Tsibulnik Isaak

Biography

ISAAK TSIBULNIK (1909, Kiev - 1986, Kuybishev). During the period of 1930-34 he studied at the Graphics Department of the Kiev Art Institute, and after reorganization of the Institute into the All-Ukrainian Art Institute - at the Painting Department in the studios of I. Brodskiy and A. Shovkunenko. “Maxim Gorky on the Rafts on the Volga River”, a diploma work of the young artist, was exhibited at the All-Union Exhibition of Diploma Works of Graduates of Art Institutions, received raving reviews in the media and was acquired by the Kiev Museum of Ukrainian Art. In 1941 Isaak Tsibulnik became a member of the All-Soviet Artists Union. At the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War all of Tsibulnik’s entire family - father, brothers and a sister - were slaughtered by the Germans in Babiy Yar (the mother died in 1919). During the war, the artist worked at OKNA TASS and the Grekov Art Studio (attached to the Red Army). He made frequent trips to the frontlines where he created, among other works, a series of live sketches of Marshal K. Rokossovskiy. After the war, Tsibulnik lived in the city of Kuybishev where he created large-scale canvases depicting socialist construction, historic and revolutionary scenes. He also painted portraits, landscapes, and still life as well as graphic works including book illustrations. Tsibulnik participated in republican, All-Union, and international exhibitions. His personal exhibitions took place in 1943, 1963, 1981, 1989, 1995, 1999, and 2009. Tsibulnik’s works are now in the Ukrainian National Art Museum (“In Liberated Kiev” and others), the Samara Art Museum, the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War (Rokossovskiy's sketches) and other museums in Moscow, Kiev, Samara, and Ulyanovsk.