Eleva Konstantin Nikolaevich

Ukrainian painter, graphic artist. Konstantin Nikolayevich Eleva was born on May 17, 1897 in Kiev. In 1918 he graduated from the Kiev Art School. 1918 to 1922 he studied at the Ukrainian Academy of Arts, later renamed the Kiev Institute of Plastic Arts. From the memoirs of Peter Ivanenko about Mikhail Boychuk, it is known how the study was conducted at the Ukrainian Academy of Arts in 1919, when Konstantin Yelev studied there: “At that time Evgeny Sagaidachny, Ekaterina Borodina, Ivan Padalko, Vasily Sedlyar, Oksana Pavlenko, Rokitsky, Yeleva, I and Lipkovsky. Boychuk did not allow drawing a living nature. For beginners, he always gave the assignment to make sketches from reproductions. The older students had the opportunity to make their own compositions and performed them mainly with tempera colors, which one of the trusted students produced right there in the workshop of dyes and egg yolk. Of course, not practicing on live nature, it was hard to create your own compositions. In addition, in the method of study, Boychuk did not have any single approach to the picturesque form. He could simultaneously copy the Archangel Gabriel, one of the details of the Annunciation in the Sophia Cathedral … reproductions of paintings by Gauguin, Cezanne, Matis, Edgar Degas and Giotto. ” From 1919 to 1926 K. Yelev worked as a theater artist. In the years 1919-1921. he designed the performances of the First Theater of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic, in particular the poem T.G. Shevchenko “Gaydamaky” (1920). He was a member of the Association of Revolutionary Art of Ukraine (ARIU), worked on the creation of campaign posters, theatrical scenery. Since 1925 he worked in the field of easel painting.
Pedagogical activity K. Yelev began as a teacher of the Kiev Art School (1930-1932). He directed the department of theatrical and decorative painting at the Kiev Institute of Proletarian Art Culture.
During the Second World War, Konstantin Yelev, along with famous artists Kukryniksy, poets Samuil Marshak, Vasily Lebedev-Kumach and others took part in “Windows of TASS” (TASS – Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union). This was a series of propaganda posters calling for the defense of the Motherland from the German fascist invaders. From 1944 to 1950 KNEleva was a professor at the drawing department at the Kiev State Art Institute. The main place in the work of Constantine Eleva was occupied by drawing. In this technique he performed a large number of easel portraits, landscapes, works of satirical graphics.
The main works:
Picturesque works of the artist: “Strike is broken” (1927), “January uprising in Kiev” (1927), “Portrait of the typist” (1927), “Shchors in intelligence” (1934), “Fascist screen” in co-authorship with I. Shtilmanom 1943).
Graphic series: Samarkand (1941-1943), Zagorsk (1944), Barge on the Dnieper (1945-1950), Zagorsk (1944), Kiev-Kanev (1945-1950).
The main exhibitions:
1921 – autumn exhibition of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts, Kiev;
1927 – jubilee exhibition of the art of the peoples of the USSR, Moscow;
1927 – the first art exhibition of the Kiev branch of ARMU, Kiev;
1928 – XVI International Exhibition of Arts, Venice (Italy);
1936 – exhibition “Art of Soviet Ukraine”, Kharkov;
1937 – anniversary exhibition of works of artists of the Ukrainian SSR. 1917-1937, Kiev;
1939 – II-nd exhibition of works by Kiev artists, Kiev;
1940 – an exhibition of creativity of artists of the USSR (for the period 1936-1940), Lviv;
1941 – III-rd reporting exhibition of works of artists of Kiev, Kiev;
1941 – personal exhibition, Kiev;
1943 – art exhibition dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Red Army and the Navy, Samarkand;
1944 – exhibition “Artists of Ukraine – to the native Kharkov”, Kharkov;
1945 – VIII-th Ukrainian Art Exhibition, Kiev;
1945 – personal exhibition of landscapes of Samarkand and Zagorsk, Kiev;
1940 – Report exhibition of drawings by artists SA Grigoriev, KN Yelev and IV Makogon 1933-1940, Kiev;
1946 – exhibition of graphic works of artists of Ukraine, Leningrad, Tallinn, Tartu;
1947 – IX-th Ukrainian Art Exhibition, Kiev;
1949 – X-th Ukrainian Art Exhibition, Kiev;
1950 – exhibition of works of artists of Ukraine, Vinnitsa;
1951 – exhibition of fine arts of the Ukrainian SSR to the decade of Ukrainian art and literature in Moscow;
1952 – exhibition of works of Ukrainian Soviet artists, Lviv.
2015 – the exhibition “Special Fund, 1937-1939”, NHMU, Kiev (the picture “The Head of a Man” was exhibited in the 1930s).
Works by K.N. Elovs are represented in museum, gallery and private collections in Ukraine and abroad.

Photo: Konstantin Nikolayevich Yeleva. The head of a man
The 1930s,