Vladimir Viktorovich Kibaltschitsch

Vladimir Viktorovich Kibaltschitsch

Vladimir Viktorovich Kibalchich ( Russian Владимир Викторович Кибальчич ; trans. Vladimir Viktorovič Kibalchich ), known as "Vlady" , Russian Влади. (* 15. June 1920 in Petrograd , † 21st July 2005 in Cuernavaca ), was a Mexican painter of Russian origin .

biography

Vladimir Kibaltschitsch was the son of the writer and revolutionary Viktor Lwowitsch Kibaltschitsch , known under the writer's pseudonym " Victor Serge ", and his wife Liuba Russakowaja . His father, who was actively involved in the development of the Communist International , went to Germany with his family in 1921, which is why Vladimir first learned the German language, even though he later mainly spoke Russian, French and above all Spanish. In 1925 the family went back to the Soviet Union , where his father became involved in the left opposition to the repression by Stalin and the party.

Here in Russia, the family was exposed to strong external pressure. As a result, Alexander Russakov , Vladimir's maternal grandfather, died and his mother suffered from the consequences of persecution by the secret police , so she was admitted to the Red Army psychiatric institution . After his father was deported with him to Orenburg / Ural in 1933 due to an extorted confession , the two of them built an opposition group together with other deportees. Due to a solidarity campaign by his father's supporters (including Romain Rolland and Magdaleine Marx Paz ), the family was able to save the Soviet Union in 1936, received political asylum in Belgium and shortly afterwards moved to Paris .

Here Wladimir decided to pursue a career as a painter and had contact with André Breton , Joseph Lacasse , Victor Brauner , Oscar Dominguez , Wifredo Lam , Pierre Pascal , André Masson and Aristide Maillol . After the invasion of the Nazis in France, Vladimir and his father fled again, his mother remained in a psychiatric hospital in Aix-en-Provence , where he died in 1985. In Marseille , the two joined Varian Fry , Mary Jayne Gold and André Breton on, with whom they lived together while they waited to leave. They were denied entry in the ports of Martinique , the Dominican Republic , Cuba and the United States for political reasons; ultimately they were recorded in Mexico in 1941.

In Mexico City , "Vlady" was enthusiastic about Rivera's and Orozco's murals, but failed when trying to create his first own murales ( muralismo ). He traveled through the country and dealt with the Mexican art of painting by making countless sketches of everyday life, landscapes, villages, animals and other things in his new home. The year his father died of a heart attack in 1947, he married Isabel Díaz Fabela , who accompanied him until his death and inspired him in his art. In 1949 he received Mexican citizenship. Together with Alberto Gironella , Héctor Xavier and José Bartolí he founded the Galería Prisse in Mexico City in 1952 , which was soon joined by José Luis Cuevas . Here the group, which was later referred to as the Generación de la Ruptura , organized monthly exhibitions for their pictures and those of their painters friends. In the 1950s and 1960s "Vlady" traveled through Europe, especially France, Spain and Italy. His paintings have been exhibited in Italy, Brazil and Argentina. From 1967 to 1968 he went to New York City on a Guggenheim scholarship , where he met Mark Rothko , whose painting art disturbed him and whose pictures he titled "suicide". It was at this time that his probably most important and imposing murals were created. During Gorbachev's tenure in 1989, he tried to get his father and Trotsky rehabilitated in the Soviet Union . In 1990 he moved from Mexico City to Cuernavaca, where he lived in his country house with a large studio until his death. In 2002 he became an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts . He died of a brain tumor.

Web links

• Artist website (English)