Bright paintings by Aristarkh Lentulov

Aristarkh Lentulov was a Russian and Soviet artist, painter, stage designer. He was one of the founders of the Russian Avant-garde. He was named “the artist of the sun”. Sunlight and sound are the two main distinguishing features of his paintings.
Aristarkh Vasilievich Lentulov was born on January 16, 1882 in Nizhny Lomovsky district of the Penza province (now Penza region), into the family of a village priest. His father died when the boy was only two years old.
In 1898-1900 and 1905 he studied at Penza Art College. In 1900-1904 Aristarkh attended Kiev Art School. He independently worked and studied in the studios of A. Le Fauconnier, J. Metzinger, at the private academy de la Palette (English) (Paris, 1911). Then he worked in Italy.

The artist participated in many avant-garde exhibitions. In 1910, Lentulov together with Konchalovsky, Mashkov, Larionov, Goncharova became one of the founders of the Knave of Diamonds (or Jack of Diamonds), a group of avant-garde artists.
In 1915 Lentulov painted and exhibited a self-portrait, called Le grand peintre which means The Great Artist.
In 1926 – 1927 Lentulov was a member of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia.
In 1925 he took part in the International Exhibition of Contemporary Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, where he received a diploma for the scenery for the performance Demon.
In 1919 Lentulov taught in the Institute of Culture and in 1937 he became Professor of the Moscow State Academic Art Institute Named After V.I. Surikov.
In 1933, Lentulov’s personal exhibition devoted to the 25th anniversary of artistic activity was successfully held in Moscow.

In 1942, the artist returned to Moscow where he died on April 15, 1943. He was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.
Lentulov believed that beauty rules the world! The cheerful artist felt light and music. American expert on Russian painting, art critic John Ellis Bowlt is sure that Lentulov for Russian painting is a figure of the same scale as Matisse for the world art.
“Images of the generation” was exhibited at Sotheby’s for a half million dollars in 2011. But there was no one who wanted to buy a picture. In 2013 the picture “Church in Alupka” was sold for 3.5 million dollars at Christie’s. And a year later, in 2014, “Children with umbrellas” was sold for 3.5 million dollars at Sotheby’s.

Bright paintings by Aristarkh Lentulov