Artist of the week: Konstantin Christmas
ARTinvestment.RU   06 июля 2020

History, pricing and marketing metrics of the representative of the Russian avant-garde, a student of Malevich and the masters exhibition design by Konstantin Ivanovich Rozhdestvensky

the Most interesting and rich layer,
that feed life, proved
period associated with our young
hope. ... When there was Casimir.
Constantine Christmas

Years of life: 1906-1997

Direction: vanguard

type of art: a painting, drawing, design

Life and work

the Only one of the masters of Russian avant-garde, which survived until the end of the twentieth century, a pupil and follower of the ideas of Kazimir Malevich Konstantin Ivanovich Rozhdestvensky was born on 19 March (April 1) 1906 in the village of berikul ' Mariinsky district of Tomsk province in the family of a local priest. After finishing primary school at the age of 14 years Konstantin Rozhdestvensky began working in the workshop of wooden toys.

Primary art education, the future artist got in the Studio of the painter Mitrofan Polyakova in Tomsk. With Polyakov Christmas met in 1919, while studying at the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute. In the workshop, which the young artist visited in 1922, the Christmas has created his first independent work (with them in the same 1922, he participated in "Exhibition of Tomsk artists") and also met the latest artistic trends and works of Cezanne, Picasso, Malevich and Tatlin. By the early 1920-х years are the first steps in the design activities of the artist: while studying at the Institute, he worked as a decorator at the Tomsk theatre and issued the Department of "cottage industry" at the agricultural exhibition in Tomsk.

In 1923, for achievements in study and work, Konstantin Rozhdestvensky was on a business trip Tomsk House of education sent to Petrograd to continue art education at the Academy of fine arts. However, brought up on the aesthetics of the latest art trends, Christmas soon left the walls of the Academy and moved on to learning to Kazimir Malevich. At the end of 1923 — early 1924 he worked in MCC (Museum of arts and culture), and since 1924-го to 1926-й — in Ginhuke (State Institute of artistic culture).

Thus, to further art education Christmas was based on a special pedagogical programme Malevich, includes a sequential study of "systems" the new art: impressionism, to some extent, cubism, futurism, Suprematism. Strict adherence to the programme was reflected in the works Christmas 1920-х years: if in his portraits, still-lifes and landscapes 1923-1924 years dominated by impressionistic techniques, in 1925, he very confidently writes in a recognizable manner of Cezanne, and by 1929 comes to Suprematism and abstraction.

In 1929, a Christmas together with the students of Malevich and L. A. Yudin and V. V. Sterligov founded the creative Association "Group picturesquely-пластического realism", which included V. M. Ermolaeva and A. A. Leporskaya.In addition to participating in the group, in the late 1920-х years he began teaching not only as an artist but also as a theorist and art historian: he worked at the Leningrad Institute of art history and directed the art Studio of the House of culture named after the First five-year plan in Leningrad.

Active in an artist-станковиста classes and the theory and practice of the latest trends of painting Christmas combined with design work: worked on the design and design of books, posters and other paper products. Subsequently, this ability for productive activities in several areas of art will play a big role in his life.

By the 1930s-м years is the next stage of development of the creative manner of the artist. Leaving the experiences of Suprematism in graphics, painting Christmas began to establish a so-called "Peasant cycle" — series of works inspired by the images of poststreptococcal "Peasant cycle" of Malevich (this, incidentally, is the "Peasant woman with outstretched arms in the green jacket" (1930-е), exhibited today at the Auction AI). In this series of Christmas there are several separate themed sections — figures of peasant women, bearded men, family in the field, sheaves, etc.

Researchers of creativity of the artist is creating this cycle "sometimes the highest achievements of the Nativity in painting". Sometimes he uses the plot, composite or plastic solution, he saw Malevich, however, reinvents it, giving your belongings a special feeling, color and atmosphere drawn from your own experience of life in Siberia. "This is a Grand and luminous Siberian sunsets@the semicolon is a red Siberian peasants-крестьяне... this Golden domes of the churches against the dense Siberian forests", — described origins of his inspiration, the artist.

the development of the brushwork of the artist, and indeed his life and work that is directly related to the art of the avant-garde (in art and chart) was broken almost on the rise. In 1934, avoiding the repression suffered by all the other members of Vera Ermolaeva, Christmas moved to Moscow, where she gave painting classes and spent the next six decades.

In Moscow, painting in his life remained as a hobby and main occupation became a decorative art. More specifically — preparation of exhibitions and pavilions for the major, including international exhibitions. Since the late 1930-х years he as a designer designed the pavilions of the USSR at the World exhibition in Paris (1937, under the leadership of N. Suetin) and new-Йорке (1939). In 1958, Christmas was the main artist of the world exhibition in Brussels, for which he was awarded one of the highest awards Belgium — the Order of Leopold II.

In 1950-70-х Deputy chief artist VDNKH, the all-Union building exhibition, designed many Soviet exhibitions abroad, all-Union art exhibition in Moscow, he was curator of decorative-прикладного art at the artists Union of the USSR. For excellence in designactivities in 1976 he received the title of people's artist of the RSFSR, and in 1979-м became a full member of the USSR Academy of arts. One of the last major projects of the artist was the design of the famous exhibition "Moscow — Paris" in the Pushkin Museum. A. S. Pushkin in 1981.

Over the years of its international activity, Konstantin Rozhdestvensky met with many representatives of modern art and even used the work of some of them (for example, De Chirico, art which he respected and loved) as a starting point for creating your own projects. Despite the fact that he no longer took an active part in the creative life of the country as a painter, the principles gleaned them from Malevich and the artists of his circle, he used to work until the end of life.

after living an incredibly long life, Christmas has died in Moscow, 30 June 1997.

for the First time in recent history in the Museum space, top-уровня Konstantin Rozhdestvensky was exhibited in 1992 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in new-Йорке and the City the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam as part of the group exhibition "the Great utopia: Russian and Soviet avant-garde-garde 1915-1932". The first personal exhibition of the artist was held in 1993 at the Galerie Gmurzynska in Cologne. Artworks of Christmas was also presented to the public as part of the group exhibition "In the circle of Malevich" (2000, State Russian Museum, 2001, the State Tretyakov gallery). 100-летию Constantine Christmas in 2006 a retrospective exhibition was held at the State Tretyakov gallery. In 2019 in new-йоркской Almine Rech Gallery hosted a group exhibition Lineup ("Composition <художников>"), in which the Christmas work was exhibited next to the works of 23 artists, including Pablo Picasso, Pierre Bonnard, Kazimir Malevich, Barnett Newman and Frank Stella.

the artist's Works are in the collection of the State Tretyakov gallery, the prestigious private collections in Russia (in particular, in the meeting Roman Babichev), Europe and the United States.

Financial indicators

the three most expensive things Konstantin Rozhdestvensky includes works created in the late 1920-х — the early 1930-х years and sold in London auction houses. The third value of the result was achieved in 2013: "the Crimean landscape and a self-Portrait (two sided)" (1929, watercolor on paper) was sold at MacDougall's for $11 435. The next two price records were set in 2019-2020 at Sotheby's in November last year, "Standing female figure" (1934, oil on canvas) was sold for $128 650, and the last of the June auction Sotheby's sold the painting "Girl without a passport" (1933, oil on plywood) for $142 054.

According to the database ARTinvestment.RU, at the time of publication of the artist's work 10 times were removed for auction, including the painting @5 mdas works, graphics @5 mdas works. The average price of sold works — $90,0 thousand Total capitalization to the public market — $282,1 thousand Has a balance of sold and unsold works 3 to 7 (30% of all tradingended sale).

table 1. Sale during the auction

table 2. Sales by country the auction

At the moment Konstantin Rozhdestvensky has no repeated sales, therefore we can use the counting another indicator — exceeded the estimate upon successful sales. The average estimate of all sold works by the artist have been exceeded by 220 % — in other words, the sellers received an average amount of almost 2.2 times more than the initial estimation of the auction house. The upper limit of the estimate is recorded when 100 % of sales. Note that the auction history of the artist began in 2011, i.e. after the boom of the Russian avant-garde from local collectors of 2007-2009, which led to overheating of the market and the speculative growth of prices, and then the same sharp weakening of demand. In the case of Constantine Christmas market public sales of the artist was formed, rather, "in spite of" rather than "thanks" — in other words, the natural way, without the participation of the regulators on top. This, in particular, may explain the negative balance of sales in the first years of appearances on the auction.

In common practice, in the case when an artist has 10 auction precedents, and the two most successful sales come from the last auction, you must look for the causes in marketing activities and lobbying. Despite the retrospective exhibition of Christmas in the Tretyakov gallery (2006), the interests standing behind it, private collectors were not taken into account in the formation of international exhibitions RUSSIA! (2006-2007, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in new-Йорке and Bilbao) and From Russia (2008, Royal Academy of arts in London). Therefore, the artist did not get in a conditional "pool" of Russian avant-garde, determined the taste and demand in subsequent years. While Galerie Gmurzynska, one of the most influential galleries dealing with the art of XX century, continued to work with international buyers. In our opinion, the catalyst for interest in the work of Konstantin Rozhdestvensky became a group exhibition in new-йоркской Almine Rech Gallery (2019), where the artist would be presented along with the first names of the authors of his time. Note that among the 24 artists that show only Konstantin Rozhdestvensky at the moment is exposed by the auction houses in the compositionniche trading (the"Russian week") — others have already crossed into the category of the most prestigious evening sale. Given this, the question arises: how long Constantine Christmas will be the local Russian artist, or soon will be replaced by the auction residence with the prefix Russian Born ("born in Russia")?

On the current, 337-м AI Auction cardboard "the Woman with outstretched arms in the green jacket" (1930-е).

Maria Kuznetsova, AI
Denis Belkevich, AI

Sources: liveinternet.ru, tg-m.ru, babichevcollection.com