Pyotr Pokarzhevsky

Painter, graphic artist, illustrator, teacher. Born in the Ukrainian town of Elizavetgrad (now Kirovohrad) in the family of a mechanic called Dmitry Pokarzhevsky (1889). Studied under Feodosy Kozachinsky at Elizavetgrad Realschule (first half of 1900s), Kiev School of Art (1906–09) and under Hugo Salemann, Jan Ciagli?skj and Nikolai Samokish at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1910–17). Painted studies on the Eastern and Caucasian Fronts and Black Sea during the First World War (1915). Moved to Tula (1920), where he founded and worked at the State Free Art Studios and Tula Museum of Art (1920–22). Married the artist Alexandra Leonhardt (1899–1980). Moved to Moscow (1922), where he collaborated with the Young Guard Publishing House. Member of Existence (1922) and the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (1923). Visited Central Asia (1928, 1931), Urals and Chelyabinsk Region (1929), Nizhny Tagil (1930), Donbass and Kuzbass (first half of 1930s) and Lipetsk Region (1938). Taught at the Moscow Institute of Fine Arts/Vasily Surikov Institute of Art in Moscow (1938–68). Visited Karelia (mid-1940s), Pamir, Caucasus, Lake Baikal and Crimea (1950s) and Prague, Sofia, Tarnovo, Plovdiv, Athens, Rome and Florence (1960s). Honoured Artist of the RSFSR. Died in Moscow (1968). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1912). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Imperial Academy of Arts (from 1912), Fellowship of Independents (1916), Community of Artists at the Palace of Arts in Petrograd (1917), Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia in Moscow (1922, 1926, 1928), Leningrad (1926), Ryazan (1927) and Cologne (1929), Red Army (1918–23) at the Red Army and Navy Museum in Moscow (1923), Existence at the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow (1923), Exhibition of Pictures Organised by the Russian Red Cross at the History Museum in Moscow (1924), 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), Red Army in Soviet Art at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1930), Third Travelling Exhibition Organised by the Arts Sector of Narkompros RSFSR in Sverdlovsk, Magnitogorsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Kuzbass, Semipalatinsk, Almaty, Tashkent, Samarkand, Rostov-on-Don, Krasnodar, Grozny, Novorossiisk and Smolensk (1931), XXI Exhibition of Pictures Dedicated to Heroes of Labour, Shock Workers of Socialist Construction and the Third, Decisive Year of the Five-Year Plan in Ryazan (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 (1917–32) at the Russian Museum in Leningrad (1932–33) and the History Museum in Moscow (1933–34), Travelling Art Exhibition: Painting, Drawing, Engraving and Etching in workers’ clubs in Moscow and Moscow Region (1933), Fifteen Years of the Red Army at Gorky Park in Moscow (1933), Russian Museum in Leningrad (1933–34), Taras Shevchenko All-Ukrainian Museum in Kiev (1934–35) and the All-Ukrainian Picture Gallery in Kharkiv (1935), Spring Exhibition of Moscow Painters at the State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow (1935), Travelling Exhibition of Pictures Across the Collective Farms of Moscow Region (1935), Exhibition of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Art by Contracting Artists of 1937 in Vsekokhudozhnik at 11 Kuznetsky Most in Moscow (1938), Art Exhibition of Painting, Graphic Art and Sculpture by Moscow Artists in Kislovodsk (1938), Twenty Years of the Red Army and Navy at the Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Institute in Moscow (1938), Central House of the Red Army in Moscow (1938–39) and the Russian Museum in Leningrad (1939), Sixth Exhibition of the Union of Moscow Artists at the Vsekokhudozhnik Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1939), Exhibition of Painting and Graphic Art in the Central House of Workers of the Arts at 9 Cannon Street in Moscow (1939), Exhibition of Painting and Graphic Art by Moscow Artists at Perm Regional Art Gallery in Perm (1939), Seventh Exhibition of the Union of Moscow Artists at the Moscow Fellowship of Artists in Moscow (1940), Travelling Exhibition of Works by Moscow and Leningrad Artists Along the Volga Towns in Moscow, Gorky, Kazan, Kuibyshev, Saratov, Stalingrad and Astrakhan (1940), Exhibition of Works by Artists of Moscow and Leningrad at the Museum of Industrial Art in Lviv (1940), Exhibition of the Best Works of Soviet Artists at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1941), Exhibition of Painting and Graphic Art in Kislovodsk (1941), Art Exhibition Dedicated to the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Red Army and Navy at the House of the Red Army in Samarkand (1943), Urals – Smithy of Russian Weaponry in Sverdlovsk (1944), Exhibition-Sale of Works by Moscow Painters, Graphic Artists and Sculptors at the Moscow Fellowship of Artists in Moscow (1945), All-Union Art Exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1946), Exhibition of Landscapes at the House of Scholars in Moscow (1946), Travelling Exhibition of Soviet Painting and Graphic Art at the Philharmonic Hall in Gorky and the Valerian Kuibyshev Palace of Culture in Kuibyshev (1946), Travelling Exhibition of the Art Foundation of the USSR at the Municipal Executive Committee and Museum of History and Local Studies in Sochi (1947), Spring Exhibition of Works by Moscow Painters and Sculptors in the Moscow Fellowship of Artists at 11 Kuznetsky Most in Moscow (1947), Travelling Exhibition of Painting and Graphic Art by Soviet Artists in Saratov and Astrakhan (1947), Exhibition of Works by Masters of Soviet Art at the Municipal Executive Committee and Museum of History and Local Studies in Sochi (1947–50), Exhibition of Soviet Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Art in the Moscow Fellowship of Artists at 11 Kuznetsky Most in Moscow (1948), Soviet Painting and Graphic Art in Moscow (1948), Travelling Exhibition of Works by Soviet Artists in Kislovodsk (1948), Travelling Exhibition of Pictures by Moscow Artists at the Museum of History and Local Studies in Sochi (1949), Travelling Exhibition of Works by Moscow Artists Dedicated to Miner’s Day at the Taras Shevchenko Cinema in Stalino (1949), Exhibition of Soviet Painting and Graphic Art in Moscow (1949), Exhibition of Works by Moscow Artists at Stalin (renamed Izmailovo in 1956) Park in Moscow (1949), Travelling Exhibition of Pictures by Moscow Artists in Chelyabinsk, Molotov, Berezniki and Zlatoust (1951), All-Union Art Exhibition of 1951 at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1951–52), Travelling Exhibition of Painting and Graphic Art by Soviet Artists at the Union of Artists in Ivanovo, Maxim Gorky Regional Theatre of Drama in Stalingrad, Museum of Local Studies in Taganrog, Art Foundation in Rostov-on-Don, Philharmonic Hall in Voronezh, Union of Artists in Tambov, Art Salon in Oryol, 31 Large Soviet Street in Smolensk and the Regional Theatre of Drama in Kaliningrad (1953), Spring Exhibition of Painting by Moscow Artists at the Moscow Fellowship of Artists in Moscow (1953), Exhibition of Painting by Moscow Artists at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow (1954), Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Horse Breeding in Moscow (1954), All-Union Art Exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery, House of the Artist and Union of Artists at 25/9 Gorky (now Tver) Street in Moscow (1955), Exhibition of Painting, Sculpture, Graphic Art and Works by Artists of the Theatre and Cinema of Moscow and Leningrad at Gorky Park in Moscow (1955), Exhibition of Painting and Graphic Art by Moscow Artists at Sokolniki Park in Moscow (1955), Jubilee Exhibition of Works by Artists of Tula Region Dedicated to the Fortieth Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution in Tula (1957), Exhibition of Painting at the Copper Smelting and Anode Plant House of Culture, Innovator House of Culture and Medical Workers’ Trade Union House of Culture in Moscow (1957), Travelling Exhibition of Works by Soviet Artists Created in 1955–57 at Murmansk Regional Museum of Local Studies in Murmansk, Karelian Union of Artists in Petrozavodsk, Regional Theatre of Drama in Arkhangelsk, Vologda Regional Picture Gallery in Vologda, Maxim Gorky Regional Museum of Art in Kirov, Konstantin Savitsky Picture Gallery in Penza, Konstantin Savitsky School of Art in Penza and Oryol Picture Gallery in Oryol (1958), Artists of Tula in the Union of Artists at 37 Pokrovka Street in Moscow (2009), Students of Samokish at the Simferopole Museum of Art in Simferopole (2010), Exhibition of Contemporary Art of Soviet Russia in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Detroit (1929), Grafiek en boekkunst uit de Sovjet-Unie at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1929), 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 Posters at the Niagara Club in New York (1933), Exhibition of Works by Soviet Artists in the People’s Republic of China at the Palace Museum in Beijing (1958), 500 Anos de Arte Russa – Dos Ícones à Arte Contemporânea at Oca in the Parque do Ibirapuera in Sâo Paolo (2002), XVII Venice Biennale (1930), joint exhibition with Igor Grabar, Alexander Osmyorkin, Georgy Ryazhsky and Grigory Shegal at the Union of Artists Organising Committee in Moscow (1940), one-man shows in Moscow (1934, 1936, 1944, 1957, 1966) and posthumous exhibition in the Union of Artists at 7-9 Begovaya Street in Moscow (1977).