Alexander Grube

Sculptor, graphic artist, teacher. Born in the family of Vasily Grube in the village of Grigorievka in Ufa Province (1894). Studied at Penza School of Art (1905–13) and Petrograd University (1914–16). Taught at a school in the small town of Krasnopolye in White Russia (1918–22), where he sculpted the first ever monument to Vladimir Lenin (1922). Lived and worked in Minsk (1924–41), where he sculpted a statue of Vladimir Lenin outside the Communist University of Belorussia (1925). Founding member and chairman of the All-Belorussian Association of Artists (1927–29), member of the Revolutionary Organisation of Artists of Belorussia (1929–32). Sculpted unsurviving concrete monuments to Feliks Dzier?y?ski in Dzerzhinsk (1932) and Vladimir Lenin in Borisov (1935). Joined the Belorussian Union of Artists (1940) and served as chairman (1942–44). Honoured Artist of Belorussia (1942), People’s Artist of Belorussia (1944). Moved to Moscow (1945), where he sculpted a bronze composition depicting Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin Roosevelt at the Yalta Conference (1945) and a bronze statue of Valerian Kuibyshev for the town of Kokchetav (now Kokshetau) in north Kazakhstan (1948). Worked on a series of sanguine drawings (1965–75). Died in Moscow (1980). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1925), including the All-Union Art Exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1946) and 500 Anos de Arte Russa – Dos Ícones à Arte Contemporânea at Oca in the Parque do Ibirapuera in Sâo Paolo (2002).