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Kuindzhi Arkhip Ivanovich

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27.01.1841 – 24.07. 1910

Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi was born on the outskirts of Mariupol in the Greek family, a poor shoemaker. The name of Kuinji was given to him by the nickname of his grandfather, which means “goldsmith”. Early orphaned, the boy lived with relatives, worked with strangers: he was a servant at a grain seller, served with a contractor, worked as a retoucher with a photographer.

His love for painting was manifested in his childhood, he drew everywhere he had – on the walls of houses, fences, scraps of paper. Passion for drawing led him to Feodosia to IK. Aivazovsky. After spending several months with the famous artist, Kuindzhi went to Petersburg with a dream to enter the Academy of Arts. Due to poor artistic preparation, it was not possible to become a student of the Academy at once. He twice held exams and both times to no avail. But this could not stop a stubborn and persistent young man, and in 1868, with the rank of a non-class artist, he was admitted to the Academy as a volunteer.

The paintings created by the artist in the period from 1872 to 1876 were close to the paintings of the Peredvizhniki artists. During this time the following works were created: “Autumn mudslide”, “Lake Ladoga”, “On the island of Valaam”, “Forgotten village”, “Chumatsky tract in Mariupol”, “Steppe in bloom” and “Steppe in the evening”.

In 1876 Arkhip Kuindzhi showed the picture “Ukrainian Night”, in which he managed to convey the sensual perception of the southern summer night, with an unprecedented courage for his time generalizing color and simplifying the form. In order to so naturally and expressively convey the moonlight, the flickering of stars, the artist had to solve the most complicated pictorial tasks. In the picture, everything is built on the virtuoso development of tonal relations, on the richness of color combinations. In 1878, the picture was presented at the World Exhibition in Paris.

The painting became a sensational event of artistic life, and followed by others, not inferior to it in defiant decorative: “Birch Grove”, “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper”, “Dnepr Morning” and others. “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” was demonstrated in 1880 in St. Petersburg. At the entrance to the exhibition one picture was a huge queue. The work caused a storm of ecstasy. In the following year, 1881, Kuindzhi just showed a new version of “Birch Grove”, and a year later – three more paintings.

Kuindzhi’s skill in the transmission of light is the result of the artist’s immense work, of long searches. His workshop was the laboratory of the researcher. He experimented a lot, studied the laws of the action of additional colors, looking for the right tone, checked it with color relations in nature itself. With persistent, persistent work, Kuindzhi achieved masterly mastery of color, the compositional simplicity that distinguishes his best works.

The exhibition of 1882 was the last for the artist. At the zenith of fame, Kuindzhi made a new unexpected step: he stopped exhibiting his works altogether. Long years of silence followed. But Kuindzhi continued to work hard, showing what was done only to close people.

In 1909, Arkhip Kuindzhi organized the Kuindzhi Society to support artists, who bequeathed all his paintings and money.

A.I. Kuindzhi
Sunrise
1891
© VOKhM im. I.N. Kramskoy