Nikolai Dormidontov

Painter, graphic artist, illustrator, teacher. Born in the family of Ivan Dormidontov in St Petersburg (1898). Studied under Arkady Rylov, Grigory Bobrovsky, Ivan Bilibin and Nicholas Roerich at the School of Drawing of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (1914–18) and under Dmitry Kardovsky, Vasily Shukhayev, Vladimir Tatlin and Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin at the State Free Art Studios/VKhUTEMAS in Petrograd (1918–19, 1920–22). Served as an artist in the Red Army during the Russo-Polish War (1919–20). Illustrated periodicals (from 1922). Founding member of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (1922–32, first chairman of the Leningrad branch from 1924), member of Sixteen (1923–27), Guild of Artists (1930–32, deputy chairman) and the Leningrad branch of the Union of Artists (from 1932). Taught at the Leningrad Technical College of Art and Industry (1923–29). Visited the Dniprohes Hydroelectric Station, salt and alabaster mines in the Ural Mountains and Ukrainian metallurgic factories (1920s–30s). Survived the Siege of Leningrad (1941–44). Sketched cityscapes of Leningrad (1950s). Died in Leningrad and buried at the Cemetery of St John the Theologian (1962). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1922). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Community of Artists (1922), Fellowship of Artists (1923), Sixteen (1924, 1927), Guild of Artists (1930–32), Artists of the RSFSR Over Fifteen Years in Leningrad (1932) and Moscow (1933–34), Venice Biennale (1928) and exhibitions of Soviet art in New York (1924, 1939), Toronto (1925), Los Angeles (1925), Berlin (1927–28), Prague (1928), Stockholm (1928), Oslo (1928), Copenhagen (1928), Vienna (1928) and London (1934).