The Russian Academy Of Arts

The exhibition in honor of the 100th anniversary of the eminent theater designer, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Arts Alexander Vasiliev (1911-1990) has been organized by the Russian Academy of Arts in partnership with the fashion historian Alexander Vasiliev. On show at the Russian Academy of Arts, 21 Prechistenka street, are over 100 theatrical and decorative sketches by the master, as well as his paintings and graphic works of the 1950s-1980s.

During his career Alexander P. Vasiliev has created theater designs for over 300 performances including Russian classical repertoire, plays of Soviet and foreign writers. Besides the leading Moscow theaters, among which were the Bolshoi Theater, the Maly Theater and Moscow Art Theater, the artist worked for theaters in many cities of Russia and a number of other countries. Each of his theater sets was marked by a special means of expression, his individual style and manner.

Alexander Pavlovich Vasiliev was born in Samara in 1911 in the family of a councilor of State that kept memory of their outstanding ancestors. His childish impressions and everyday life experience enriched his passionate interest in the theater and encouraged Vasiliev–collector.

After graduation from the Moscow art college In Memory of the Year of 1905 Vasiliev he started working for a drama theater in the city of Chita and revealed himself as an audacious experimenter inspired by the ideas of Russian constructivism, Vsevolod Meyerhold and Alexander Tairov. In the prewar years he also worked for drama theaters in Arkhangelsk, Vladivostok, Kirov, Kuibyshev and Rostov-on-the Don.

During the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945 Alexander Vasiliev headed the group of artists of front theaters of the All-Russia Theater Society and made many trips to the front. In 1945 he resumed his work in Moscow theaters and in 1947 became a member of the USSR Union of Artists. Since 1947 Vasiliev worked for M. Ermolova Theater and since 1954 – for the Mossovet Theater where for 20 years under the leadership of its legendary stage director Yury Zavadsky he designed sets for many performances including such plays as The Theft by Jack London, The Limitless Expanses by Nickolai Virta, The Wood Goblin by Anton Chekhov, Vasily Terkin by Alexander Tvardovsky, The Sweet Liar by Jerome Kietly, The Uncle’s Dream by Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Last Victim by Alexander Ostrovsky. Of big success was his stage design for Petersburg Dreams performance on the motifs of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment.

In 1959 at the World Fair in Brussels Alexander Vasiliev was awarded a Grand Prix for his panel “Russian and Soviet Opera”. He was a holder of many other awards both Russian and foreign. Alexander Vasiliev’s works are represented in the museums of the Bolshoi Theater and A. Chekhov Moscow Art Theater, A. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, in other museum and private collections.

Besides theater designs, Vasiliev has created expressive, frequently theatricalized portraits, landscapes, interiors, life studies. In his theme compositions one can sense the artist’s fantasy, humor, irony, but at the same time his persistent search of the ideal and beauty in the surrounding world. Following the traditions of classical art, he sometimes used elements of art-décor and surrealism stylistics. In Vasiliev’s easel works we can often discover things from his private collection or a model among them, for instance in his Samovary still life, The Summer composition, a number of self-portraits.

On show in Tsereteli Art Gallery are the artist’s theatrical and decorative sketches, paintings and drawings from the collections of the Samara Art Museum and International Federation of the Artists’ Unions, as well as from the private collection of his son – celebrated fashion historian, theater designer and television anchorman Alexander A. Vasiliev.

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