Born 1902, Ļucin, Latvia - Died 1928, Leningrad
Painter, graphic artist and designer
Work Biography
Note: this artist was a member of the UNOVIS group, where you can view more of his work and design. Here works are presented belonging in the category of Mass and Agit Art.
Work
Platform-design for the Red Square in Smolensk. 1920.
Pencil and Indian ink on paper, 57.3x37.6 cm.
Private collection, Germany.
Plate "Lenin". 1924. (V.I.Lenin died in 1924)
The Central Museum of V.I.Lenin, Moscow.
Suprematism cover design for the book "Lenin" by M.Gorky. 1924.
Gouache, Indian ink, cardboard, 29.4x22.8 cm.
Private collection, Germany.
Poster design. 1927-1928.
Collage and Indian ink on paper, 49.5x36.2 cm.
Private collection, Germany.
May 1st. Poster design. 1927-1928.
Collage and watercolor on paper, 43.5x30.5 cm.
Private collection, Germany.
Work Biography Top of Page
Biography:
Ilya Chashnik was one of the most talented and favourite pupils of Kazimir Malevich. His life was very short, but he has managed to accomplish a lot in the art of Suprematism and Constructivism.
Ilya Chashnik was born in 1902 in Ļucin, Latvia, the youngest of 8 children in a very poor family. Soon afterwards, the family has moved to Vitebsk. From early on, Ilya has loved drawing. At the age of 11 he was forced to leave school, and entered an optics-mechanics workshop, where he worked for 10-11 hours a day. But despite the hard work, his craving for art was so strong, that soon he has began drawing again by night. By 1915, his elder brothers and sisters all left home to work, and Ilya could finally return to school, from which he graduated in 1919. He has taken drawing lessons from Yu. Pen, a Vitebsk painter.
In 1920, Chashnik has studied briefly at VHUTEMAS, in Moscow. He was taken with Chagall's art, and has transferred to Vitebsk, in order to study with him. Then he studied with Malevitch, and graduated from the Vitebsk Practical Art Institute in 1922.
Ilya Chashnik was a member of the UNOVIS Group.
In 1921-22 he has participated in UNOVIS exhibitions in Moscow and in Vitebsk; the exhibition of artists of various movements in Petrograd (1923); the international exhibition of decorative art in Paris (1925); an exhibition in Monso-Milan in 1927 (honorary ?).
In 1922, the artist has followed Malevitch and moved to Petrograd, to join the scientific department of INHUK (the Institute of art Culture), where he has received diploma and a title of free artist and high teacher of technical schools.
Chashnik has worked as an artist at the Petrograd porcelain factory (1922-24); in scientific function at the Decorative Institute (1925). He was research leader on decorative art forms in the porcelain field, and on advertising poster and architecture. He was a member of the Committee of artistic industry at the State Institute of Art History (1926-27). From 1927, he has headed a workshop ISORAM (decorative art of the working youth).