Nikolai Suetin (; 1897–1954) was a Russian
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 ...
artist. He worked as a graphic artist, a designer, and a ceramics painter.
Suetin studied at the Vitebsk Higher Institute of Art, (1918–1922) under
Kazimir Malevich, founder of Suprematism, an early abstract art movement which developed a style based on 'non objective' geometric shapes in alignment. From 1920 the artist participated in exhibitions including those of the
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 ...
group (Vitebsk, 1920 and 1921;
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
1929, 1921 and 1922),
Petrograd exhibitions, an International Exhibition of Decorative Art (held in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, 1925), the Exhibition of Soviet Porcelain (1926 and 1927), and the First Exhibition of
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 ...
artists in the Russian Museum among others.
He lived in Petrograd from 1923, and worked at the State Lomonosov Ceramics Factory. He also worked at the State Petrograd Lomonossov Porcelain Plant (from 1922 until 1924), and at the Porcelain Plant in Government of
Novgorod (from 1924 until 1925). Suetin was a member of GINKhUK (the State Institute of Artistic Culture, from 1923 until 1926), where he worked at the experimental laboratory; then later at the Institute of Art History (from 1927 to 1930). From 1932 he was the Chief Artist at the artistic laboratory of the Leningrad Lomonossov Porcelain Plant, where he had been working for around a decade applying avant-garde patterns and artworks to porcelain. He also worked as a book illustrator and exhibitions designer, where he maintained an avant-garde style despite the demands of
Socialist Realism
Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is c ...
. Suetin was the chief artist and designer of the
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
pavilions for the World Exhibitions in Paris (1937), where he worked on the interiors for
Boris Iofan's
Stalinist pavilion and again in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, 1939.
Nikolai Suetin is generally considered one of the leading Suprematist artists.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Suetin, Nikolai
Russian avant-garde
1897 births
1954 deaths
Russian artists
Burials at Bogoslovskoe Cemetery