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{{short description|Russian/Soviet painter}}

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{{notability|Bio|date=September 2018}}
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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1913|11|11}}
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1913|11|11}}
| birth_place = [[Lublin]], [[Congress Poland]]
| birth_place = [[Lublin]], [[Congress Poland]]
| nationality = Ukrainian/Soviet
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1970|12|2|1913|11|11}}
| death_place = [[Leningrad]], [[Soviet Union]]
| resting_place =
| resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|type:landmark|display=inline}} -->
| nationality = Russian/Soviet
| education =
| alma_mater = Kultur-Lige, Kiev Art Institute, [[Russian Academy of Arts|USSR Academy of Arts]]
| alma_mater = Kultur-Lige, Kiev Art Institute, [[Russian Academy of Arts|USSR Academy of Arts]]
| known_for =
| notable_works = ''Execution: Babi Yar''
| notable_works = ''Execution: Babi Yar''
| style =
| movement = [[Russian avant-garde]]
| movement = [[Russian avant-garde]]
| spouse = Lucia Keiserman
| spouse = Lucia Keiserman
| partner =
| awards = <!-- {{awd|award|year|title|role|name}} (optional) -->
| awards = <!-- {{awd|award|year|title|role|name}} (optional) -->
}}
| elected =
| patrons =
| memorials =
| website = <!-- {{URL|Example.com}} --> }}
[[File:P054-AE-jpg-clean-small.jpg|thumb|Felix Lembersky 1913–1970. Building Block after Gun Fire. [[Leningrad]], 1959. Oil on board, 28 3/4 x 20 7/8 inches]]
[[File:P054-AE-jpg-clean-small.jpg|thumb|Felix Lembersky 1913–1970. Building Block after Gun Fire. [[Leningrad]], 1959. Oil on board, 28 3/4 x 20 7/8 inches]]
[[File:Execution Babi Yar, by Felix Lembersky.jpg|thumb|Felix Lembersky. Execution: [[Babi Yar]], ca. 1944–1952. Oil on canvas]]
[[File:Execution Babi Yar, by Felix Lembersky.jpg|thumb|Felix Lembersky. Execution: [[Babi Yar]], ca. 1944–1952. Oil on canvas]]


'''Felix Samoilovich Lembersky''' ({{lang-ru|Феликс Самойлович Лемберский}})<ref name="Галарт" /> (November 11, 1913 &ndash; December 2, 1970) was a [[Russians|Russian]]/[[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[Painting|painter]], artist, teacher, theater stage designer and an organizer of artistic groups.<ref name="Галарт" />
'''Felix Samoilovich Lembersky''' (Russian: Феликс Самойлович Лемберский) (November 11, 1913 – December 2, 1970) was a Russian/Soviet painter, artist, teacher, theatre stage designer, and organizer of artistic groups. He is known for his 'Execution: Babi Yar' series (1944–52), which are considered to be among the earliest artistic representations of the [[The Holocaust|Nazi massacres of Jews]] in Kyiv.
A refugee of World War I, he grew up in [[Berdychiv|Berdyczów]] (now Berdychiv, Ukraine) and studied art in Kiev and Leningrad—at the Jewish Arts and Trades School, known as Kultur-Lige (1928–29), the Kiev Art Institute (1933–34) and the Leningrad Academy of Art (1935–41). He graduated with high honors, completing his thesis during [[the Siege of Leningrad]]. He was wounded in the defense of Leningrad during World War II. His parents perished in Holocaust in Ukraine. After evacuation in 1942, Lembersky spent two years working in the Urals, recording industrial war effort. After the war, Lembersky joined the Leningrad Union of Artists (LOSKh, LOSSKh). He exhibited widely in national and privately organized art shows in Russia and his work was acquired by museums and private collectors. While living in Leningrad, he also toured and worked in the Urals, Ladoga, Pskov and Baltic Republics. Much of his art is inspired by the Eastern Europe of his childhood—Ukraine and Ukraine. Among his most moving images are the portraits of his fellow citizens and the places where he lived and visited.

Lembersky's art is rooted in the early Soviet Avant-Garde, with which he became acquainted at Kultur-Lige and while working as a theater sets designer in Kiev in the 1920s and early 1930s. He was further exposed to Avant-Garde at the [[Kiev Art Institute]], where [[Kazimir Malevich]] and [[Vladimir Tatlin]] taught in the years prior to the ban of Avant-Garde in 1932; and their influence continued at the Institute into the 1930s, when Lembersky studied there. In Leningrad Lembersky visited the studios of the great Avant-Garde painter and theorist [[Pavel Filonov]] and a former member of the Knave of Diamonds, artist [[Aleksandr Osmerkin]]. At the Academy of Art, Lembersky attended art history lectures given by the Avant-Garde theorist [[Nikolay Punin]].

Lembersky's art was also formed by his rigorous classical education at the Academy, where he mastered realist and impressionist techniques at the studio of a great Russian painter [[Boris Ioganson]]. LEMBESKY was highly regarded for his expressive and nuanced work. During enforced Socialist Realism and in spite of state-imposed restrictions on Western art, Lembersky continued to synthesize a wide range of influences, including [[German Expressionism]], the French school, [[Mexican mural painting]], [[Russian icons]], African folk art, and Dutch and early Renaissance painting, among others. He was keenly interested in modernist and contemporary literature, poetry, and theater. Music was essential to his art, he regularly attended concerts of classical music and personally knew many musicians, including [[Dmitri Shostakovitch]] and conductor [[Natan Rakhlin]], whose portrait he created in the Urals in 1943–44. He studied Western philosophy and mysticism.
Lembersky's work is intensely spiritual in defiance to atheism endorsed by the Communists. His art is centered on the idea of a two-tiered reality, expressed in painting as a union between recognizable objects and hidden symbols shown “between the lines.” He frequently included religious symbols in his paintings. He was haunted by the memory of Holocaust. His 'Execution. [[Babi Yar]]' series (1944–52) are the earliest known artistic renderings of the Nazi massacres in Kiev. In his later work, he persistently brought back Holocaust symbols to his semi-abstract canvases. The themes of war and industrial labor—as alternating forces of destruction and reconstruction—appear again and again in his work. Yet, in contrast to the gravity of the content, Lembersky'S paintings appeal to his viewers with brilliant color, light and formal beauty. His art speaks to the universal experience evoking emotional response and delighting the eye.<ref name="Галарт">{{cite book | url=http://libroroom.ru/book/499/45943/ | title=Феликс Лемберский. Живопись, Графика | publisher=LibroRoom | work=Аннотация | date=2011 (Галарт: Москва, 2009) | access-date=February 22, 2013 | isbn=978-5-269-01080-9 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222175748/http://libroroom.ru/book/499/45943/ | archive-date=February 22, 2014 | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Vestermark">{{cite web | url=http://www.arlisna.org/pubs/reviews/2009/12/hilton.pdf | title=Felix Lembersky, 1913-1970 : paintings and drawings | publisher=Art Libraries Society of North America | year=2009 | access-date=February 22, 2013 | author=Jesse Vestermark | quote=[http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1071&context=lib_fac Digital copy at California Polytechnic State University] | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100707121212/http://www.arlisna.org/pubs/reviews/2009/12/hilton.pdf | archive-date=July 7, 2010 }}</ref><ref name="ChaeRan Freeze">{{cite web | url=http://fmwww.bc.edu/SL-V/LemberskyEhrenburgBabiYar2011.pdf | title=Felix Lembersky's Art | publisher=Rose Art Museum, [[Brandeis University]], Waltham, MA | access-date=February 22, 2013 | author=ChaeRan Freeze | format=PDF file, direct download}}</ref><ref name="Gallery">{{cite web | url=http://museums.richmond.edu/exhibitions/lora-robins-gallery/Lembersky-Torn-from-Darkness.html | title=Torn from Darkness: Works by Felix Lembersky | publisher=University of Richmond | work=Lora Robins Gallery | year=2012 | access-date=February 22, 2013 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223123353/http://museums.richmond.edu/exhibitions/lora-robins-gallery/Lembersky-Torn-from-Darkness.html | archive-date=February 23, 2014 }}</ref>


== Biography ==
== Biography ==
Lembersky was born in 1913 into the family of Samuil Lembersky of [[Lublin]], on the eve of [[World War I]]. The Russians lost Lublin to Austro-Hungarian army in 1915. The family relocated to [[Berdychiv|Berdyczów]] (now Berdychiv, Ukraine) however, the Soviet troops destroyed most of Berdyczów during the [[Polish–Soviet War]] of 1920, and the city was ceded by Poland to the USSR following [[Peace of Riga]]. His parents remained there. In 1928 Lembersky relocated to [[Kiev]] where he attended the Jewish Arts' and Trades' School (known as “Kultur-Lige Art School”, studio of Mark Epshtein).<ref name="Gallery" /> In 1930–33 he worked as set designer for the Jewish Theater in Kiev and Berdichev and in 1933–35 attended the Kiev Art Institute, studying painting with professor Pavel Volokidin. In 1935 he moved to Leningrad to study at the [[Russian Academy of Arts]].<ref name="Gallery" />
Lembersky was born in 1913 into the family of Samuil Lembersky of [[Lublin]] and relocated with his family to [[Berdychiv|Berdyczów]] (now Berdychiv, Ukraine) following the Russian loss of Lublin to the [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian]] army in 1915. In 1928, Lembersky moved to [[Kyiv|Kiev]] to attend the Jewish Arts' and Trades' School (known as the "Kultur-Lige Art School," studio of Mark Epshtein). He worked as a set designer for the Jewish Theater in Kiev and Berdichev from 1930 to 1933 and attended the Kiev Art Institute from 1933 to 1935 to study painting with professor Pavel Volokidin. He then moved to [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]] to study at the [[Russian Academy of Arts]] in 1935.<ref name="Gallery" />

Lembersky toured the [[Urals]] to collect material for his thesis, while the Soviet Union invaded Poland. He was in Berdichev when the Nazi Germany launched their [[Operation Barbarossa]] against the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. As a student of the Academy, he was ordered to immediately return to Leningrad, while his parents remained in Berdichev, where they perished in Holocaust. Writer Vasily Grossman, whom Lembersky knew from childhood in Berdichev and whose family also perished in the city, collected documents and described the massacre of Berdichev in a detailed essay published the Black Book. In July 1941, Lembersky was wounded during the defense operations at the outskirts of Leningrad. He contracted typhoid and was brought back to the Academy, which was converted into a home and a hospital for its students, professors and staff during the war. Lembersky remained there during the first months of the [[Siege of Leningrad]]. He completed his thesis during the Siege and defended it in December 1941, earning a degree in easel painting with honors for academic achievement.<ref name="Галарт" />

*1944 Joins the Union of Soviet Artists. Offers private art classes at his studio
*1944–54 Works on commissions and portraits of workers, and heads group projects. Creates Execution: Babi Yar series.
*1955 Creates triptych Leaders and Children for Anichkov Palace.
*1956–57 Novgorod and Pskov series.
*1958 The Urals Series 1959–64. Railway Pointer and Miners series and Staraya Ladoga series.
*1960 Personal exhibition at LOSSKh exhibition gallery in Leningrad.
*1950s–’60s Lembersky speaks out for greater freedom in Soviet art. Organizes unofficial exhibitions of young artists.
*1970 Dies December 2 at his home in Leningrad.

==Artistic career==
Critically acclaimed Lembersky was among recognizable figures of Russian mid-twentieth century art. His painting style spanned from academic realism to expressive, semi-abstract and symbolist forms that rely on rich vibrant color, pastose texture and complex geometries. Despite his modernist tendencies in the later years, Lembersky considered himself a realist; in his autobiography he cited [[Russian icons]] and [[Russian avant-garde]] among the main influences on his art. Formal transformations in his work served to heighten the expression of human condition. The human image is at the center of Lembersky's paintings, from his earlier portraits to the later compositions. His landscapes reconstruct human forms and gesture through still objects, retaining the memory of human activity, even in their absence.{{citation needed|date=May 2012}}

The themes in Lembersky's art focused the [[Siege of Leningrad]], the Miners of the Urals, [[Staraya Ladoga]], [[Russian Revolution (1917)]], industrial sites of [[Nizhny Tagil]] and [[Holocaust]]. Three [[Babi Yar]] paintings (1944–52), which Lembersky painted following the death of his parents at the hands of the Nazis in Ukraine, are the earliest known artistic record of the massacre. The final painting of the Babi Yar cycle was created during Stalin's vicious anti-Semitic campaign in 1952. The second painting Babi Yar painting was never exhibited in the Soviet Union, it was shown publicly for the first time at Brandeis University in 2011 marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre.

He was married to Lucia Keiserman Lemberskaya (1915–1994).

==Selected exhibitions, lectures, symposia and public events==
*2013 Being and Beings: Works by Felix Lembersky (Pushkin House, London, Great Britain)
*2013 Felix Lembersky: Soviet Form, Jewish Context (Jewish Museum Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, catalogue)
*2012 Torn from Darkness: Works by Felix Lembersky (The University of Richmond, Richmond, VA)
*2011 Felix Lembersky and Non-mimetic Socialist Realism, panel presentation at ASEEES conference, Washington, DC
*2011 Felix Lembersky, Rubin-Frankel Gallery, Boston University Hillel, Boston, MA (catalog)
*2011 Faces of Babi Yar in Felix Lembersky's Art. Presence and Absence, exhibition symposium, The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (catalog)
*2010 Felix Lembersky: Revival of Jewish Art after World War II, media poster presentation at Association for Jewish Studies, 42nd Annual Conference, Boston, MA
*2010 Felix Lembersky, public lecture at The Academy of Art, St. Petersburg, Russia
*2009 Point. Line. Fence. Felix Lembersky, Newbury College Art Gallery, Brookline, MA
*2009 Intermuseum-2009, VDNKh, Moscow, Russia
*2007–08 Restoration as the Rebirth of Art: Restoration of Painting from the Sixteenth through the Twentieth Centuries from the Collection of the Nizhny Tagil State Museum of Fine Art, Nizhny Tagil
*2006 Leningrad Artist Felix Lembersky, Nizhny Tagil State Museum of Fine Art
*2005 The Art of Portraiture, Nizhny Tagil State Museum of Fine Art
*2004–05 Painting of the First Half of the Twentieth Century from the Collection of the Nizhny Tagil State Museum of Fine Art, Nizhny Tagil State Museum of Fine Art
*2004 Exhibition for the Sixty-Year Anniversary of the End of the Leningrad Siege, Saint Petersburg Union of Artists (The Siege of Leningrad Survivor, 1949)
*1999 Felix Lembersky. Hillwood Art Museum, Long Island University, Brookville, New York (Catalog)
*1989 Felix Lembersky: Retrospective Exhibition, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
*1988 Felix Lembersky: Retrospective Exhibition, Ann Arbor, Michigan
*1970 Commemorative Exhibition of the Art of Felix Lembersky, LOSKh, Leningrad
*1961 Art by Leningrad Artists, Russian Museum, Leningrad (At Factory Tracks, oil, 1961; Daughter's Portrait, oil, 1961; The Wharf, oil, 1961)
*1960 Paintings by Felix Lembersky and Sculpture by Mikhail Vayman, LOSKh, Leningrad (catalogue) (76 oils, 55 works on paper in watercolor, gouache, and pastel, and 87 drawings)
*1955 Exhibition of the National Art, Manezh Exhibition Hall, Moscow
*1954 Art by Leningrad Artists, Russian Museum, Leningrad (catalog)
*1951, 1954, 1960 Art by Leningrad Artists, Russian Museum, Leningrad (catalogs)
*1945, 1946, 1948 Group exhibitions at the Central Navy Museum and Museum of Leningrad Defense, Leningrad
*1945 Exhibition of Paintings by Leningrad Artists, LOSSKh, Leningrad (catalog)
*1944 Frontlines and Homefront, Sverdlovsk and Leningrad
*1943 Exhibition dedicated to the active Soviet troops, Sverdlovsk
*1942 The Decade of the Urals, Sverdlovsk

== Publications ==
Selected Bibliography:
;2013
* Joel Berkowitz. Felix Lembersky: Soviet Forms, Jewish Content. Milwaukee: University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee, * Sam & Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies, 2013; catalogue
* Review. Russian Art and Culture (London, 2013
* Review. Financial Times (London, 2013
* Interview. BBC (Interview, London, 2013
* Review. Milwaukee Sentinel, 2013
* Julia Alcamo. Review. Jewish Quarterly (2013)

;2012
Joseph Troncale, Alison Hilton, Galina Lembersky and Lourdes Figueroa. Torn From Darkness: Works by Felix Lembersky. Richmond: The University of Richmond Museums, 2012; catalogue
;2011
* Christian Wade. Boston University Today (2011)
* Ori Z Soltes. Arty Semite, Forward (2011)
* ChaeRan Freeze. “Unearthed.” Tablet Magazine, March 10, 2011
* Leah Burrows. “A Jewish Artist’s Untold Story.” The Jewish Advocate, March 4, 2011
* Ori Z Soltes. “Felix Lembersky: The Artist Uncovered.” Ars Judaica, vol. 7, 2011
* Eric Herschthal. “Babi Yar and the Rose Art Museum: Things Worth Seeing.” The Jewish Week, March 1, 2011
* Jason Blanchard, Robert Goodwin, and Yelena Lembersky. Felix Lembersky in Color, web-film created for Faces of Babi Yar in Felix Lembersky's Art: Presence and Absence, symposium at The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, March 2011, published on YouTube and Vimeo

;2010
* Musya Glants. “Felix Lembersky.” Book Review. The Russian Review, July 2010
* Irina Karasik. “Felix Lembersky.” Book Review. DI (‘Dialog Iskusstv’), March 2010

;2009
* Alison Hilton, Yelena Lembersky. Felix Lembersky 1913–70. Paintings and Drawings. Moscow: Galart, 2009 (bilingual catalogue in English and Russian, full color, 154 pages)
* “Felix Lembersky.” Book Review. ARLIS Art Libraries Society of North America, 2009
* Mikhail Krutikov. “Felix Lembersky.” Book Review. Forvert, August 7, 2009
* Larisa Smirnikh, [[Elena Ilyina]]. Felix Lembersky: Tvortsi Uzniki Sovesti. Nizhny Tagil: Nizhny Tagil Museum of Fine Art, 2009

;2007
* Nasedkina, A. A. “Project ‘Felix (Falik) Samuilovich Lembersky 1913–1970’: Restoration as the Rebirth of Art; Restoration of Painting of the Sixteenth to Twentieth Centuries from the Collection of the Nizhny Tagil State Museum of Fine Art.” Nizhny Tagil: State Museum of Fine Arts, 2007, 72–75. Catalog

;2004
* Ilyina, Y., and L. Smirnikh, “Felix Lembersky and Tagil Periods in His Art.” Gornozavodskoi Ural, Nizhny Tagil, 2004, 75–92
* Ilyina, Y, L. Smirnikh, and M. Ageeva, Painting of the First Half of the Twentieth Century from the Collection of the Nizhny Tagil State Museum of Fine Arts. Nizhny Tagil: State Museum of Fine Arts, 2004, 91

;2003
* Musya Glants. “Jewish Artists in Russian Art: Painting and Sculpture in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Eras.” Published in Jewish Life after the USSR, edited by Zvi Gittleman with Musya Glants and Marshall I. Goldman. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2003
* Olga Litvak Painting and Sculpture. The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe

;1990s
* Soltes, Ori Z., Felix Lembersky. New York: Hillwood Art Museum, Long Island University, Brookville, 1999

;1980s
* Jewish News, Detroit, Michigan, USA, July 15, 1988
* Jewish News, Detroit, Michigan, USA, May 19, 1989

;1970s
*Leon Shapiro, “Easter Europe: Soviet Union: Today and A Look Back.” American Jewish Year Book, 1973
* Zisman, Iosif. “The Life of Felix Lembersky.” Sovetish Heimland, Moscow, 1972
* “Falik Lembersky” in “Essays about Artists.” ZTYME, Krajowa. December 13, 1969

;1960s
* “Felix Lembersky.” Sovetish Heimland, Moscow, 1969. Color insert
* “Sovetske vytvarne umеni (Avant-garde traditions in Soviet art).” Sovetskoe Iskusstvo. Trutnov: OV SCSP, Czechoslovakia, 1961
* Kornilov, P. Felix Lembersky. Leningrad: Leningradskoe Otdelenie Souza Sovetskikh Khudozhnikov RSFSR, 1960. Catalog

;1950s
* “Decade of the Arts in the Urals.” In Marietta Shaginyan: A Collection of Essays in Six Volumes. Volume 6, “About Art and Literature.” Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe Izdatelstvo Khudozhestvennoi Literaturi, 1958, 417–29

;1940s
* “Decade of the Arts in the Urals.” Homefront in the Urals: A Writer's Diary. 1944, 125–26
* Trud, Urals Almanach, 1943–44
* Berezark, I. “Exhibition of Tagil Artists.” Tagilskiy Rabochiy, Nizhny Tagil, May 29, 1943
* Davidov, A. Soviet Landscape. Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1958.“Decade of the Arts in the Urals.” Izvestiya, October 24, 1942
* Lembersky, Felix. “Let’s Organize a Union of Soviet Artists in Nizhny Tagil.” Tagilskiy Rabochiy, Nizhny Tagil, July 28, 1942
* “Tagil Artists at Work.” Tagilskiy Rabochiy, Nizhny Tagil, September 13, 1942
* Shaginyan, Marietta. “Decade of the Arts in the Urals.” Literatura I Iskusstvo, November 30, 1942
* “The Art in the Urals Today.” Literatura I Iskusstvo, December 19, 1942
* “The Work of Tagil Artists.” Tagilskiy Rabochiy, Nizhny Tagil, November 7, 1942
* Zimenko, V. M., et al. Visual Art during the Great Patriotic War. Moscow: Akademia Khudozhestv SSSR, 1951, 157–58

;1930s
* “Proletarskaya Pravda,” Globus, 1933

== Museums and private collections ==

Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, The Norton & Nancy Dodge Collection of Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union (1956–1986), Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, USA

Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg

The Russian Academy of Arts, Saint Petersburg (Strike at the Urals Plant, oil, 1941)

Saint Petersburg City History Museum at Peter and Paul Fortress (Reading of War Order before Battle, with Nikolay Timkov, oil, 1944–48; The Siege Survivor, oil, 1949; portrait drawings, charcoal, ink, black watercolor on paper, 1941–44)

State Museum of Political History of Russia (formerly the State Museum of the Revolution), Saint Petersburg (First News: Revolution 1917, oil, 1956)

Anichkov Palace, Saint Petersburg (formerly the Palace of Youth) (Leaders and Children, oil, 1955)

Nizhny Tagil State Museum of Fine Art


During his studies, Lembersky toured the [[Ural Mountains|Urals]] to collect material for his thesis, and he returned to Leningrad after Nazi Germany launched [[Operation Barbarossa]] against the [[Soviet Union]] on June 22, 1941. His parents remained in Berdichev and perished in the Holocaust. Lembersky was wounded during the defense operations on the outskirts of Leningrad in July 1941. He then contracted typhoid and was brought back to the Academy, which was converted into a home and a hospital for its students, professors, and staff during the war. He completed his thesis during the [[Siege of Leningrad]] and defended it in December 1941, earning a degree in easel painting with honors for academic achievement.<ref name="Галарт" />
[[Ekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts]]


Lembersky joined the Union of Soviet Artists in 1944 and offered private art classes at his studio. From 1944 to 1954, he worked on commissions and portraits of workers, and he headed group projects. During this time, he created his Execution: Babi Yar series, which are the earliest known artistic renderings of the Nazi massacres of Jews in Kiev. He created the triptych Leaders and Children for Anichkov Palace in 1955, and he worked on the Novgorod and Pskov series from 1956 to 1957. He worked on the Urals Series from 1958 to 1964, and he created the Railway Pointer and Miners series and the Staraya Ladoga series during this time. Lembersky held a personal exhibition at the LOSSKh exhibition gallery in Leningrad in 1960.
Kyrgyz National Museum of Fine Arts, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan


Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Lembersky spoke out for greater freedom in Soviet art, and he organized unofficial exhibitions of young artists. He died on December 2, 1970 at his home in Leningrad.
Collection of Yelena Lembersky, Boston, Massachusetts, USA


== Career ==
Collection of Mikhail Raikhel and Zhanna Vestfrid, Beersheba
Lembersky became a member of the Leningrad Union of Artists after the war and participated in both national and private art exhibitions across Russia. He traveled to various regions, including the Urals, Ladoga, Pskov, and the Baltic Republics, where he engaged in artistic endeavors. His artistic style was deeply influenced by his upbringing in Eastern Europe, particularly Ukraine and the Soviet Union. During his time as a theater set designer in Kiev during the 1920s and early 1930s, he was exposed to the early Soviet avant-garde, a period that left a lasting impact on his work.


His affiliation with the [[Kyiv Art Institute|Kiev Art Institute]], where influential artists like [[Kazimir Malevich|Malevich]] and [[Vladimir Tatlin|Tatlin]] taught, further immersed him in the avant-garde movement. This influence persisted throughout his studies in the 1930s. Lembersky also attended art history lectures by [[Nikolay Punin|Punin]] at the Academy of Art, where he received a classical education that greatly influenced his techniques as a realist and impressionist artist. Despite the constraints imposed by state regulations on Western art, Lembersky's creative process drew from a diverse range of inspirations, including [[German expressionism|German Expressionism]], the French School, [[Mexican mural painting]], [[Russian icons]], African folk art, and Dutch and early Renaissance painting.
Collection of Mikhail Grachov, Saint Petersburg


His artistic interests extended beyond visual arts to encompass modernist and contemporary literature, poetry, theater, and music, which all played integral roles in shaping his creative vision. Lembersky's artistic expression often carried spiritual undertones and incorporated religious symbols. The memory of the Holocaust deeply affected him, and he incorporated symbols related to it in his work. Themes of war and industrial labor also found their way into his art, while his paintings were celebrated for their vibrant colors, luminosity, and formal elegance, evoking emotional responses and captivating the viewer's eye.<ref name="Галарт">{{cite book | url=http://libroroom.ru/book/499/45943/ | title=Феликс Лемберский. Живопись, Графика | publisher=LibroRoom | work=<!-- Аннотация -->| date=2011 |orig-date=2009 | access-date=February 22, 2013 | isbn=978-5-269-01080-9 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222175748/http://libroroom.ru/book/499/45943/ | archive-date=February 22, 2014 | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Vestermark">{{cite web | url=http://www.arlisna.org/pubs/reviews/2009/12/hilton.pdf | title=Felix Lembersky, 1913–1970 : paintings and drawings | publisher=Art Libraries Society of North America | year=2009 | access-date=February 22, 2013 | author=Jesse Vestermark | quote=| url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100707121212/http://www.arlisna.org/pubs/reviews/2009/12/hilton.pdf | archive-date=July 7, 2010 }} – [http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1071&context=lib_fac Digital copy at California Polytechnic State University]</ref><ref name="ChaeRan Freeze">{{cite web | url=http://fmwww.bc.edu/SL-V/LemberskyEhrenburgBabiYar2011.pdf | title=Felix Lembersky's Art | publisher=Rose Art Museum, [[Brandeis University]], Waltham, MA | access-date=February 22, 2013 | author=ChaeRan Freeze | format=PDF file, direct download}}</ref><ref name="Gallery">{{cite web | url=http://museums.richmond.edu/exhibitions/lora-robins-gallery/Lembersky-Torn-from-Darkness.html | title=Torn from Darkness: Works by Felix Lembersky | work=Lora Robins Gallery | publisher=University of Richmond | year=2012 | access-date=February 22, 2013 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223123353/http://museums.richmond.edu/exhibitions/lora-robins-gallery/Lembersky-Torn-from-Darkness.html | archive-date=February 23, 2014 }}</ref>
Collection of Iosif and Natalia Zisman


==Notes==
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist}}


==External links==
== External links ==
* [http://www.lembersky.org lembersky.org]
* [http://www.lembersky.org lembersky.org]
* {{YouTube|_m2rc3DiwDE}}
* {{YouTube|_m2rc3DiwDE}}
* [http://vimeo.com/21099061 vimeo.com/21099061]
* [http://vimeo.com/21099061 vimeo.com/21099061]
* [http://vimeo.com/21097879 vimeo.com/21097879]
* [http://vimeo.com/21097879 vimeo.com/21097879]
* [http://www.bu.edu/hillel/gallery/ Felix Lembersky's exhibit at Boston University Rubin Frankel Gallery, Sept 1-Dec 21, 2011]
* [http://www.bu.edu/hillel/gallery/ Felix Lembersky's exhibit at Boston University Rubin Frankel Gallery, Sept 1 – Dec 21, 2011]
* {{YouTube|_m2rc3DiwDE|Felix Lembersky film}}
* {{YouTube|_m2rc3DiwDE|Felix Lembersky film}}


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Latest revision as of 08:26, 14 November 2024

Felix Lembersky
Феликс Самойлович Лемберский
c. 1942–44
Born(1913-11-11)November 11, 1913
Lublin, Congress Poland
NationalityUkrainian/Soviet
Alma materKultur-Lige, Kiev Art Institute, USSR Academy of Arts
Notable workExecution: Babi Yar
MovementRussian avant-garde
SpouseLucia Keiserman
Felix Lembersky 1913–1970. Building Block after Gun Fire. Leningrad, 1959. Oil on board, 28 3/4 x 20 7/8 inches
Felix Lembersky. Execution: Babi Yar, ca. 1944–1952. Oil on canvas

Felix Samoilovich Lembersky (Russian: Феликс Самойлович Лемберский) (November 11, 1913 – December 2, 1970) was a Russian/Soviet painter, artist, teacher, theatre stage designer, and organizer of artistic groups. He is known for his 'Execution: Babi Yar' series (1944–52), which are considered to be among the earliest artistic representations of the Nazi massacres of Jews in Kyiv.

Biography

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Lembersky was born in 1913 into the family of Samuil Lembersky of Lublin and relocated with his family to Berdyczów (now Berdychiv, Ukraine) following the Russian loss of Lublin to the Austro-Hungarian army in 1915. In 1928, Lembersky moved to Kiev to attend the Jewish Arts' and Trades' School (known as the "Kultur-Lige Art School," studio of Mark Epshtein). He worked as a set designer for the Jewish Theater in Kiev and Berdichev from 1930 to 1933 and attended the Kiev Art Institute from 1933 to 1935 to study painting with professor Pavel Volokidin. He then moved to Leningrad to study at the Russian Academy of Arts in 1935.[1]

During his studies, Lembersky toured the Urals to collect material for his thesis, and he returned to Leningrad after Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. His parents remained in Berdichev and perished in the Holocaust. Lembersky was wounded during the defense operations on the outskirts of Leningrad in July 1941. He then contracted typhoid and was brought back to the Academy, which was converted into a home and a hospital for its students, professors, and staff during the war. He completed his thesis during the Siege of Leningrad and defended it in December 1941, earning a degree in easel painting with honors for academic achievement.[2]

Lembersky joined the Union of Soviet Artists in 1944 and offered private art classes at his studio. From 1944 to 1954, he worked on commissions and portraits of workers, and he headed group projects. During this time, he created his Execution: Babi Yar series, which are the earliest known artistic renderings of the Nazi massacres of Jews in Kiev. He created the triptych Leaders and Children for Anichkov Palace in 1955, and he worked on the Novgorod and Pskov series from 1956 to 1957. He worked on the Urals Series from 1958 to 1964, and he created the Railway Pointer and Miners series and the Staraya Ladoga series during this time. Lembersky held a personal exhibition at the LOSSKh exhibition gallery in Leningrad in 1960.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Lembersky spoke out for greater freedom in Soviet art, and he organized unofficial exhibitions of young artists. He died on December 2, 1970 at his home in Leningrad.

Career

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Lembersky became a member of the Leningrad Union of Artists after the war and participated in both national and private art exhibitions across Russia. He traveled to various regions, including the Urals, Ladoga, Pskov, and the Baltic Republics, where he engaged in artistic endeavors. His artistic style was deeply influenced by his upbringing in Eastern Europe, particularly Ukraine and the Soviet Union. During his time as a theater set designer in Kiev during the 1920s and early 1930s, he was exposed to the early Soviet avant-garde, a period that left a lasting impact on his work.

His affiliation with the Kiev Art Institute, where influential artists like Malevich and Tatlin taught, further immersed him in the avant-garde movement. This influence persisted throughout his studies in the 1930s. Lembersky also attended art history lectures by Punin at the Academy of Art, where he received a classical education that greatly influenced his techniques as a realist and impressionist artist. Despite the constraints imposed by state regulations on Western art, Lembersky's creative process drew from a diverse range of inspirations, including German Expressionism, the French School, Mexican mural painting, Russian icons, African folk art, and Dutch and early Renaissance painting.

His artistic interests extended beyond visual arts to encompass modernist and contemporary literature, poetry, theater, and music, which all played integral roles in shaping his creative vision. Lembersky's artistic expression often carried spiritual undertones and incorporated religious symbols. The memory of the Holocaust deeply affected him, and he incorporated symbols related to it in his work. Themes of war and industrial labor also found their way into his art, while his paintings were celebrated for their vibrant colors, luminosity, and formal elegance, evoking emotional responses and captivating the viewer's eye.[2][3][4][1]

References

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  1. ^ a b Феликс Лемберский. Живопись, Графика. LibroRoom. 2011 [2009]. ISBN 978-5-269-01080-9. Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved February 22, 2013.
  2. ^ Jesse Vestermark (2009). "Felix Lembersky, 1913–1970 : paintings and drawings" (PDF). Art Libraries Society of North America. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 7, 2010. Retrieved February 22, 2013. – Digital copy at California Polytechnic State University
  3. ^ ChaeRan Freeze. "Felix Lembersky's Art" (PDF file, direct download). Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA. Retrieved February 22, 2013.
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