The art of the USSR

Website of collector Mihaila Arefyeva

Kramarenko Lev Yuryevich

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In 1906-1908, he studied at the Petersburg Academy of Arts with Dmitry Kardovsky. In 1911, he studied at the Paris Academy of Arts. He was a member of the Union of Contemporary Artists of Ukraine (since 1927). Since 1913, he participated in various exhibitions. April 2, 1913, an exhibition of the artist was opened in the halls of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of Arts in St. Petersburg.

During these years, Kramarenko was formed as a mural artist.

The artist traveled a lot. Worked at the museums of Constantinople and Athens, lectured in Rome.

In 1918, he returned to Ukraine and became a director of the Glinka Ceramic School in Poltava.

Since 1920, he became a chairman of the Artistic Council and a head of the workshops of painting and composition of the Ceramic Workshop in Mezhyhiria near Kiev (since 1923, the Workshop was renamed as the Art Ceramic Technical School).

In 1920, Kramarenko was elected as a professor of mural of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Arts.

In 1922, the Academy was reorganized into the Kiev Institute of Plastic Arts. Soon Lev Yuryevich became its rector.

In 1924, after the organization of the Kiev State Art Institute, he ruled the Mural Department together with the professor Mikhail Leontievich Boychuk.

In 1927, the artist acted as one of the organizers of the Union of Contemporary Artists of Ukraine (in Ukrainian - Об'єднання сучасних митців України), took an active part in its work and participated in artistic exhibitions of the Union.

In 1930, Kramarenko, along with young artists I. Zhdanko and Yu. Sadilenko, painted frescoes in the conference hall of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

In 1931, the Mural Faculty was transferred from Kiev to the Kharkov Art Institute, and Lev Yuryevich moved to Kharkov.

Since 1932, the artist lived in Moscow.

In 1936, the branch of the Moscow Art Institute was opened in Moscow to improve the skills of artists. Kramarenko headed a mural workshop.

Work in the field of mural, as well as many years of pedagogical practice never took the artist from systematic work on the easel painting. Almost every day, getting up at 5-6 o'clock in the morning, L.Yu.Kramarenko sat down at the easel or took a sketch book and went to paint a landscape. In addition, every year in summer, the artist left for the Caucasus, Ukraine, Central Asia, where he worked hard and hard painting nature. In this time of direct communication with nature, the artist's method of painting developed, a bright and distinctive plastic language was born. Kramarenko's method was close to the principles of painting by such Soviet artists as P. Konchalovsky, A. Lentulov, A. Osmerkin, whose creativity is characterized by the desire to reveal the truth and beauty of reality with all the richness of a sonorous, vibrant palette.

In November 1941, the artist moved to Samarkand, where the Moscow, Kiev and Kharkov Art Institutes were evacuated; he was engaged in organizing the pedagogical process of unifying the educational institutions.

On March 2, 1942, the artist died. The sketch for his gravestone was performed by Vladiamir Andreevich Favorsky.

The works of Lev Yuryevich Kramarenko are represented in museums and private collections.


Site of the collector M. Arefyev.

Art from the USSR.