Born in Kiev (Ukraine) 1878.
Studied at signpainting from 1888; at N.I.Murashko's Kiev
Drawing School c. 1898; Kiev Art College 1900/01?-1904; Academy of Arts
and A. Azbe's
school, Munich, 1904-08. Active in Muniche; Ekatorinoslav c. 1917;
Moscow. Began
exhibiting 1906. Member of AKhRR from 1922. Exhibited with ITINERANTS
1922; AKhRR 1922-29.
Importants shows include "ANTI-IMPERIALIST EXHIBITION", Moscow 1931;
"ARTISTS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION OVER FIFTEEN YEARS"; Moscow, 1933;
"Fifteen Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army", Moscow 1933;
"Twenty Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army", Moscow, 1938.
Taught at
polytechnic institute, Ekaterinoslav, c. 1917. Also a graphic artist.
Died in Moscow 1950.
(Matthew Cullerne Bown:
Russian and Soviet Painters. Ilomar, London)
See also in WIKIPEDIA: Boris Vladimirski
"Roses for Stalin", oil on canvas, 100,5 x 141 cm, 1949.
"This painting illustrates 'socialist realism' - a style that Stalin forced on Soviet artists. Socialist realism delivered positive messages about the USSR and its leaders. Because of propaganda like this and censorship, many Soviet citizens did not know the extent of Stalin's brutality."
(Gardner, Parsons, Zwicky: "Stories of the Century", Duval House Publishing, Toronto, Ontario 2003.)
This picture is also published in Funken, Koltrowitz: "Geschichte plus", Volk und Wissen Verlag, Berlin 2001 (ISBN 3-06-110924-2), as well as in "The Brain and The Arts" by Espen Dietrichs and Ragnar Stien, Koloritt Forlag, Oslo, Norway 2008 (ISBN 978-82-92395-64-6). It is the cover image of the CD by Overlord "In Soviet Russia, My Heart Breaks You", published in the US 2011.
In 2016 the painting was
published in "What's thr
Use? - Constellations of Art, History and Knowledge" by Nick Aikens,
Thomas Lange, Jorinde Seijdel and Steven ten Thije (editors). Valiz,
Amsterdam, ISBN 978 94 92095 121, p. 189.
It is also published in "The Imaginary Reader" by Marie Nerland
(editor) in an article by Avery F. Gordon entitled "Flowers
for
Natascha". ISBN 978-82-303-28149, Volt 2016, Bergen (Norway),
p.64.
See also in WIKIPEDIA: Boris Vladimirski
"Miner" and "Female Worker", each of them 41 x 29 cm, oil on cardboard, 1929.
"Black Ravens", oil on wood, 32 x 20 cm.
This painting, owned by the Horvath Collection of Political Art, is currently on loan to the House of European History in Brussels.
It is published in the essay "The Black Ravens and Stalinist terror" by Zofia Woycicka in the book "CREATING THE HOUSE OF EUROPEAN HISTORY", edited by Andrea Mork and Parkles Christodoulou, Publications Office of thre European Union, ISBN 978-92-846-1972-6, 2018.
The painting was also used as cover-image of the magazine "Azerbaijan International", 13/4, Winter 2005:
"Our cover is based on the original painting 'Black Ravens' by Boris Vladimirsky (1878-1950, Collection Horvath, Austria), who often was commissioned to paint propagandistic scenes during Stalin's era. 'Black Ravens' shows another side of the soul of the Vladimirsky. It is still unknown how this work passed censorship.
'Black Ravens' were the cars used by the NKVD (KGB) to arrest civilians, often in the wee hours of the morning. They were notorious in creating an atmosphere of fear and distrust so prevalent in the 1930s and 1940s. Note the prison in the background."
"Lenin in Red Dawn", oil on cardboard, 32,5 x 49,5 cm.
"Lenin on Airfield", oil on cardboard, 34 x 48,6 cm, appr. 1930.