Zhegin (Schechtel), Lev Fyodorovich
(b. 1892 Moscow — d. 1969 Moscow)
Painter and graphic artist
1909—1910 Took classes in drawing and painting from K. Yuon and I. Dudin in Moscow.
1911—1914 Studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture under N. Kasatkin and S. Miloradovich.
1918—1919 Studied at the State Free Art Studios.
Took part in exhibitions beginning in 1914, including:
1914 — No. 4. Art Exhibition. Futurists, Rayists and Primitivists, Moscow;
1917 — exhibitions of the World of Art society, Moscow and Petrograd;
1922 — exhibition of the Art is Life Union of Artists and Poets (Makovets);
1924—1926 — Makovets exhibitions, Moscow;
1927 — 1St Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings of the Path of Painting group in Moscow;
1928 — Path of Painting exhibition in Paris;
1930 — 2” Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Path of Painting, Moscow.
1921 Member of the World of Art society.
1922—1926 Member of the Makovets group.
1927—1930 Member of the Path of Painting group.
1918 Taught at the House of Arts in Moscow.
1920 Taught at Proletcult Iproletarian culture] Studio.
1920—1923 Taught at the State Typography School attached to the First Model Printshop.
In his latter years, worked as a graphic designer at the Museum of History and the Palace Museum in Ostankino (Moscow).
L.F. Zhegin to V.Ye. Pestel:
“The first thing that is terribly wrong and that deprives art of its power is the concept that it is a thing while it is and should be a world. We should regard the artist’s world of images not as a seeming reality but as an actual world we need to enter and exist in. The artist must understand that those are not just pretty words, or indeed, not words at all. Creating images should be accompanied, if not preceded, by the truth, wholeness and value of painting, by painting’s cosmic truth. When a man has taken in the higher organs and qualities, he can understand the cosmic value of things. By giving things and nature spiritual values, man creates them. One absolutely must understand this:
Man is truly the creator and architect of the world not in some vague and abstract way, but in the most real sense. By creating an image, man defines and shapes the world. This is what art is. Idea, image, thought, intelligence and art should receive its calling and meaning in the eyes of the artist. Then he will understand his responsibility.”
Moscow, 1920s
‘Pestel, Vera Yefremovna (1887—1952), painter, art professor
Makovets. 1922—1926. S’bornik materialov po istorii obyedineniya [collection of Materials on the History of the Makovets Society: 1922—1926]. M., 1994. P. 78.
