of astonishing destiny. Despite the fact that today his name is not the first that comes to mind when thinking about Russian avant-garde and the famous artists of the first half of the XX century, for his contemporaries he was one of the important pieces of theater, poetry and of course art circles 1920-30-х years, the heyday of the second wave of Russian avant-garde.

For his rich creative life, Komardenkov managed to draw more than sixty performances, including not only the scenery but also the costumes, made by the artist-оформителем more than three dozen films. In addition to film and theater, he also participated in the design of operas, ballets and circus performances, and in 1919, together with Yuri Annenkov painted the walls of the club "the all-Russian Union of poets" on Tverskaya street in Moscow, was engaged in easel painting. Worked as book designer and Illustrator, he participated in the creation of "Windows of Growth", was a friend of S. A. Yesenin, A. B. Mariengof, V. G. Shershenevich, V. Kamensky, G. B. Kulovym etc., taught at the Stroganov school.

the Rise of his career as an artist-оформителя was rapid: in the theater, he came 17-летним, and in 21 years of doing large independent projects — for example, has designed the Opera "Eugene Onegin" staged by Fyodor Komissarzhevsky.

Vasily Komardenkov was born 11 APR 1897 in Moscow, in a poor family of a bricklayer and a seamstress. In 1902, after the death of his father, the financial condition of the family deteriorated, and the mother of the future artist began working as a maid in the house of a doctor. Basil the desire to learn to draw the mother did not understand and did not approve, but the doctor, whom she served, probably, saw in the boy the makings of a creative and in early 1910-х years helped to get the initial art education — private lessons from artist Dmitry scherbinovskiy, one of the favorite students of Pavel Chistyakov and Ilya Repin. These lessons helped Komardenkova to do in 1912 at the Stroganov art-промышленное school, and then — in MUZhViZ, which he graduated from in 1917.

In 1914, along with the lessons in the art of the architect and graphics Stanislaus noakowskiego street, Komardenkov began working as a stage designer at the Opera si Zimin in Moscow, and after graduating in 1918-1925 he served in the Moscow Chamber theater ay Tairov.

a Significant influence on creative method and style of the artist had the work on the first independent project — design of P. I. Tchaikovsky's Opera "Eugene Onegin" in 1918. After years of Komardenkov write about this work in his memoirs: "When I made the sketches for "Eugene Onegin", Fyodor Fyodorovich Komissarzhevsky gave me the album, which had pictures of works of Quarenghi, Rossi, Kazakov, Gilardi and others... When he came to Me, I began to show the sketches, admiring the proportions Rossi, Gilardi, showing where and how I applied. Fyodor patiently listened to me, looked work, and, smiling, said, “You do not understand what I want from you. Obviously, everyone knew it and the architect who built the house for Larin. But the main thing is that he is... likely to have been incompetent. Once in the small County town near Larin's estate, he created buildings for poor and poorly versed landlords, they were Larini... Go and make sketches of how they would do incompetent architect, understand?” I was saddened and discouraged, but still said, “Can you trust me because I am similar to an architect about whom you spoke so convincingly?” — “No, it's not, — said Sorry. — Understand, to transform, to find the right way, you need to know. To break the classic proportions for this solution is not so simple, while remaining an artist. Know to play the fool, you have to be smart.” I made sketches, Fedor Fedorovich approved them".

This lesson has not passed for the budding theatre artist for nothing. Subsequently, critics and theatrical Newspapers repeatedly noted in my reviews of the amazing accuracy of interpretations, the diversity of artistic techniques and atmospheric works Komardenkova, "nominated for one of the first places among designers".

In 1927, the artist created sketches of costumes and scenery for the play "a Midsummer night's Dream" on the play by W. Shakespeare State drama theatre. Ivan Franko in Kiev — this project he later considered his most successful work in the theater.

In 1925 to theatrical activities Komardenkova added and work in film. For 14 years, from 1925-го 1939-й, he participated in the production of 29 films —, documentaries, short films, the most famous of which — famous film "the foundling" with the immortal "Mulia not nervous about me!". In 2010 there was a color version of this film created in Los-Анджелесе; but it is hardly modern color palette close to the original ideas Komardenkova.

In 1940-х, the artist began to do easel painting. Many oil paintings, mostly quiet, lyrical landscapes, he wrote to the end of life.

In 1946 Komardenkov returned to the Moscow higher is art-промышленное school (so from 1945 it was called the former Stroganov school), but already in the status of the teacher. In 1971 he became Professor at MVHPU, headed the Department of painting. In this position he remained until his death on 16 April 1973.

In 1929 the work of Basil Komardenkova exhibited at the First theatre-декорационной exhibition in Moscow, but first appearance on the international stage took place earlier: in the 1922 exhibition of Russian avant-garde was organized by the Berlin Galerie van Diemen. In 1937-м the artist participated in the worldexhibition in Paris, where he was awarded a silver medal. When life Komardenkov had only one solo exhibition in 1957, posthumous retrospective of the artist was held in Moscow in exactly 30 years. In 2008 his works were exhibited at the exhibition dedicated to Russian symbolism, Musée d'Ixelles (Aalst, Belgium). Works are in several Museum and private collections, including the State Tretyakov gallery, State Russian Museum, Moscow Museum of modern art and others.

Financial indicators

the three most expensive works of Basil Komardenkova includes paintings, written in the 1920-30-е years: gouache costume design "Merchant" (1928), sold in 2008 for $3 200, and oil painting on paper "In the far East" (1930-е), gone from the auction of the Auction in 2016 for $2030, and the picturesque "Tower. Suprematist composition" (1920-е), sold in 2018 for $1 896.

According to the database ARTinvestment.RU, at the time of publication the artist has 31 appearance at the auction. The average cost of sold work — $2.1 thousand Total capitalization to the public market — $16.2 thousand Has a negative balance of sold and unsold works: 8 of 23 (26 % of all trading completed sales). The paintings (3 works) always end up sold at auctions, from graphic works worse: sold 5 of 27.

table 1. Sale during the auction

table 2. Sales by country the auction

Auction statistics Basil Komardenkova to date, has repeated sales, therefore we can use the counting another indicator — exceeded the estimate upon successful sales. The final sale price was on average 89 % of the mean estimate, only once was less than the lower boundary of the assessment the auction house. Exceeding the average estimate is not fixed. This figure is usually the artist that has a limited audience: if sold, without a serious fight buyers for the lots, leading to speculative mark-up, and if the buyers are not found — so fans of the author or the profile of the collectors at the auction was not simple.

Market history Basil Komardenkova indicative of professional artists-сценографов Russia. His work has been noted by international experts theatre-зрелищной sphere, art,historians of the theatre. But foreign auction houses are paying attention to the sketches created by authors, meets a number of criteria. In-первых, they lived and worked in the West and because there is a known; in-вторых, their work has been recognized and highly valued by the market; in-третьих, costume or decoration was not for them a core area, but supported by, for example, the brand "Russian seasons". We are talking primarily about Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov, Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Alexander Benois or. In the first wave of Russian avant-garde Komardenkov did not get in because of the young age and the second wave and its artists yet sufficiently explicit to a wider audience either in the West or in Russia.

On the current 324-м AI Auction V. Komardenkov "Sun is shining" (1930-е).

Maria Kuznetsova, AI
Denis Belkevich, AI

Sources:

1. Victor Rozov. Collected works in 3 volumes. Volume 3. Staging. Thoughts on prochuvstvovanii and experiences (Publications in periodicals). M.: OLMA-Пресс, 2001. Str. 333-335;
2. V. P. Komardenkov. The last days. From the memoirs of the artist. Moscow: Soviet artist. 1972;
3. artinvestment.ru;
4. rusavangard.ru.