Need help finding old Russian art book/artists

[Silvertone]

So I know this is a huge shot in the dark here but... years back while in a figure drawing class some guy came in with a pretty rockin' book of figure drawings.

The guy, had picked it up on a trip to Russia but didn't know how to read the language so know idea how to read the artists names or even the book title!

I managed to get a couple photocopies which I have recently came across again and was hoping maybe someone out there in the international internetz might just recognize them.

So if anyone has ANY info they can share about these drawings or artists or the book they're in, that would be awesome! Even it's a translation of the tiny bit of writing or heck, I'll even take just the artists names! I'd sure love to find some more.

If no idea, that's cool - at least check out a couple cool figure drawings!

~cheers~

[saa]

Hey man, great drawings, thanks for sharing them. I can unfortunately only tell you the names of the artists (they are wirtten unter the drawings), I tried to google them and found no other pictures. The first one is A.S. Listkov and the second one is Boris Zaozersky. Hope this helps.

[dose]

There are probably thousands or millions of drawing like this from thousands of artists trained at the great Soviet academies. It's difficult to find information on such studies in the US- partially because of cultural barrier (and historically bad relations between nations in the last century), and because the academies generally owned all the work of the students and would snatch up the good works- some of which got stored carefully and some of which got crammed wherever they could fit and forgotten (when I was visiting the academy in St. Petersburg we saw random closets just crammed full of old paintings and drawings). Occasionally the academies will release catalogs of recent student work, but I can't imagine you can find them in the US anywhere. The academies are still functioning, but since the fall of Communism they've been on the decline a bit and have "watered down" by accepting lots of foreign students (mainly Chinese and Korean, but some westerners as well) who have money but not the same level of training that a student entering the academies would have had back in the day.

There has recently been more interest in Russian artists in the US thanks in part to the Guggenheim and the fact that many Soviet-trained artists are working and teaching in the US. Because of this, there's been a few books published on Russian art in the US, and a few of the big names (Repin, Kramskoy, Fechin, etc) are getting some recognition here, although I'm guessing now you could still only find a monograph on Repin- maaaybe Fechin. Also, these books tend to focus on paintings and the more mature work of artists, so they rarely include the academic studies (also complicated by the academies' tendencies to hoard the work of their best students).

As far as I know, the best way to get access to this kind of thing here is to find a Soviet-trained artist who has emigrated to the US and see if you can study with them. There are actually a decent number- I know of many in the NYC area and I'm sure you can find them in CA as well. Fechin ended up moving to the southwest (New Mexico, if I'm right) and setting up a studio there, so I'm sure there's a west coast contingent as well. If an artist went to any of the major academies then they will have done these kinds of studies and more, and might have books with all kinds of amazing artists that you've never heard of. Be prepared for different teaching styles (and often higher expectations) than we are used to though.

I also know that one of the major teachers at the academy in St. Petersburg has written a book on drawing which has been translated to English. Unfortunately it hasn't been published yet in any language, and I'm not sure whether the English version will make it here or not- but hopefully it will.

[FlameDragon]

These works are fabulous! Hopefully we can find some more of theirs.

[~Faust~]

Saoserski isn't just a random student's name, as isn't Listkov I presume. I know Saoserski was teaching at the Repin-academy (Inst.Petersburg) in the 60s and by googling you'll mostly find paintings by him (which I personally don't find that interesting, but his figurative stuff is breathtaking, at least from what I've seen)

I have an art-ed-book written by a teacher of the Repin academy Nikolai Li, that contains many examples, also from Saoserski and Listkov. So the shot to assumethey ere former teachers of his isn't too far off I think. Other names of pretty awesome figurative artists being featured are E.V.Gubanova, A.P.Losenko, O.A.Kiprenski,A. Postnov, A.A.Plastov, V.K.Shibuev, A.A.Ivanov, I.M.Grigoriev, B.B.Lebedev

Here's another pic from Saoserski I managed to snatch somewhere:
http://b5.imgsrc.ru/r/rinrin/4/6152884prv.jpg

It's actually not that hard to find more samples, you just have to search in cyrillic letters :P

[Silvertone]

Thanks for all the good info people, and the bonus figure drawing too, sweet.


I have an art-ed-book written by a teacher of the Repin academy Nikolai Li, that contains many examples, also from Saoserski and Listkov.

Faust, I'd love to get my hands on that book! Where did you get yours from?

[~Faust~]

Thanks for all the good info people, and the bonus figure drawing too, sweet.



Faust, I'd love to get my hands on that book! Where did you get yours from?

I bought mine last year hen I was in Russia and it actually hit the market there. Here's what it looks like, but I dont think it'd be easy getting that thing outside of Russia. Maybe you can get it via the ISBN somewhere though.

http://www.rznbooks.ru/books/1587649/default.aspx

[Jonas Heirwegh]

I bought mine last year hen I was in Russia and it actually hit the market there. Here's what it looks like, but I dont think it'd be easy getting that thing outside of Russia. Maybe you can get it via the ISBN somewhere though.

http://www.rznbooks.ru/books/1587649/default.aspx

thx for the link dude! I just went through the book, its gold. Reminds me alot of bammes.

[Silvertone]

I bought mine last year hen I was in Russia and it actually hit the market there. Here's what it looks like, but I dont think it'd be easy getting that thing outside of Russia. Maybe you can get it via the ISBN somewhere though.

http://www.rznbooks.ru/books/1587649/default.aspx

Thanks again, it was very useful and as a matter of fact, I did find it available here... (http://www.mippbooks.com/Page.BCart.cls?Type=Books&VIEWCart=1&BOOKSID=70380&CSPCHD=0010000000024a7bk5a6003297769414)



thx for the link dude! I just went through the book, its gold. Reminds me alot of bammes.

Epias, when you said you went through the book did you find a preview of the book online in that posted link or somewhere else?

Just wonderin'. *edit* Never mind!

[briggsy@ashtons]

A Chinese-language book of (I gather) mostly Russian figure drawings passed briefly through my hands last year - just long enough to take these photos. Sorry about the briggsy fingers in a few of the shots!

http://www5.zippyshare.com/v/74288749/file.html

Edit- New links:
http://www1.zippyshare.com/v/17172369/file.html
OR
http://www.mediafire.com/?jmng1vo1bib

[dose]

Awesome, Briggsy- thanks a lot for posting those!

[Jonas Heirwegh]

A Chinese-language book of (I gather) mostly Russian figure drawings passed briefly through my hands last year - just long enough to take these photos. Sorry about the briggsy fingers in a few of the shots!

http://www5.zippyshare.com/v/74288749/file.html

sure its the right link?

I get this.

You have requested the file:
Name: File does not exist
Size: 0 MB

[Silvertone]

http://www1.zippyshare.com/v/17172369/file.html

[briggsy@ashtons]

Thanks silvertone! Here's a mediafire link as well. Be quick!
http://www.mediafire.com/?jmng1vo1bib

[•Lindsay•]

These drawings are amazing. It makes me want to learn Russian.

You can download 241 Ilya Repin paintings here, (http://francisvallejo.blogspot.com/2008/05/illya-repin-greatest-ever.html) there is a link to the file at the end of the post.

[Jonas Heirwegh]

cool, thx for the links!

[Jonas Heirwegh]

Anybody found more drawings by these russian masters?

[Uli]

These are cool, thank you! I'll try to hunt down older russian art books now.

If you can't get the books via Russia, maybe there is a chance to go via (Eastern) German antiquarians. The Eastern German art schools were strongly influenced by the Russian ones, and Russian was the second language at all schools.
Bammes from Eastern Germany was mentioned, he did another amazing book on figure drawing.
Here is some more info about that guy:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2130280#post2130280
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=119441&highlight=Bammes

[kev ferrara]

The Russians have soooooooo much integrity. Iron vise minds. Whew.

[Jasonwclark]

Man those are intense. Thanks Briggsy

:vodka1:


I really like this one
598744

And
598755


I didn't have time to check all the pages, but this site might help with the signatures.
http://www.artistssignatures.com/cyrillic.php

I think you have to sign up to use the database, but I'm pretty sure its free.

[Dizon]

I'd like to share this blog on Russian Art : http://rusartilikeit.blogspot.com/

Russian art just slaps you on the face. Their work is made of iron!

[sfa]

They have pre-orders for these Russian drawing books over at Gallery Nucleus here in California. I've seen them in person and the quality is fairly good. Almost all are Chinese publications.

Here are links to the books, with some sample pages included:

Drawing:
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/detail/6869
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/detail/6868
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/detail/6867
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/detail/6866
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/detail/6861
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/detail/6860
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/detail/6858

Painting:
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/detail/6862
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/detail/6859
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/detail/6707
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/detail/6685

More here:

http://www.gallerynucleus.com/store/books/international?page=all

Have fun~

[rpace]

That's great, sfa.

My wallet won't thank you, but I will!

~R

[Jonas Heirwegh]

Saoserski isn't just a random student's name, as isn't Listkov I presume. I know Saoserski was teaching at the Repin-academy (Inst.Petersburg) in the 60s and by googling you'll mostly find paintings by him (which I personally don't find that interesting, but his figurative stuff is breathtaking, at least from what I've seen)

I have an art-ed-book written by a teacher of the Repin academy Nikolai Li, that contains many examples, also from Saoserski and Listkov. So the shot to assumethey ere former teachers of his isn't too far off I think. Other names of pretty awesome figurative artists being featured are E.V.Gubanova, A.P.Losenko, O.A.Kiprenski,A. Postnov, A.A.Plastov, V.K.Shibuev, A.A.Ivanov, I.M.Grigoriev, B.B.Lebedev

It's actually not that hard to find more samples, you just have to search in cyrillic letters :P

And how can I search in cyrillic letters? Can you link more examples:)

[Ashland Academy]

Its nice to see people taking interest in the soviet/russian academies. Our founder and master instructor is from the ex soviet union. We have a library that contains several of the books mentioned above. We have some Russian academic paintings and drawings on our school website if anyone is interested. I'm going to try to scan some of the images out of the books as well.

Russian Academic paintings and drawings (http://ashlandacademyofart.com/russianacademic.php)

During the whole modernist movement the Russian academies were practically the only ones to preserve and advance after the artistic achievements of the Renaissance. There is an interesting article on Wikipedia about the Imperial Academy of Arts.

Imperial Academy of Arts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Academy_of_Arts)

Anyway keep up the good research!

[Ashland Academy]

http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/oo123/AshlandAcademy/mailgooglecom.jpg

http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/oo123/AshlandAcademy/2.jpg

http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/oo123/AshlandAcademy/3.jpg

[Ashland Academy]

Here are a few student drawings from our academy.

http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/oo123/AshlandAcademy/72.jpg

http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/oo123/AshlandAcademy/a1.jpg

http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/oo123/AshlandAcademy/6665.jpg

[Dizon]

Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

[Rasme]

Hi everyone

I just bought four of the books from nucleus, and I can't wait till they're here.
I went to a drawing school last year, where we had a teacher from Russia.
The drawing school is called "the drawing academy"; http://animwork.dk/Default.asp?ID=648, and is located in Denmark.
the teacher is called Artem; www.artemartem.com

Here is a link to another teacher from the "drawing Academy", but he is not from Russia, though he studied there for some time: http://madspeter.wordpress.com/

You can see some of my own drawings here; http://rasme.blogspot.com/search/label/Studies

I also participated in a drawing workshop with Alexander Novoselov, (also from Russia); http://www.atelierstockholm.se/index.asp?page=gallery&galleryid=5

And last, but not least, I found this guy called Valentin Melik, who is also from the Russian art academy;http://www.valentinmelik.com/index.htm

This drawing is by Alexander Novoselov:

[Diego]

Art Gallery Online (http://academart.com/index.htm) with students and professors work.

Drawings gallery 1 (http://academart.com/ARTSHOP/art_shop_drawings4.htm)

Drawings gallery 2 (http://academart.com/ARTSHOP/art_shop_drawings.htm)

[German-s]

whew, thanks everyone for posting these drawings and links! definetly ordering some of those books!

[Rasme]

Oh yeah, I forgot to post these sites:
http://farighghaderi.com/florence.html A guy that teached at the Repin academy
http://www.academicart.com/index.htm An american school that uses this "Russian" method.
http://tegnebordet.dk/index.php?vis=brugergalleri.php&id=1211&visning= A part-time teacher, that teached at a school I went to. He studied a bit in russia, with this guy as teacher: http://www.kozma.ru/archives/articles/kazakov-en.htm

[Divanushka]

4 more drawings from Russian Academy of Art web site: click on pic to bring up larger window:
http://www.rah.ru/content/ru/main_menu_ru/section-education/section-2005-01-13-11-05-43/sketch-2005-04-29-11-52-54.html?showContentPart=0

2 more here. Scroll all the way down for the second:
http://www.rah.ru/content/ru/main_menu_ru/section-education/section-2005-01-13-11-05-43/sketch-2005-04-29-11-52-54.html?showContentPart=1

[Slothboy3000]

Great links everyone. I'll have to spend a few hours later to look through all this stuff! :D

[Silvertone]

They have pre-orders for these Russian drawing books over at Gallery Nucleus here in California. I've seen them in person and the quality is fairly good. Almost all are Chinese publications.

Here are links to the books, with some sample pages included:

Drawing:
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/detail/6869
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/detail/6868
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/detail/6867
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/detail/6866
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/detail/6861
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/detail/6860
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/detail/6858

Painting:
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/detail/6862
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/detail/6859
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/detail/6707
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/detail/6685

More here:

http://www.gallerynucleus.com/store/books/international?page=all

Have fun~



I picked up a couple of those books and they are pretty much exactly what I was lookin' for when I started this thread, which, BTW turned out way better than I expected, thanks to everyone who shared!

[Book Guru]

My dear friends,

It’s amazing what good marketing can do. Even in Russia… :))

You can ask me personally about many images you've posted here… we know the sources where they are from.
-----------------------
In regards of the book by N.Li “Academic Drawing” – it has really nothing to do with academic drawing. This guy has NEVER taught at the Art Academy, and this book has NEVER been approved by the Academy.
------------------------
Here is the book, which is highly recommended for academic drawing by both the Russian Art Academy and the St.Petersburg State University:

“Basics of Drawing” by Vladimir Mogilevtsev (don’t even try to pronounce his last name, you’ll break your tongue!)))
Minimum text, visual explanations are the best. There is no such book in either East or West. A true gem.
This book received a Silver Medal by the Russian Art Academy in 2008.
------------------------
And another book, also by this art professor:
“Sketches and Drawings by Students” – selection of works made by his best students, during many years. You’ll LOVE what you see there.
------------------------
Vladimir Mogilevtsev – one of the best art professors at the Russian Art Academy (St.Petersburg), Drawing Department. People stay in line to sign up for his masterclasses.
------------------------
Where to buy: Ozon.ru (Russia), Ruslania.com (Finland)… some other “English-speaking” Russian sites.
Where to see: www.4-art.org (besides, they offer the best price for it, though I’m not sure about the S&H costs).

Good luck!

[CRYPT]

amazing thread i love russian art thanks

[Rasme]

Hi

I think you will enjoy this site (http://www.practicum.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=113:2010-08-09-11-06-48&catid=10:prosmotr&Itemid=33).
It has a lot of pictures from a student exhibition at Repin, and quite a few paintings and drawings at the bottom of the page.

enjoy!