Zhegin Lev

Biography

LEV ZHEGIN (1892, Moscow – 1969, Moscow) is an outstanding Russian artist, the son of the famous architect Fyodor Shekhtel. Attended Konstantin Youon’s school (1909–10) and Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture which was transformed after the October revolution into the Second State Free Artistic Association (1911–19).
In 1914 he took a journey to Western Europe. From 1920 to 1925 he taught at the School of Printing Art.
Zhegin was among the founders of the “Makovets” group which was a union of artists and poets seeking to provide the spiritual continuity of the artistic tradition and opposing both the left avant-garde and the primitive verisimilitude of the Revolutionary Russia’s Artists Association (AKhRR). In his series “Biblical Stories” (1920-s) he strove to breathe new life into religious symbolism. He consistently expressed the principles of the “quiet art” that was being developed at the time. In 1926 he left “Makovets” to organize together with his students a union called “Path of Painting”. In the union’s manifesto a picture was declared an independent “little world by itself”.
In the last decades of his life Zefirov rarely exhibited his works, earning his living as a designer. He also conducted successful theoretical research in the field which was close to semiotics. His most prominent theoretical work “The Language of a Painting” was published posthumously in 1970.