Aleksandr Davydovich Drevin (russian: Александр Давыдович Древин, lv, Aleksandrs Rūdolfs Drēviņš, 3 July 1889 – 26 February 1938) was a Latvian-Russian painter.

Biography

Drevin was born in

Cēsis Cēsis (), (german: Wenden, liv, Venden, et, Võnnu, pl, Kieś) is a town in Latvia located in the northern part of the Central Vidzeme Upland. Cēsis is on the Gauja River valley, and is built on a series of ridges above the river over ...

, Latvia, then a part of

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

. He attended art school in Riga under Vilhelms Purvītis, thus initially adapting the style of impressionist painting, and first came to Moscow in 1914. He studied under

Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin Kuzma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin, (; November 5, Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O._S._24_October.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>O._S._24_October">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html"_;"title="nowiki/>Old_Styl ...

. Since 1917 he worked in the Fine Arts Department of the People's Commissariat of Education. Drevin was part of the " Green Flower" association of avant-garde artists, notably with Konrāds Ubāns, Valdemārs Tone and Kārlis Johansons. Between 1920 and 1921 he was a member of the Inkhuk but later left, together with

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

, Kliunkov, and

Nadezhda Udaltsova Nadezhda Andreevna Udaltsova (, 29 December 1885 – 25 January 1961) was a Russian avant-garde artist (Cubist, Suprematist), painter and teacher. Early life and education Nadezhda Udaltsova was born in the village of Orel, Russia, on 29 Decemb ...

, because of the Constructivist-Productivist stylistic manifesto urging the rejection of

easel An easel is an upright support used for displaying and/or fixing something resting upon it, at an angle of about 20° to the vertical. In particular, easels are traditionally used by painters to support a painting while they work on it, normally ...

painting. Drevin became a professor of painting at Vkhutemas. In 1922, he was sent to work the ''First Russian Art Exhibition'' at the Van Diemen Gallery in Berlin. He travelled across

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, to

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

Ural, Altai and

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...

creating a series of artworks of the Soviet landscape. These trips where organised and supervised by soviet art officials Aleksandr Drevin

Drevin often painted a "brutal primitivism", lacking any political message or any purpose at all. His paintings have been compared to those of de Vlaminck. Drevin's paintings intentionally were empty of illusionism and decorativeness. After a period of constructivist abstract painting, his style became progressively more realistic during the 1920s.

Personal life

He was married to

; their son was Andrey Drevin, born 1921, who became a sculptor. On 17 January 1938, during the

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secret ...

, as a part of the so-called " Latvian Operation", Drevin was arrested by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

and executed on 26 February at the

Butovo firing range The Butovo Firing Range or Butovo Shooting Range (russian: Бутовский полигон) was an execution site of the Soviet secret police located near Drozhzhino in Leninsky District, Moscow Oblast from 1938 to 1953. Its use for mass ex ...

near Moscow. He was posthumously rehabilitated in 1957.

References

Works cited

*''A History of Painting'', Alan Bird

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drevin, Aleksandr 1889 births 1938 deaths People from Cēsis People from Kreis Wenden Latvian painters Soviet painters 20th-century Russian painters Russian male painters Vkhutemas faculty Great Purge victims from Latvia