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Lot Essay
Alexander Alexandrovich Deineka (1899-1969) was one of the most important Russian modernist figurative painters of the first half of the 20th Century. He studied at at Kharkov Art College and at VKhUTEMAS (Higher Art and Technical Studios, later Higher Art and Technical Institute) in Moscow.
He had a vast influence on the Soviet socialist-realist arts and is best known for his paintings and graphic works depicting genre and labour scenes but his oeuvre also includes book illustrations, sketches, posters, frescoes and mosaics as well as sculptures.
Before World War II, Deineka produced an interesting series of small sculptures of athletes and he continued to explore the theme of sport in his paintings and graphic works. His sculptures represent with great expression the human body in movement, reflecting a very particular nature of each sport and encapsulating a fleeting moment. After the war, while teaching in the Institute of the Applied and Decorative Arts in Moscow, the artist continued making sculptures of sportsmen in bronze, wood, ceramics and glass.
The sculptures stylistically relate to Deineka's work on canvas and paper with their clear, simple construction, plastic harmony and inner rhythm. For similar sculptures, see V.P. Sysoev, Alexander Deineka - Monograph, Moscow, 1989, pp. 252, 254, illustrations no. 169 and 171).
He had a vast influence on the Soviet socialist-realist arts and is best known for his paintings and graphic works depicting genre and labour scenes but his oeuvre also includes book illustrations, sketches, posters, frescoes and mosaics as well as sculptures.
Before World War II, Deineka produced an interesting series of small sculptures of athletes and he continued to explore the theme of sport in his paintings and graphic works. His sculptures represent with great expression the human body in movement, reflecting a very particular nature of each sport and encapsulating a fleeting moment. After the war, while teaching in the Institute of the Applied and Decorative Arts in Moscow, the artist continued making sculptures of sportsmen in bronze, wood, ceramics and glass.
The sculptures stylistically relate to Deineka's work on canvas and paper with their clear, simple construction, plastic harmony and inner rhythm. For similar sculptures, see V.P. Sysoev, Alexander Deineka - Monograph, Moscow, 1989, pp. 252, 254, illustrations no. 169 and 171).