Alexei Kravchenko

Painter, graphic artist, engraver, illustrator, teacher. Studied at Saratov Religious Academy (1896–1900), under Abram Arkhipov, Konstantin Korovin and Valentin Serov at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1904–05, 1907–10) and at Simon Hollósy’s school in Munich (1905–06). Awarded the Isaac Levitan Prize (1908). Member of the Moscow Salon (1911), Moscow Fellowship of Artists (1913), Society of Travelling Art Exhibitions and Free Art, founding member of Four Arts (1924). Took up engraving (1913) and etching (1916), helped to establish the Soviet school of xylography. Travelled to India and Ceylon as a fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1913), visited Japan. Commissioned as an official war artist during the First World War (1914–15). Helped to found the Moscow Trade Union of Artists (1917–18). Lived and worked in Saratov (1918–21), where he headed the Alexander Radischev Museum of Art. Taught at the State Free Art Studios in Moscow (1918–21) and Saratov (1921–23) and the Moscow Institute of Fine Arts/Vasily Surikov Institute of Art (1935–40). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1906). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Fellowship of Independents (1909), Free Creativity (1911–13), World of Art (1911, 1924), Union of Russian Artists (1912, 1913, 1923), Modern Painting (1912), Moscow Fellowship of Artists (1912–22), Moscow Salon (1910s), Society of Travelling Art Exhibitions (1914–16), Four Arts (1924–31), United Art (1925), exhibitions of Russian and Soviet art in Amsterdam (1922, 1929), Berlin (1922, 1930), New York (1924, 1929), Philadelphia (1924, 1933), Los Angeles (1925), Tokyo/Osaka/Nagoya (1927), Brussels (1928), Riga (1929), Winterthur (1929), Vienna (1930), London (1928, 1930, 1934, 1938), Copenhagen (1930, 1933), Montreal (1935), Oslo (1936), Nanking (1936) and Norway (1938), international exhibitions in Venice (1924, 1930, 1934), Milan (1927), Cologne (1928), Chicago (1931) and Brussels (1937), Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris (1925, grand prix), Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne in Paris (1937) and one-man shows in Kazan (1924), Paris (1927), Kiev (1930, 1956), Kaunas (1939), Vienna (1944), Leningrad (1956), Moscow (1934, 1956, 1973, 1989, 2008, 2009), Beijing (1958) and London (2010). Full member of the Academy of Arts (1922), member of the Union of Artists (from 1932), board member of the Tretyakov Gallery.