EVGENY KIBRIK (RUSSIAN 1906-1978)
Portrait of Vera Ketlinskaya (the artist`s wife), 1920s
oil on canvas
62 x 46.5 cm (24 3/8 x 18 3/4 in.)
Signed and inscribed on verso

PROVENANCE
From the artist Lidia Frolova-Bagreeva (School of Filonov)

LOT NOTES
Evgeny Kibrik was one of the influential Soviet artists of the beginning of the 20th century. He started his education at the Odessa Art Institute (1922-25), and continued at the VkhuTEIN, together with Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin. Kibrik was also a prominent student of Pavel Filonov, and a member of the "Masters of Analytical Art" group from 1926 until 1930, as well as one of the founders of the artists group IzoRAM. His early works, such as the present lot, show a great influence of Filonov, revealing in realistic, yet emotional portraiture against an abstract background. As the political demands of Socialist Realist art took hold, the works by Kibrik and his former teacher Filonov were often criticized by the public. As a result, his later work for which he was highly lauded by the Soviet art establishment, essentially was Socialist Realist in nature. The present lot, therefore, is an especially rare and powerful example of Evgeny Kibrik`s early oeuvre, one of the exemplary artists of the Filonov school.

THIS LOT IS BEING SOLD WITHOUT RESERVE.