Elena Semenova (Russian, 1898-1986)
1898. Born in Moscow.
1914–1915. Attends classes at the MUZhVZ (Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture).
1919. Studies sculpture at SVOMAS (Second State Free Art Studios; formerly MUZhVZ) in Moscow in the studio of Sergei Konenkov (1874–1971) and then with the sculptor Sergei Volnukhin (1859–1921).
1920. Studies sculpture at VKhUTEMAS (Higher State Artistic and Technical Workshops; formerly SVOMAS) in Moscow (Sculpture Faculty; B.D. Korolev and A.M. Lavinsky).
1922. Transfers to the Faculty of Architecture at VKhUTEMAS (Nikolai Ladovsky, Nikolai Dokuchaev, and Vladimir Krinsky).
1923. Under the pseudonym “Vkhutemaska,” contributes a scathing critique of architectural instruction at VKhUTEMAS: “Levaia matafizika” (Left Metaphysics), Lef, no. 4 (1924): 219–220, in which she writes: “Any tram stop, house, or kiosk designed in a new and constructive way is more valuable for students than all these abstract and pseudo-Productivist exercises.”
1924. Actively participates in several subgroups within INKhUK (Institute of Artistic Culture; 1920–1924), in its final year, especially those associated with architecture and the Constructivists. Leaves VKhUTEMAS without graduating.
1920s. Works as a graphic designer for, among others, Glavpolitprosvet (Main Committee for Political Enlightenment), Klub (Club) magazine, Siniaia Bluza (Blue Blouse) theater collective, and Mossel’prom.
1928. Member of the team of thirty-eight artists preparing the Soviet pavilion for the Pressa exhibition in Cologne (May–October 1928) under El Lissitzky’s leadership. In a January 1976 interview with Symon Bojko, Semenova recounted: “We learnt a great deal from Lissitzky. His artistic direction was also ours, i.e., the Soviet avant-gardes. We were able to work with a supervisor who understood us – and we understood him, too. It was thanks to Lissitzky that we had the chance of seeing and working with real, imported materials.”
1928–1930s. Possibly serves as chief artist-designer of exhibitions at the Central Park of Culture and Leisure (later called Gorky Park), Moscow. In 1930, designed and installed the exhibition Novyi byt (New Way of Life).
1940s–1960s. Works as an editor of the Central European Department of TASS (Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union), German sector (1942–45); as head of German edition of the journal Inostrannaia literatura (Foreign Literature) (1945–1946); as an art consultant at the Vsesoiuznyi Dom modelei (All-Union House of [Clothing/Fashion] Models) (1949–1954); and as an art editor at GUM (State Department Store) (1954–1962).
Key Sources:
Elena Semenova, “Vkhutemas, Lef, Maiakovskii,” in Trudy po russkoi i slavianskoi filologii, IX: Literaturovedenie (Uchenye zapiski Tartuskogo universiteta), no. 184 (Tartu, Estonia, 1966).
[Cited in: Maria Gough, “Elena Semenova: Three Workers’ Club Drawings, 1926 and 1930,” in Jodi Hauptman and Adrian Sudhalter, eds. Engineer, Agitator, Constructor: The Artist Reinvented (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2020), p. 86 (n. 1).]
Semenova’s expanded manuscript, submitted to the Gosudarstvennyi muzei V. V. Mayakovskogo (GMM; The State Museum of V.V. Mayakovsky) in 1969, was published in M. A. Nemirova, Tvorchestvo V. V. Mayakovskogo v nachale XXI veka (M., 2008).
[Cited in: https://vk.com/@udarbrigadamayakovskogo-elena-semenova-bliz-orbity-mayakovskogo. Accessed: August 2, 2021.]
Maquettes
Architecture
Typography
Blue Blouse
Between 1924 and 1928, the agitprop theatre collective Siniaia Bluza (Blue Blouse) published a journal in Moscow edited by Boris Iuzhanin. Although her name does not appear in the journal itself, Semenova apparently designed numerous covers for it, possibly including the photomontaged issues presented here.
Posters
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