Sunday, August 12, 2012

Artist 25: Ivan Leonidov


Ivan Leonidov was born in 1902 and is known as a Russian constructivist architect, urban planner, painter and teacher.  Coming from a humble family it wasn’t until an icon painter saw his skills in drawing that he started his art career, he became the painter’s apprentice.  In 1919 he attended the Svomas free art studios in Tver.  Then from 1921 to 1927 he studied in Moscow.  While in Moscow he switched his art attention away from his painting and on to architecture.  In 1927 Leonidov received international recognition for his thesis project, which was in regards to the Lenin Institute and Library in Moscow.  Although his project design won him recognition, he did not actually execute his project.  Between 1928 and 1930 he was a teacher at the school he studied at in Moscow.  After his few years in teaching he worked in the Giprogor and Mossovet, he then joined the studio of Moisei Ginzburg at the People’s Commissariat for heavy industry in 1934 and remained there until 1941.  Leonidov created many designs but only one was ever materialized; in 1938 his design of a staircase in Kislovodsk was created. 

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