Nina Kogan (1887–1942) was a Russian painter known for her
Suprematist
Suprematism (russian: Супремати́зм) is an early twentieth-century art movement focused on the fundamentals of geometry (circles, squares, rectangles), painted in a limited range of colors. The term ''suprematism'' refers to an abstra ...
works.
Life and career
Nina Osipovna (Iosifovna) Kogan was born in 1887 or 1889 in
Vitebsk
Vitebsk or Viciebsk (russian: Витебск, ; be, Ві́цебск, ; , ''Vitebsk'', lt, Vitebskas, pl, Witebsk), is a city in Belarus. The capital of the Vitebsk Region, it has 366,299 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth-largest c ...
,
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
,
or Moscow,
and studied at the St.
Ekaterina School in St. Petersburg in 1911-1913.
In 1919 she helped to organize City Museum in Petrograd.
She went on to study at the People's Art School in
Vitebsk
Vitebsk or Viciebsk (russian: Витебск, ; be, Ві́цебск, ; , ''Vitebsk'', lt, Vitebskas, pl, Witebsk), is a city in Belarus. The capital of the Vitebsk Region, it has 366,299 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth-largest c ...
, Belarus, and soon became a teacher there, together with
Marc Chagall,
El Lissitzky
Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, ; – 30 December 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Эль Лиси́цкий; yi, על ליסיצקי), was a Russian artist ...
, and
Kazimir Malevich.
Kogan became a member of Malevich's
UNOVIS
UNOVIS (also known as MOLPOSNOVIS and POSNOVIS) was a short-lived but influential group of artists, founded and led by Kazimir Malevich at the Vitebsk Art School in 1919.
Initially formed by students and known as MOLPOSNOVIS, the group formed ...
art collective.
While a member of the group, she created the work ''Suprematist Ballet'' in an attempt to animate Suprematist forms and ideas in dance. She also took part designing new version of futuristic opera ''
Victory over the Sun''.
Kogan participated in on several exhibitions of early 1920s, such as "Erste Russische Kunstausstellung" in Berlin, 1922; "Exhibition of Works by Women Artists" in Leningrad, 1936; the "Sixth Exhibition of Works by Leningrad Artists", Leningrad, 1940; and the "Seventh Exhibition of Works by Leningrad Artists", Leningrad, 1941.
In 1922 Kogan married artist
Anatoly Borisov. In 1922-23 she was a consultant in one of the Moscow's museums. Since 1928 she worked as children's books illustrator; she did not work in Suprematism after Vitebsk.
Kogan died in 1942 in
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, during the
Siege of Leningrad.
Legacy
In the 1980s a large number of works attributed to her appeared on the European art market.
Her works are in collections of the
Seattle Art Museum
The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, United States. It operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) in Volunteer Park on Cap ...
and the
Moderna Museet
Moderna Museet ("the Museum of Modern Art"), Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened a new branch in Malmö i ...
, Stockholm.
Australian poet
Clive James wrote a poem about Kogan, titled "Nina Kogan's Geometrical Heaven":
Gallery
Nina Kogan Komposition 1920.jpg, alt= Composición 1920 por Nina Kogan, Composition 1920
Nina Kogan Suprematistische Komposition um 1921.jpg, Suprematist Composition, 1921
Nina Kogan Suprematistische Komposition 1921 1923.jpg, Suprematist Composition, 1921
Nina Kogan Suprematistische Komposition 1920 1922.jpg, Suprematist Composition, 1921
Nina Kogan ohne Titel Suprematistische Komposition 1921 1923.jpg, Suprematist Composition, 1921-1923
Nina Kogan Vorhang zum suprematistischen Ballett UNOWIS-Almanach 1920.jpg, Suprematist ballet, Unovis almanach, 1920
Further reading
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kogan, Nina
1880s births
1942 deaths
Soviet artists
Victims of the Siege of Leningrad