Born 1885, Mozhaisk - Died 1964, Moscow

Painter

Paintings        Biography       

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Additional work by this artist may be found at the Makovetz movement.

Paintings

Biography:

Sergey Gerasimov was born September 26^th 1885 in an ancient town of Mozhaisk, near Moscow, situated on the Moscow river, in a family of a peasant tanner, Vassily Gerasimov.

The boy loved drawing from an early age. Upon finishing school, in 1900, Sergey went to Moscow, looking for a job and not even daring to dream of a career in art. There he has heard that the Stroganov school of Art and Design was accepting students, and decided to try enrolling, with no training, on luck alone. He passed the entrance examinations with flying colors and was accepted to the department of decorative painting to study under K.Korovin and S.Ivanov.

Despite the school's dominant trend of leaning towards industrial and applied art, Gerasimov was attracted to easel painting. He graduated in 1907 as decorator, and enrolled into the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he studied till 1912.

Gerasimov's early exposure to Russian countryside landscapes and small-town life has more or less decided his choice of main subject for his later painting carreer. There were markets, fairs, landscapes, genre paintings, portraits of peasants and townspeople. In his early work he worked a lot in watercolor; striving to solve the issues of air and light he added gouache or whitening, achieving more solidity and volume.

In 1912 the artist was offered a job of teaching drawing at the art school of the firm of Sytin and Company, Printers and Lithographers, which has began his long and successulf teaching carreer.

Gerasimov was drafted in the army service in WWI, and served in the front, which influenced his views a great deal.

The Great October Revolution was an event which the artist supported. He has taken an active role in the activities of the Moscow Department of Fine Arts at the Peoples' Commissariat of Education. He has, along with his fellow artists, reorganized Sytin's art school, which he headed from 1918 to 1923. In 1920-29 he served as Dean as well as professor at the Department of Painting of VKhUTEMAS.

Gerasimov participated in decorating Moscow for the First Anniversary of the October Revolution of the Serpukhov and Kaluga Squares, and of the building of the former city Duma (later the central Lenin Museum).

In 1921 Gerasimov has joined the World of Art movement, but left after participating in a single exhibition. In 1922 he joined the newly formed Makovetz movement, and his years as a member of the group (till 1925) has confirmed his belief in realism in art. Then, in 1928 Gerasimov has joined OMKh

In 1925 he has visited Mediterranian Europe (Greece, Italy and Turkey).

In 1937 he participated in the International Fair "Arts et techniques dans la vie moderne" in Paris, where his painting "Kolkhoz Holiday " was awarded silver medal. In 1939 this same painting was awarded two prizes at the All-Union art exhibition "The Industry of Socialism" in Moscow. For his "Russian Land" series he was awarded the Lenin prize (posthumously).

Many of Gerasimov's landscapes were painted in the vicinity of his native town. However, he traveled widely through the USSR, and during the WWII in Russia (1941-1945) was evacuated to Central Asia, where he painted Samarkand and other Asian landscapes.

His 1941 patriotic canvas "Mother of a Partisan" has won a gold medal at the World Fair in Brussels in 1958. And his painting "For the Power of the Soviets!" and the series "Mozhaisk Landscapes" were awarde the gold medal of the USSR Academy of Arts at the all-Union art exhibition in 1959. For his "

Despite the school's dominant trend of leaning towards industrial and applied art, Gerasimov was

Alongside his landscape and genre painting? Gerassimov has undertaken several large illustration projects. In 1939 Gerassimov has began illustration of the novel "The Artamonov Business" by Maxim Gorky, a task which has taken 15 years. Soon after the war he has taken on the play "Storm" by A.Ostrovsky, then "The Captain's Daughter" by A.S.Pushkin. But whatever the task - Gerassimov has approached it always with a great deal of knowledge of the subject at hand and deep thorough understanding.

Gerasimov served as charmain for the Union of Artists of Moscow, and then First Secretary of the all-USSR Union of Artists.

Sergey Gerasimov has died Aprin 20^th 1964, in Moscow.

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