Gavriil Schultz

Sculptor, draughtsman, teacher, writer on art. Descended from German sculptor and Danish royal medallist Anton Schultz, who worked in Copenhagen for the Russian court and moved to Russia at the invitation of Peter the Great. Half-brother of French émigré artist Leff Schultz (1897–1970). Born in the village of Krasnoe in Kostroma Province in the family of state councillor Alexander Schultz and his Swedish wife Hedvig Grünberg (1903 or 1904). Grew up in White Russia and the Ukraine (1910s–10s). Graduated from grammar school (1917) and worked as a cultural official for the district land department and at the Berdichev Sugar Refinery in the Ukraine (1917–23). Studied at Odessa Polytechnic College of Fine Arts (1923–24) and under Leonid Sherwood, Vsyevolod Lishev and Alexander Matveyev at the VKhUTEIN in Leningrad (1924–27). Member of the All-White-Russian Unification of Artists in Minsk (1927–30). Served in the Red Army (1928), discharged with the rank of senior lieutenant (1929). Taught at Vitebsk School of Art (1929–31), Faculty of Sculpture of the Institute of Proletarian Fine Art in Leningrad (1931–32), Faculty of Architecture of the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Leningrad (1932–33), courses for raising qualifications at the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Leningrad (1934) and preparatory classes at the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Leningrad (1935). Studied under Alexander Matveyev as a post-graduate student of the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Leningrad (1932–36). Decorated the Palace of Culture of Communication Workers at 58 Herzen (now Bolshaya Morskaya) Street (1932–39), House of Specialists at 61 Lesnoi Prospekt (1934–37) and the stadium of the Peter Lesgaft Institute of Physical Culture in Leningrad (1937). Taught at the Faculty of Sculpture of the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Leningrad (1936–41). Defended dissertation for the degree of candidate doctor of art history (1939). Joined the Leningrad People’s Militia Army (1941), wounded and hospitalised in Leningrad (1942). Evacuated with the children of artists to the village of Yemurtla in Kurgan (now Tyumen) Region (1943–44). Taught at the Moscow Institute of Fine Arts (1944–48) and the Faculty of Sculpture of the Higher School of Art and Industry in Moscow (1950–84, associate professor from 1952, professor and head of the department of architectural-decorative plastic art from 1958). Designed the sculptural group at the Turkmen Pavilion of the All-Union Exhibition of Agriculture in Moscow (1939–49) and equestrian statues at the Tsimlyansk Reservoir on the River Don (1954). Reconstructed the statue of Peter the Great in Voronezh (1956), sculpted by Anton Schwartz (1860) and stolen by the German occupying forces (1942). Sculpted portraits of Count Alexander Suvorov (1951), Ivan Michurin (1948), Sarra Dormilatova (1952), Alexei Teneta (1952), Pavel Yeremeyev (1952), Alexander Spendiarian (1960s), Mikhail Schultz (1966), Nina Niss-Goldman (1969) and Pavel Kozhin (1976). Designed monuments to Alexander Pushkin in Rostov-on-Don (1959) and Petrozavodsk (1966) and the gravestones of sculptors Matvei Listopad (1966) and Boris Korolyov at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow (1966). Created the Seasons series (1966) and other works of garden sculpture for Gorky Park in Moscow (early 1970s). Sculpted the statue of agronomist Dmitry Pryanishnikov at the Kliment Timiryazev Academy of Agriculture in Moscow (1978) and the figure of a cosmonaut (Yury Gagarin) for the Space Museum in Moscow (1980). Awarded a silver medal of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1979). Honoured Artist of the RSFSR. Died in Moscow and buried at the former German Cemetery in Lefortovo (1984). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1929). Contributed to Exhibition of Portraits and Exhibition of Pictures by the Leningrad Regional House of Artists at the First Five-Year Plan House of Culture in Leningrad (1933), Exhibition of Works by Leningrad Artists at the Union of Artists in Leningrad (1939), Exhibition of Works by Artists Meer Axelrod, Mendel Gorshman, Alexander Labas, Alexei Teneta and Gavriil Schultz at the Union of Artists in Moscow (1966), Soviet Sculpture: Exhibition of New Acquisitions 1977–87 at the Russian Museum in Leningrad (1989), Russian Sculpture in Wood: XX Century at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (2001), Alexander Matveyev and his School at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (2005), Expo ‘58 in Brussels (1958, bronze medal) and one-man shows in Moscow (1974, 1994).