Konstantin Vyalov

Painter, graphic artist, sculptor, applied artist, theatrical designer, poster designer, book illustrator, teacher. Born in the family of Alexander Vyalov in Moscow (1900). Studied at the Imperial Stroganov Central School of Art and Industry in Moscow (1914–17) and under Alexei Morgunov, Wassily Kandinsky, Vladimir Tatlin, Aristarkh Lentulov and David Sterenberg at the State Free Art Studios/VKhUTEMAS in Moscow (1918–24). Created Constructivist sculptures, counter-reliefs and non-objective paintings (early 1920s). Headed a studio of fine art for teenagers at Narkompros (1922–25). Designed the sets and costumes for productions of The Camorra of Seville at the Theatre of the Revolutionary Military Council (1923) and Vasily Kamensky’s Stenka Razin at Vsyevolod Meyerhold’s Theatre of the Revolution (now the Vladimir Mayakovsky Academic Theatre) in Moscow (1924). Founding member of the Society of Easel Artists (1925–28), member of the Union of Artists (1932). Designed movie bills and illustrated books (1920s–30s). Visited the Urals, Crimea, Arkhangelsk, Dagestan and Turkmenistan (first half of 1930s). Returned to Realism and painted seascapes (mid-1930s). Worked at the All-Union Exhibition of Agriculture in Moscow (1937–40) and designed wartime propaganda posters (1941–42). Painted landscapes (from late 1940s). Died in Moscow (1976). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1923), including Fifteen Years of the Red Army at Gorky Park in Moscow (1933), Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris (1925, silver medal), Anniversary Exhibition of Soviet Achievements Over the Past Ten Years in Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen (1927–28), XVIII Venice Biennale (1932), Exhibition of Soviet Art in Warsaw and Copenhagen (1933), 500 Anos de Arte Russa – Dos Ícones à Arte Contemporânea at Oca in the Parque do Ibirapuera in Sâo Paolo (2002) and The Avant-Garde: Before and After at Europalia in the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels (2005).