Pavel Kozhin

Applied artist, painter, graphic artist, sculptor, teacher. Born in the village of Bykovka in Nizhny Novgorod Province in the family of a rural teacher called Mikhail Kozhin (1904). Studied at rural primary school in the village of Yurino and graduated from school-commune in Nizhny Novgorod (1924), where he simultaneously attended classes at Nizhny Novgorod Technical College of Art. Moved on the advice of Leonid Ovsyannikov to Moscow, where he worked as a printing apprentice in the First Specimen Printing House at 28 Valovaya Street/71 Pyatnitsa Street (1925) and studied under Josif Chaikov, Ivan Yefimov, Vladimir Tatlin, Alexander Kuprin and Pavel Kuznetsov at the VKhUTEIN (1926–31). Painted tea sets at the Dmitrov Porcelain Factory (1931) and headed a laboratory at the Institute of Cottage Industry in Moscow (1932–33). Designed mass-produced animal figurines (from 1933). Worked at the Mikhail Kalinin Faience Factory in Konakovo (from 1935) and the Dulyovo Porcelain Factory in Moscow Region (from 1938). Collaborated with Asta Brzezitska on majolica sculptures for Taganskaya underground station in Moscow (late 1940s) and the World Festival of Youth and Students in Budapest multi-figured composition (1950). Worked for the Riga Porcelain Factory (1950s) and taught at the Higher School of Art and Industry in Moscow (from 1962). Died in Moscow (1975). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1930). Contributed to Industry of Socialism at 79 Frunze Embankment in Moscow (1939), Exhibition of Sculpture of the Moscow Union of Soviet Artists at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow (1940), All-Union Art Exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1946, 1947, 1950, 1952, 1954, 1955), Exhibition of Artistic Porcelain and Glass at the Russian Museum in Leningrad (1948), Republican Exhibition of Folk Applied Art and Industrial Art of the RSFSR at the Academy of Arts of the USSR in Moscow (1952), Exhibition of Works by Moscow Sculptors at Gorky Park in Moscow (1952), Exhibition of Works by Moscow Sculptors at the Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1953), Exhibition of Decorative Arts at the House of the Artist in Moscow (1955), Exhibition of Works by Artists Ekaterina Belashova, Aminadav Kanevsky, Natalia Kirsanova, Pavel Kozhin, Anatoly Kokorin and Georgy Neroda: Graphic Art, Painting, Ceramics, Sculpture and Textiles at the Union of Artists in Moscow (1956), Exhibition of Applied Art on the Occasion of the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Artists at the Vladimir Lenin Library in Moscow (1957), Exhibition of Sculpture at the House of the Artist in Moscow (1957), Socialist Moscow in the Works of Moscow Artists at the House of the Artist, Academy of Arts of the USSR and Union of Artists at 20 Kuznetsky Most and 17 Yermolai Lane in Moscow (1957), All-Union Art Exhibition Dedicated to the Fortieth Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall, Academy of Arts of the USSR, House of the Artist, Union of Artists and Central House of Workers of the Arts in Moscow (1957–58), I Moscow Ceramics in Moscow (1974), Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne in Paris (1937, gold medal), Exhibition of Folk Applied Art and Industrial Art from the RSFSR in Finland in Helsinki (1954) and Expo ‘58 in Brussels (1958, silver medal).