Alexander Labas

Alexander Labas (1900–1983), Russian avant-garde painter, graphic artist, sculptor, theatrical designer, teacher. Studied at Vitaly Mushketov's studio in Smolensk, Benjamin Blum's School of Drawing and Painting in Riga, Imperial Stroganov Central School of Art and Industry, in the studios of Fyodor Roehrberg and Ilya Mashkov and at the State Free Art Studios/VKhUTEMAS in Moscow. Member of the Method group of Projectionists, Society of Easel Artists and Union of Artists. Taught at the State Free Art Studios in Ekaterinburg, VKhUTEMAS/VKhUTEIN in Moscow and Nadezhda Krupskaya Academy of Communist Education.
Born: 1900, Smolensk
Died: 1983, Moscow

Painter, graphic artist, sculptor, theatrical designer, teacher. Born in Smolensk (1900) in the family of a Jewish journalist and publisher from Vitebsk called Itzhak Labas and his wife Chaya, who died when he was two years old (1902). Studied at Vitaly Mushketov’s private studio in Smolensk (1907–08). Moved with his father, elder brother Abram and sister Raisa to Riga (1910), where he attended Riga Progymnasium and Benjamin Blum’s School of Drawing and Painting (1910–12). Moved to Moscow (1912), where he studied under Fyodor Fedorovsky, Stanislaw-Witold Noakowski and Dmitry Scherbinovsky at the Imperial Stroganov Central School of Art and Industry (1912–17), in the private studios of Fyodor Roehrberg (1915) and Ilya Mashkov (1916) and under Philippe Maliavine, Pyotr Konchalovsky, Konstantin Istomin, Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich and Aristarkh Lentulov at the State Free Art Studios (1917–19). Worked as an artist of the political department of the Third Red Army in Siberia during the Civil War (1919–20) and taught at the State Free Art Studios in Ekaterinburg (1920–21). Returned to Moscow (1921), where he joined the Method group of Projectionists (1921–22) and studied under David Sterenberg at the VKhUTEMAS (1921–24). Passed through periods of interest in abstract art (1920–21) and Constructivism and Expressionism (1920s). Married or lived with Elena Korolyova (1920–31), Elikonida (Lily) Popova (1920s–early 1930s, director and wife of actor Vladimir Yakhontov), Raisa Idelson (early 1930s, former wife of Robert Falk) and German avant-garde artist Leonie Neumann (from 1935) and had sons Boris (1927) and Yuly (1933). Taught at the VKhUTEMAS/VKhUTEIN (1924–29) and the Nadezhda Krupskaya Academy of Communist Education (1926). Decorated trams in Moscow (1924, 1929–30) and designed the sets for productions of Alexander Sukhovo-Kobylin’s The Case and Krechinsky’s Wedding at the Vera Komissarzhevskaya Theatre in Leningrad (1924), Zadok Dolgopolski’s Mashinen-gerangl at the Belorussian Jewish Theatre in Minsk (1929), Yury Nikulin’s Army of Peace at the Maria Yermolova Theatre in Moscow (1932–33) and Eugène Marin Labiche’s Les Trente Millions de Gladiator at the Jewish Theatre in Moscow (1934–35). Worked on such series of paintings as Sochi (1924), October (1927–30), Northern Caucasus (1928), Aviation (1928–32), On Manoeuvres (1931–32), Abramtsevo (1932), Metro Construction (1932–33), Crimea, Odessa-Batumi (1935–36) and Baikal, Amur (1937) and sculpted a four-metre metallic object called Electric Venus for the Pavilion of Electrification and Mechanisation at the First All-Belorussian Exhibition of Agriculture and Industry in Minsk (1930). Founding member of the Society of Easel Artists (1925–32), member of the Union of Artists (from 1932, board member 1932–37). Painted the City of the Future and Flight to the Moon panels for the Moscow House of Pioneers (1935). Accused of Formalism (1935–36) and suffered the arrest and execution of his brother Abram during the purge of the high command of the Red Army (1937, rehabilitated in 1956). Painted panels for the Soviet pavilions at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne in Paris (1937, grand prix) and New York World’s Fair (1939–40). Created dioramas of the Soviet republics for the Main Pavilion at the All-Union Exhibition of Agriculture in Moscow (1938–39) and a panorama for the Mikhail Lermontov Museum in the village of Lermontovo (formerly Tarkhany) in Penza Region (1941). Served as a lookout on the roof of 21 Myasnitskaya Street during German air raids (1941) and worked on the Moscow and Moscow Region in Days of War series of watercolours (1941). Evacuated to Tashkent (1941), where he worked on the Tashkent series of drawing and watercolours (1941–42). Returned to Moscow (1942), where he painted the Stalingrad Reborn panel for the All-Union Exhibition of Construction at 79 Frunze Embankment (1944–45). Worked on such series of paintings and drawings as Tashkent (1942–45), Koktebel (1954–58), Factory (1958), Leningrad (1963), Tallinn, Yalta, Khotkovo-Abramtsevo, Smolensk and Recollecting Smolensk (1960s), Inhabitants of Distant Planets (1968–76), Spring in Yalta (1970), Dzintari and Riga (1971–77). Returned to abstract painting (1970s). Died in Moscow and buried at the Vagankovo Cemetery (1983). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1921). Contributed to the Exhibition of Painting by Young Artists in Ekaterinburg (1921), Exhibition of Painting at the Museum of Painterly Culture in Moscow (1922), First All-Russian Exhibition of Art and Industry at the Russian Academy of Artistic Sciences in Moscow (1923), Society of Easel Artists in Moscow (1926, 1927, 1928), Russian Drawing Over Ten Years of the October Revolution at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1927), Exhibition of Art Works on the Tenth Anniversary of the October Revolution in Moscow (1928), 4th Exhibition of Pictures by Modern Russian Artists at the Aivazovsky Gallery and Archaeological Museum in Theodosia (1928), Exhibition of Acquisitions of the State Commission for Acquisitions of Works of Fine Arts for 1927–28 in Moscow (1928), Exhibition of Painting, Drawing, Cinema-Photo, Polygraphy and Sculpture on the Theme of the Way of Life of Children of the Soviet Union in Moscow (1929), First Travelling Exhibition of Painting and Graphic Art in Moscow (1929), Exhibition of Acquisitions of the State Commission for Acquisitions of Works of Fine Arts for 1928–29 in the Feliks Dzier?y?ski Club of Workers of the National Economy at 5 Myasnitskaya Street in Moscow (1930), Exhibition of Works on Revolutionary and Soviet Themes at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1930), Second Travelling Exhibition: Painting, Graphic Art and Modern Social Themes in Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Sverdlovsk, Perm, Ufa, Samara, Saratov and Penza (1930), Exhibition of Works by Artists Dispatched to Regions of Industrial and Collective-Farm Construction in Vsekokhudozhnik at 11 Kuznetsky Most in Moscow (1931), Anti-Imperialist Exhibition Dedicated to International Red Day (1 August) at the Park of Culture and Relaxation (now Gorky Park) in Moscow (1931), Fourth All-Belorussian Art Exhibition Dedicated to the Third, Decisive Year of the Five-Year Plan at the Club of Educational Workers, Club of Scientific Assistants and Belorussian Theatre in Minsk (1931), Art of the Third, Decisive Year of the Five-Year Plan at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1931–32), Artists of the RSFSR Over Fifteen Years at the Russian Museum in Leningrad (1932) and the History Museum in Moscow (1933), Exhibition for the XVII Communist Party Congress in Moscow (1934), Artists on Transport at Vsekokhudozhnik in Moscow (1934), Exhibition of Works by Contracting Artists at Vsekokhudozhnik in Moscow (1936), Theatre of Moscow Over Twenty Years (1917–37) at the House of the Actor in Moscow (1937), Industry of Socialism at 79 Frunze Embankment in Moscow (1939), Travelling Exhibition of Painting and Graphic Art at Dimitrov School No. 1 in Stalino (now Donetsk) and the Donbass (1941), Exhibition on the Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Mikhail Lermontov at the Mikhail Lermontov Museum in Lermontovo (formerly Tarkhany) in Penza Region (1941), Exhibition of Painting and Graphic Art at the Union of Artists of Uzbekistan in Tashkent (1942), Jubilee Republican Exhibition Dedicated to the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of October at the Union of Artists of Uzbekistan in Tashkent (1943), All-Union Art Exhibition of 1947 at the Tretyakov Gallery and Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow (1947), Lenin Komsomol at the History Museum in Moscow (1952), III Exhibition of Watercolours by Moscow Artists at the Central House of the Artist and Gorky Park in Moscow (1957), Exhibition of Watercolours and Ceramics by Moscow Artists at the House of the Artist in Moscow (1959–60), Exhibition of Painting at the Moscow Coke and Gas Plant Palace of Culture in Vidnoe (1960), Exhibition of Works of Painting by Moscow Artists at the Central House of Workers of the Arts in Moscow (1962), V Exhibition of Watercolours by Moscow Artists in Moscow (1962), Thirty Years of the Moscow Branch of the Union of Artists at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1962), Exhibition of Painting at the Vladimir Ilich Electromechanical Plant in Moscow (1963), Moscow is the Capital of Our Homeland at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1964–65), Across Our Native Land in the Union of Artists at 7-9 Begovaya Street in Moscow (1965), Exhibition of Soviet Easel Graphic Art (1917–30) from the Collection of the Tretyakov Gallery at the Central House of Writers in Moscow (1965), I All-Union Exhibition of Watercolours at the House of the Artist in Moscow (1965), Exhibition of Works by Artists Meer Axelrod, Mendel Gorshman, Alexander Labas, Alexei Teneta and Gavriil Schultz at the Union of Artists in Moscow (1966), Creativity of Smolensk Artists Over Fifty Years (1917–67) in Smolensk (1967), Twenty-Five Years of Victory Outside Moscow at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1967), Artists of Moscow to the Fiftieth Anniversary of October at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1967), Monuments of the History and Culture of Our Homeland in the Works of Moscow Artists at Krutitsy Metochion in Moscow (1968), Exhibition of Russian Pre-Revolutionary and Soviet Art: Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Art from New Acquisitions (1963–68) at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1968), II All-Union Exhibition of Watercolours in Leningrad, Moscow, Kiev and Tbilisi (1969), Jubilee Exhibition on the Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Lenin at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1970), Exhibition on the Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Lenin at the Sergei Konyonkov Regional Museum of Fine and Applied Arts in Smolensk (1970), Creative Unions of Moscow to the XXIV Communist Party Congress at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1971), Labour in the Representation of Soviet Artists at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1971), Thirty Years of the Defeat of the German Fascist Forces Outside Moscow at the History Museum in Moscow (1971), Exhibition of the Soviet Department at the Abramtsevo Museum Complex of History, Art and Literature in Moscow Region (1971), III All-Union Exhibition of Watercolours in Moscow (1972), Across Our Native Land at the Abramtsevo Museum Complex of History, Art and Literature in Moscow Region (1972–73), Still-Life and Interior at the Abramtsevo Museum Complex of History, Art and Literature in Moscow Region (1974), IV All-Union Exhibition of Watercolours in Minsk (1975), Self-Portraiture in Russian and Soviet Art at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg and the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1977), Fifty Years of the Moscow Branch of the Union of Artists at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1982), VII All-Union Exhibition of Watercolours in Moscow (1983), Soviet Art of the 1920s–30s at the Russian Museum in Leningrad (1988), The World of Pasternak at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow (1989), Dedication to Shostakovich: On the Ninetieth Anniversary of the Composer’s Birth at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow (1996–97), In and Outside Moscow: Painting and Graphic Art from Private Collections at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow (1997), Exhibition from the Collections of the Abramtsevo Museum Complex of History, Art and Literature in Moscow (1999), Images of the NEP at the Kovcheg Gallery in Moscow (1999–2000), New Acquisitions of Modern Graphic Art at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (2003), Roads in Russian Art at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (2004–05), Monuments of the Russian Theatrical Avant-Garde 1910–30 at the Elysium Gallery in Moscow (2006), Southern Landscapes: Exhibition of Watercolours at the VI International Investment Forum in Sochi (2007), Battle for the Banner: Soviet Art between Trotsky and Stalin (1926–36) at the New Manège Exhibition Hall in Moscow (2008), Central Asia–Moscow–Jerusalem in the Oeuvres of Jewish Artists at the State Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow (2008), Graphic Art of the Society of Easel Artists at the Elysium Gallery in Moscow (2009), Twenty Exciting Russian Years: Russian Art of the 1920s–30s from the UniCredit Bank and Private Collections in the Stakheyev Estate at 14 New Basman Street in Moscow (2009), Nudes: Twentieth Century at the Naschokin House Gallery in Moscow (2009–10), In Memory of the Collector Alexander Zavolokin at the Natalia Kournikova Gallery in Moscow (2010), ArtisArtisArt at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art in Moscow (2011) and Traditions of Russian Graphic Art of the Twentieth Century (1900s–50s): Exhibition of Pictures from the Collection of the Vellum Gallery at the All-Russian Museum of History and Ethnography in Torzhok (2012), Die erste russische Kunstausstellung in the Galerie Van Diemen at 21 Unter den Linden in Berlin (1922), De Eerste Russische Kunsttentoonstelling at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1923), Anniversary Exhibition of Soviet Achievements Over the Past Ten Years in Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen (1927–28), Exhibition of Russian Graphic Works in Riga (1929), Grafiek en boekkunst uit de Sovjet-Unie at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1929), Exhibition of Contemporary Art of Soviet Russia in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Detroit (1929), Russian Art Exhibition in Winterthur (1929), Contemporary Russian Art in Vienna (1930), Exhibition of Contemporary Graphic Works and Books in London, Cambridge, Oxford, Manchester and Liverpool (1930), Exhibition of Graphic Works, Drawings, Posters and Books in the Free City of Danzig (1930), Ausstellung moderner russischer Kunst at the Berliner Sezession in Berlin (1930), First Exhibition of Fine Art of the USSR in Stockholm, Oslo and Berlin (1930), Exhibition of Soviet Art in Zurich, Berne, Geneva, Basle and St Gallen (1931), Exhibition of Soviet Graphic Works, Books, Posters, Photos and Industrial Art in Johannesburg (1931), Exhibition of Soviet Art in Königsberg (1932), Exhibition of Soviet Graphic Works in Madrid and Marseille (1933), Exhibition of Soviet Art in Warsaw and Copenhagen (1933), Exhibition of Contemporary Art of the USSR in San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia and New York (1933), Exhibition of Soviet Graphic Works in Paris, Lyon and Bordeaux (1933), Exhibition of Watercolours by Soviet Artists in Romania, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Poland (1965–66), Exhibition on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Formation of the USSR: Paintings from the Collections of Soviet Museums in Delhi (1973), Exhibition of Watercolours by Soviet Artists on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Formation of the USSR in Bulgaria (1973), Exhibition of Soviet Watercolours in Bulgaria (1975), Kunst in die Produktion! Sowjetische Kunst während der Phase der Kollektivierung und Industriealisierung 1927–1933 at the Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst in West Berlin, Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and Akademie der Ku?nste in West Berlin (1977), Art Born of October in Tokyo (1977), Revolution und Realismus – Revolutionäre Kunst in Deutschland 1917 bis 1933 at the Altes Museum in East Berlin (1978), Paris-Moscou (1900–1930) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (1979), Monumentální um?ní SSSR at the Národní galerie in Prague (1980) and Dom kultúry in Bratislava (1980–81), Moscow-Paris (1900–1930) at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow (1981), Sowjetische Malerei und Plastik von 1917 bis zur Gegenwart: Gastausstellung der UdSSR at the Altes Museum in East Berlin (1985), Avantgarde 1910–1930: Venäläistä ja neuvostoliittolaista taidetta at Turun taidemuseo in Turku (1989), The Great Utopia: The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915–1932 at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt (1992), Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1992), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York (1992), Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1993) and Russian Museum in St Petersburg (1993), Berlin-Moskau (1900–1950) at the Berlinische Galerie im Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin (1995–96), Moscow-Berlin (1900–1950) at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow (1996), Chagall, Kandinsky, und... Das Russische Experiment: Zeichnungen und Aquarelle aus dem Puschkin-Museum at the Wien Museum Karlsplatz in Vienna (1999), Skipulögð hamingja: Rússnesk myndlist 1914–1956 at the Listasafnið á Akureyri in Akureyri (2002), Russia! at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and Bilbao (2005–06), Virada russa: A vanguarda na Coleção do Museu Estatal Russo de São Petersburgo at the Centro Cultural do Banco do Brasil in Rio de Janeiro (2009) and Les Utopies mutantes at the Passage de Retz in Paris (2010), Juryfreie Kunstschau in Berlin (1928), Europäische Buchkunst der Gegenwart at the Internationale Presse-Ausstellung in Cologne (1928), Venice Biennale (1930, 1932), Thirtieth Annual International Exhibition of Paintings at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh (1931), Baltimore Museum of Art (1932) and City Art Museum in St Louis (1932), Women and Children in Tokyo (1933), Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne in Paris (1937), New York World’s Fair (1939–40), Zagreba?ki velesajam in Zagreb (1947) and Expo ‘58 in Brussels (1958) and one-man shows at the Union of Artists of Uzbekistan in Tashkent (1942, 1943), Union of Artists in Moscow (1976), Central House of the Artist in Moscow (1991, 1996, 2011), Museum of Personal Collections of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow (2000), Central House of the Artist in Moscow (2002), Kovcheg Gallery in Moscow (2003), Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (2005, 2011), Museum of Modern Fine Art on Dmitrovskaya in Rostov-on-Don (2007), Tsereteli Art Gallery in Moscow (2008), Central Museum of the Armed Forces in Moscow (2010), Moscow Museum of Modern Art in Moscow (2010), Proun Gallery in Moscow (2010), Open Club Gallery in Moscow (2012) and Russian Museum in St Petersburg (2012).

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