Liya Reitzer

Painter, graphic artist, applied artist. Born in the family of Jacob Reitzer in Vilna in Lithuania (1902). Graduated as a dressmaker from trade school (1917). Drew posters and stage sets for amateur theatres and worked as a seamstress in the workshops of the 11th Red Army during the Civil War (1918–19). Studied at the Perm Artistic and Decorative Studios (1919–20), Workers’ Faculty of the VKhUTEMAS in Moscow (1921–23) and under Sergei Gerasimov, Konstantin Istomin, Alexander Kuprin and Vladimir Favorsky at the Faculty of Textiles of the VKhUTEMAS/VKhUTEIN in Moscow (1924–30). Founding member of the textile sections of the Unification of Youth of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (1928) and the Moscow branch of the Union of Artists (1932). Post-graduate student of the Moscow Textile Institute (1930s). Designed patterns for chintz (1928–32) and tablecloths (1930s–40s). Drew propaganda posters for TASS during the Second World War (1942–45). Worked on tapestries (1930s–early 1970s), theatrical curtains and decorative carpets (from 1974). Died in Moscow (1988). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1925). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Unification of Youth of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia in Moscow (1928, 1929), 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), Art Exhibition of Painting, Graphic Art and Sculpture by Moscow Artists in Kislovodsk (1938), Exhibition of Works by Artists of the Textile Section of the Moscow Union of Soviet Artists at the Union of Artists in Moscow (1939), Exhibition of Decorative Art of the Moscow Union of Soviet Artists at the Union of Artists in Moscow (1946), Exhibition of Decorative-Applied Art in the House of the Artist at 48 Gorky (now Tver) Street in Moscow (1950), Exhibition of Works by Women Artists on International Women’s Day 8 March 1952 in the House of the Artist at 48 Gorky (now Tver) Street in Moscow (1952), Exhibition of Artistic and Decorative Textiles and Ceramics at the Union of Artists in Moscow (1953), Exhibition of Decorative Arts at the House of the Artist in Moscow (1955), Exhibition of Folk, Applied and Decorative Art of the RSFSR at the Vladimir Lenin Library in Moscow (1956–57), Exhibition of Applied Art on the Occasion of the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Artists at the Vladimir Lenin Library 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), Applied Art and Industrial Art of the RSFSR in Moscow (1958), Abstraction in Russia: XX Century at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (2001–02), Chintzy Russia at the All-Russian Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Art in Moscow (2010), Exhibition of Works of Applied Art and Industrial Art of the RSFSR in Hungary (1958), Moscow-Paris (1900–1930) at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow (1981), Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris (1925), Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne in Paris (1937), New York World’s Fair (1939–40) and a one-woman show in Moscow (1984).