Koroteyev, Vasily Andreyevich

(b. 1906 Village of Grishino (Krasnoarmeysk), Ukraine – d. 1969 Moscow)

Painter and graphic artist

1920–1925 – Studied at the State Typography School attached to the First Model Printshop under S. Gerasimov, M. Dobrov, L. Zhegin, M. Rodionov and N. Chernyshov in Moscow.

1925–1932 – Chromolithograph artist at the same printshop.

1926–1930 – Member of the Path of Painting group.

Took part in exhibitions beginning in 1927, including: 1927 – 1st Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Path of Painting, Moscow; 1928 – Path of Painting exhibition in Paris; 1930 – 2nd Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Path of Painting in Moscow; 1958 – Art Exhibition of industrial and technical studios at VSKhV [All-Union Agricultural Exhibition; later renamed VDNKh (The Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy)], Moscow.

Later worked as an artist and designer at the Moscow Sculpture Factory, CPKiO [Gorky Central Park of Culture and Rest] Open Air Theatre, and the Museums of History and Anthropology.

1953–1966 – Worked at VDNKh.

“He [Pavel Florensky] paid a visit to the small Path of Painting exhibition which we had set up in a private flat at Serehryanny Lane. This was in 1927. Florensky did not like the works of my friend P. Babichev, finding them to be too impressionistic, whereas he himself strove for greater structuralism. “Everything is drifting here,” he noted. I could in no way agree with his evaluation. In my eyes, Bahichev was of course a painter, and this meant that he knew how to organize forms.

Then Florensky examined a work by V. Koroteyev — a full-sized female figure painted in beautiful colours. He pointed out the originality and consistency of the colour scheme: the entire body was of a very light brownish-pink hue, while the head was light green. Plorensky explained that the body is the expression of the sex, whereas the head relates to a completely different realm, and that this difference was expressed with the colours: green dematerializes and ties into intellect, which is the realm of the head.

Lev Zhegin, “Memories of P.A. Florensky”

Makovets. 1922—1926. Sbornik materialov po istorii obyedineniya [Collection of Materials on the History of the Makovets society: 1922—1 926]. M., 1994. P. 101.