Nina Genke-Meller
Encyclopedia
Nina Genke or Nina Genke-Meller, or Nina Henke-Meller, was a Ukrainian
-Russia
n avant-garde
artist
, (Suprematist), designer
, graphic artist and scenographer
.
. Her father Genrikh Genke was Dutch
, and her mother Nadezhda Tikhanova was Russian.
In 1912 she graduated from Levandovskaya Private Gymnasium in Kiev. She received a title to teach Russian language and history.
In 1913 she started to teach history, geography and drawing in the Higher Primary College for Women in Skoptsi. It was Skoptsi where her inspiration to art sprang to life. There Nina Genke met an artist Yevgenia Pribylska who was a head of the Art Studio in a Folk Center.
In 1914 she began attending Aleksandra Ekster
’s studio in Kiev
for her art education.
From 1915 to 1917 she was an assistant in Ekster's studio. At the same time Nina Genke worked as an artist in Skoptsi (Skoptsy) Village Folk Centre with supervisor Yevgeniya Pribilskaya and in the Verbovka Village Folk Centre
, founded by N. Davidova.
She was closely connected with the Supremus
group that was led by Kazimir Malevich
, the founder of Suprematism
.
After 1915, Nina Genke worked as a head and a chief artist of the Verbovka Village Folk Centre (province in Kiev). She attracted famous avant-garde artists such as Kazimir Malevich, Nadezhda Udaltsova
, Aleksandra Ekster
, Ivan Kliun
, Ivan Puni
, Lyubov Popova
, Olga Rozanova
, Ksenia Boguslavskaya
and others to the creative peasant artisans Co-operative.
In the period after the October Revolution of 1917, she participated in decorating the streets of Kiev and Odessa
for Revolution Festivities together with Aleksandra Ekster and Kliment Red'ko
, involved herself in designing grandiose shows, as well as, a book graphic design.
Nina Genke was a chief artist of the Golfstream futuristic publishing house led by Ukrainian poet-Futurist
, Mykhail Semenko. In the same time she is working as a graphic artist.
During the period 1920-1924 she taught art in the All-Ukrainian State Center Studio.
In 1924 moved to Moscow, working as a stage designer, designer for china ( mostly plates) and wallpaper manufacture.
Nina Genke also held a position of the Deputy Head of the Board on Fine Arts in Vserabis.
Later Nina Genke worked as an interior designer, a scenographer, a supervisor of decorative and applied arts institutions, etc.
She was married to Vadim Meller
.
Nina Genke-Meller died in Kiev.
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
-Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, (Suprematist), designer
Designer
A designer is a person who designs. More formally, a designer is an agent that "specifies the structural properties of a design object". In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, such as consumer products, processes, laws, games and graphics, is referred to as a...
, graphic artist and scenographer
Scenographer
A scenographer develops the appearance of a stage design, a TV or movie set, a gaming environment, a trade fair exhibition design or a museum experience exhibition design. The term originated in theater...
.
Biography
Nina Genke was born in MoscowMoscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. Her father Genrikh Genke was Dutch
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
, and her mother Nadezhda Tikhanova was Russian.
In 1912 she graduated from Levandovskaya Private Gymnasium in Kiev. She received a title to teach Russian language and history.
In 1913 she started to teach history, geography and drawing in the Higher Primary College for Women in Skoptsi. It was Skoptsi where her inspiration to art sprang to life. There Nina Genke met an artist Yevgenia Pribylska who was a head of the Art Studio in a Folk Center.
In 1914 she began attending Aleksandra Ekster
Aleksandra Ekster
Aleksandra Aleksandrovna Ekster was a Russian-French painter and designer.-Biography:-Childhood:...
’s studio in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
for her art education.
From 1915 to 1917 she was an assistant in Ekster's studio. At the same time Nina Genke worked as an artist in Skoptsi (Skoptsy) Village Folk Centre with supervisor Yevgeniya Pribilskaya and in the Verbovka Village Folk Centre
Verbovka Village Folk Centre
Verbovka Village Folk Centre was an artisan cooperative in the village of Verbovka founded by Natalia Davidova in the Ukrainian province of Kiev...
, founded by N. Davidova.
She was closely connected with the Supremus
Supremus
Supremus was a group of Russian avant-garde artists led by the "father" of Suprematism, Kazimir Malevich. It included Aleksandra Ekster, Liubov Popova, Olga Rozanova, Ivan Kliun, Ivan Puni, Nadezhda Udaltsova, Nina Genke-Meller, Ksenia Boguslavskaya and others.-See also:*Suprematism*Kazimir...
group that was led by Kazimir Malevich
Kazimir Malevich
Kazimir Severinovich Malevich was a Russian painter and art theoretician, born of ethnic Polish parents. He was a pioneer of geometric abstract art and the originator of the Avant-garde Suprematist movement.-Early life:...
, the founder of Suprematism
Suprematism
Suprematism was an art movement focused on fundamental geometric forms which formed in Russia in 1915-1916. It was not until later that suprematism received conventional museum preparations...
.
After 1915, Nina Genke worked as a head and a chief artist of the Verbovka Village Folk Centre (province in Kiev). She attracted famous avant-garde artists such as Kazimir Malevich, Nadezhda Udaltsova
Nadezhda Udaltsova
Nadezhda Andreeva Udaltsova was a Russian avant-garde artist and painter.-Biography:Nadezhda Udaltsova was born in town Orel in Russia. Udaltsova studied at private art studios in Moscow, then in Paris under André Segonzac....
, Aleksandra Ekster
Aleksandra Ekster
Aleksandra Aleksandrovna Ekster was a Russian-French painter and designer.-Biography:-Childhood:...
, Ivan Kliun
Ivan Kliun
Ivan Kliun was a Russian painter, Avant-garde artist , graphic artist and sculptor.-Biography:Ivan Vasilyevich Kliun was born in 1873 in Bolshie Gorki village ....
, Ivan Puni
Ivan Puni
Ivan Puni or Puny was a Russian avant-garde artist .-Biography:Ivan Puni was born in Kuokkala to a family of Italian origins...
, Lyubov Popova
Lyubov Popova
Lyubov Sergeyevna Popova was a Russian avant-garde artist , painter and designer. She was also a rarity in the highly male-dominated world of Soviet art.-Early life:...
, Olga Rozanova
Olga Rozanova
Olga Vladimirovna Rozanova Olga Vladimirovna Rozanova Olga Vladimirovna Rozanova (also spelled Rosanova, Russian: (Ольга Владимировна Розанова) (1886-7 November 1918, Moscow) was a Russian avant-garde artist in the styles of Suprematist, Neo-Primitivist, and Cubo-Futurist.-Biography:...
, Ksenia Boguslavskaya
Ksenia Boguslavskaya
Kseniya Boguslavskaya was a Russian avant-garde artist poet and interior decorator. Her husband Ivan Puni was also a notable painter...
and others to the creative peasant artisans Co-operative.
In the period after the October Revolution of 1917, she participated in decorating the streets of Kiev and Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
for Revolution Festivities together with Aleksandra Ekster and Kliment Red'ko
Kliment Red'ko
Kliment Red'ko or Redko , 15 October 1897 - 18 February 1956) was a Ukrainian-Russian painter-scientist, avant-garde artist , graphic artist.-Biography:Kliment Red'ko was born in Cholm, Russian Empire....
, involved herself in designing grandiose shows, as well as, a book graphic design.
Nina Genke was a chief artist of the Golfstream futuristic publishing house led by Ukrainian poet-Futurist
Futurism (art)
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It emphasized and glorified themes associated with contemporary concepts of the future, including speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane and the industrial city...
, Mykhail Semenko. In the same time she is working as a graphic artist.
During the period 1920-1924 she taught art in the All-Ukrainian State Center Studio.
In 1924 moved to Moscow, working as a stage designer, designer for china ( mostly plates) and wallpaper manufacture.
Nina Genke also held a position of the Deputy Head of the Board on Fine Arts in Vserabis.
Later Nina Genke worked as an interior designer, a scenographer, a supervisor of decorative and applied arts institutions, etc.
She was married to Vadim Meller
Vadym Meller
Vadym Meller or Vadim Meller, was a Ukrainian-Russian Soviet painter, avant-garde Cubist and Constructivist artist, theatrical designer, book illustrator, and architect...
.
Nina Genke-Meller died in Kiev.
External links and references
- Nina Henke-From Folk Suprematism to Avant-gardism of Shows and Plays, Sergei Papeta, pp. 48-66, Catalog, an Exhibition Avant-Garde Adventures, National Art Museum of UkraineNational Art Museum of UkraineThe National Art Museum of Ukraine is a museum dedicated to Ukrainian art in Kiev, Ukraine.-Architecture:Constructed in 1898, by architect Vladislav Gorodetsky, the building was originally designed as the museum for the local society of patrons of arts and antique lovers...
(NAMU), Kiev, UkraineUkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, 2004. - Nina Genke, Avantgarde and Ukraine.,p. 193, Catalogue, an Exhibition of the Villa Stuck' MunichMunichMunich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, 1993. - Nina Genke, Ukrainian Avant-garde of 1910-1930s, ZagrebZagrebZagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
, CroatiaCroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, 1991. - Ukrainian Avant-garde Art 1910-1930s, ed. Dmytro Horbachov, Mystetstvo, Kiev, Ukraine, 1996.
- Crossroads. Modernism in Ukraine., Chicago-New York, US, 2006-2007.