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 Vidzeme Upland, Central Vidzeme Upland. Cēsis is on the Gauja, Gauja River valley, and is built on a series of ridges ...

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

, 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 Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

under

Vilhelms Purvītis Vilhelms Purvītis (3 March 1872 – 14 January 1945) was a landscape painter and educator who founded the Latvian Academy of Art and was its rector from 1919 to 1934. Biography Vilhems Purvītis was born in Zaube Parish (now Cēsis Munic ...

, thus initially adapting the style of impressionist painting, and first came to Moscow in 1914. He studied under Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin. Since 1917 he worked in the Fine Arts Department of the People's Commissariat of Education. Drevin was part of the "

Green Flower Green Flower ( Latvian: ''Zaļā puķe'') was an association of young Latvian avant-garde artists which lasted from 1914 to 1919. The group was centred around Jāzeps Grosvalds, who had visited Munich and Paris whilst travelling around Europe sinc ...

" association of avant-garde artists, notably with

Konrāds Ubāns Konrāds Ubāns (December 31, 1893 – August 30, 1981) was a Latvian painter from Riga. He studied at the Riga Art School and was one of the founding members of the Riga Artists' Group before becoming a professor at the Art Academy of Latvia ...

, Valdemārs Tone and

Kārlis Johansons Karl Johansson (January 16, 1890 in Cēsis, Latvia, as Kārlis Johansons in his native Latvian; Russian: Карл Вольдемарович Иогансон, ''Karl Voldemarovich Ioganson;'' German: ''Karl Ioganson'' – October 18, 1929 in Mos ...

. Between 1920 and 1921 he was a member of the Inkhuk but later left, together with Wassily Kandinsky, Kliunkov, and Nadezhda Udaltsova, because of the Constructivist-Productivist stylistic manifesto urging the rejection of easel 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 List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, 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 ''Ox ...

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 Nadezhda Udaltsova; their son was

Andrey Drevin Andrei Aleksandrovich Drevin (russian: Андрей Александрович Древин; 26 August 1921 — 7 April 1996) was a Russian sculptor. His parents were prominent Russian painter Nadezhda Udaltsova and Latvian painter Aleksandr Drevi ...

, 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 Nikolay Yezhov, Yezhov'), was General ...

, 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 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