Labas, Alexander Arkadievich
(b. 1900 Smolensk – d. 1983 Moscow)
Painter, graphic artist and theater designer
1907–1908 – Studied at the studio of V. Mushketov in Smolensk.
1912– 1917 – Studied at Moscow Stroganov Higher College of Art and Industry under S. Noakovsky, F. Fyodorovsky and D. Shcherbinovsky, and at the same time at the studios of F. Rerberg and I. Mashkov.
1918 – Entered SVOMAS [The State Free Art Studios] in Moscow under P. Konchalovsky and F. Malyavin. Took part in exhibitions beginning in 1921, including: 1929 – USSR Art Exhibitions in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Detroit; 1937 – the World Fair in Paris; 1939 – the International Exhibition in New York; 1976 – personal exhibition
in Moscow.
1925–1932 – Co-founder and member of OST [Society for Easel Painting].
1920–1921 – Taught painting at the State Art Studios in Yekaterinburg.
1924–1929 – Taught painting and chromatics at Vkhutemas-Vkhutein [The Higher Art and Technical Studios and Institute] in Moscow.
1930s – Worked on panoramic and dioramic designs and theater scenery.
“I would like to live to the year 2000, but only if I could retain the ability to see, to feel, and to experience, which is already very difficult, almost impossible. But I’d like to at least dream of living through the entire 20th century, the most wonderful century ever, a century full of astounding discoveries and revolutions in life, science, technology, and art. And all this happened right before my eyes. Everything was a real experience, and I participated in much of it myself What I’m sure of is this: with every coming decade, my work will be better and better understood, and in, say, 50 or 100 years, it will ring out at flail strength. Everyone will see in my work our own time; I think I perceived it very well and was able to discern the meaning of the very complicated events of our breathtaking 20th century. I was born at an amazingly precise time: this century fits me like no other century.”
Alexander Labas, Moscow, 1980s
Gossudarstvennyi Russky muzei predstavlyaet: Aleksandr Labas. Vospominaniya [The state Russian Museum Presents: Alexander Labas. Memoirs] /Almanakh [Almanac], no. 86. SPb.: Palace Editions, 2004. P. 123.
