Ionin Nikolai Alexandrovich

Ionin Nikolai Alexandrovich

1890, Navolok, Novgorod Province – 1948, Leningrad

Painter, graphic artist. Studied at the School of Drawing, Society for the Encouragement of Arts (1908–1913); auditor at the Higher School of Art, Imperial Academy of Arts (1913–1915); State Free Art Studios/VKhUTMAS (1920–1922) first under Dmitry Kardovsky and then under Kuzma Petrov- Vodkin (from 1921; on breaks served in the Imperial and Red armies); courses for Raising Qualifications, Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1934–1936). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1915). Member of the Community of Artists (1928–1932) and the Union of Artists (1934). Headed the Art School in Bezhetsk (1919–1921). In 1942–1944, he was evacuated to Kyrgyzstan, where he created a series of plein-air landscapes contrasting with half-starved life in evacuation and personal tragedy (during the war, the artist’s elder son died). In the post-war period, he returned to the series Leningrad and Its Environs. He created a series of deeply psychological and accurate self-portraits during the last years of his life. The solo exhibition was held in the State Russian Museum in 2007 (catalogue).