Kliment Redko

Painter, graphic artist, designer, teacher. Born in the family of a peasant called Nikolai Redko (1897) in the town of Kholm in Lublin Province (now Che?m in Poland). Studied at the School of Icon-Painting of the Kiev Monastery of the Caves (1910–14), under Fyodor Roehrberg in Moscow (1912–13), under Arkady Rylov, Nicholas Roerich, Pavel Naumov and Alexander Vakhrameyev at the School of Drawing of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts in Petrograd (1914–18), Kiev Academy of Arts (1918–19) and under Wassily Kandinsky at the Petrograd State Free Art Studios/VKhUTEMAS (1920–22). Served in the Russian air force in the First World War (1916–17). Moved to the Volga to recuperate after illness (1918) and to Kiev, where he studied at the Academy of Arts (1918–19, expelled during White rule). Worked for the Kiev Studios of Art and Design after the Bolshevik takeover (1919–20), collaborating with Pavel Tchelitchew on decorating the streets and squares of Kiev with agitprop pictures and panels on Communist holidays (1919). Founding member of Electroorganism (1922). Joined Solomon Nikritin’s Method (Projectionists) group. Worked in the Crimea and Caucasus (1923–24), Murmansk, White Sea and Novaya Zemlya (1925). Lived and worked for IZO Narkompros in Paris (1927–35). Sent to France by IZO Narkompros (1927), worked for the exhibition department of the Soviet Trade Representative in Paris (until 1935). Returned to the Soviet Union and worked at the All-Union Exhibition of Agriculture (1938–40), painting panels for the Kirghiz Pavilion. Designed posters for TASS in collaboration with Pavel Sokolov-Skalya (1941). Joined the Union of Artists (1945), expelled for falling under Western cultural influences (1948). Headed an art studio at the Kliment Timiryazev Academy of Agriculture (1950–55). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1912), including First Discussion Exhibition of Unifications of Active Revolutionary Art (1924), Salon des Indépendants and Salon d’Automne and one-man shows in Moscow (1926) and Paris (1928, 1929, 1930, 1933).