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Lot Essay
Sergei Chekhonin (1878-1936) was without doubt one of the most versatile artists of his generation. His artistic output remained thoroughly diverse throughout all stages of his life, consistently producing a kaleidoscopic range of work. His ability to adapt and master multiple media, including a wide range of decorative arts as well as graphic design, while developing new techniques and methods, rank him as one of the greats of Russian art, and surely, one of the leaders in European porcelain design and graphic art in general. Lots 1-35 are testament to Chekhonin’s versatility and exceptional talent and form the largest collection of the artist’s work ever to appear at auction.
Chekhonin began his foray into the art world in 1896, when he began studying at the Drawing School of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts in St Petersburg. It was not until 1914 that he made a splash at the Graphic Art exhibition in Leipzig when his work garnered massive critical acclaim. From then onwards he became an unstoppable creative force - in 1918, through his friendship with Alexandre Benois, he joined the World of Art society and began to produce a wide range of creative output: designing book covers, posters, bank notes, postage stamps, governmental seals and creating new fonts.
Chekhonin’s book designs were incredibly varied, and often distinctly tongue-in-cheek and imbued with an absurd humour. The movement of his brush is energetic while maintaining a steely flexibility to create his characteristic angular fonts, as if engraved on metal. In his murals and friezes, the intertwining flowers contrast with the flatness of the plane, thereby emphasizing the lack of depth, while the skillful weaving of each blade of grass with the flower stems on Chekhonin’s enamels complements the delicacy of the medium.
In 1918, Chekhonin was appointed the Creative Director at the State Porcelain Factory in Petrograd, thereby marking his ascent into the porcelain world. Thanks to this appointment, he spearheaded the resurrection of porcelain art, adding the now ubiquitous hammer and sickle that so defined Soviet agitprop to the porcelain. Moreover, his original fonts suited the medium exquisitely: the vivid, jaunty and bouncy lettering seem to barely cling to the boundaries of the works, itching to leap out at the viewer, while the jagged, geometrical shapes contrast with the juxtaposed interlacing leaves and flowers.
Crucially, Cubo-Futurist influences often recur in Chekhonin’s work: his ability to combine the sharp, jarring shapes and place them in an arrangement to create an organic whole elevated the expressiveness of his artistry. These motifs shine through not just in his porcelain and book designs but also in his jewellery designs, his set designs produced for Nikita Balieff’s (1873-1936) theatre group La Chauve-Souris and costumes and designs for the ballets of Vera Nemtchikova (1900-1984).
His watercolours and portraits, however, are not always defined by his characteristic strong black line and vivid use of colour. Instead, delicate, pastel tones are combined with the strong, almost fleeting brushwork, attentively capturing the energy and individuality of the sitter. In 1920, he was commissioned to draw Lenin’s portrait in profile, the outline of which was were used for the portraits as well as applied art, notably porcelain.
As a pioneer of decorative arts, Chekhonin spearheaded the revitalisation of a craft long since dormant, transmuting the most bold and daring of designs onto the most mundane and every-day of objects. Not only did he follow his brief of encapsulating the vigour of the regime’s revolutionary ideals in his propaganda pieces, but he also mastered revolutionary techniques in art and graphic design, subverting the norms of plane, rhythm and space. The variety of his highly fruitful oeuvre is testament to his incomparable drive to push the boundaries of creative production and that of technology itself in search of sculpting new modes of artistic expression. His passion lay not only in the outstanding quality of his creative output but in the opportunities for innovation; and thus, the breadth of this collection encapsulates not just his gift for creating extraordinary, diverse art but most importantly, the intrinsic joy in creating.
Chekhonin began his foray into the art world in 1896, when he began studying at the Drawing School of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts in St Petersburg. It was not until 1914 that he made a splash at the Graphic Art exhibition in Leipzig when his work garnered massive critical acclaim. From then onwards he became an unstoppable creative force - in 1918, through his friendship with Alexandre Benois, he joined the World of Art society and began to produce a wide range of creative output: designing book covers, posters, bank notes, postage stamps, governmental seals and creating new fonts.
Chekhonin’s book designs were incredibly varied, and often distinctly tongue-in-cheek and imbued with an absurd humour. The movement of his brush is energetic while maintaining a steely flexibility to create his characteristic angular fonts, as if engraved on metal. In his murals and friezes, the intertwining flowers contrast with the flatness of the plane, thereby emphasizing the lack of depth, while the skillful weaving of each blade of grass with the flower stems on Chekhonin’s enamels complements the delicacy of the medium.
In 1918, Chekhonin was appointed the Creative Director at the State Porcelain Factory in Petrograd, thereby marking his ascent into the porcelain world. Thanks to this appointment, he spearheaded the resurrection of porcelain art, adding the now ubiquitous hammer and sickle that so defined Soviet agitprop to the porcelain. Moreover, his original fonts suited the medium exquisitely: the vivid, jaunty and bouncy lettering seem to barely cling to the boundaries of the works, itching to leap out at the viewer, while the jagged, geometrical shapes contrast with the juxtaposed interlacing leaves and flowers.
Crucially, Cubo-Futurist influences often recur in Chekhonin’s work: his ability to combine the sharp, jarring shapes and place them in an arrangement to create an organic whole elevated the expressiveness of his artistry. These motifs shine through not just in his porcelain and book designs but also in his jewellery designs, his set designs produced for Nikita Balieff’s (1873-1936) theatre group La Chauve-Souris and costumes and designs for the ballets of Vera Nemtchikova (1900-1984).
His watercolours and portraits, however, are not always defined by his characteristic strong black line and vivid use of colour. Instead, delicate, pastel tones are combined with the strong, almost fleeting brushwork, attentively capturing the energy and individuality of the sitter. In 1920, he was commissioned to draw Lenin’s portrait in profile, the outline of which was were used for the portraits as well as applied art, notably porcelain.
As a pioneer of decorative arts, Chekhonin spearheaded the revitalisation of a craft long since dormant, transmuting the most bold and daring of designs onto the most mundane and every-day of objects. Not only did he follow his brief of encapsulating the vigour of the regime’s revolutionary ideals in his propaganda pieces, but he also mastered revolutionary techniques in art and graphic design, subverting the norms of plane, rhythm and space. The variety of his highly fruitful oeuvre is testament to his incomparable drive to push the boundaries of creative production and that of technology itself in search of sculpting new modes of artistic expression. His passion lay not only in the outstanding quality of his creative output but in the opportunities for innovation; and thus, the breadth of this collection encapsulates not just his gift for creating extraordinary, diverse art but most importantly, the intrinsic joy in creating.