Tereshkovich Konstantin

Poster of the exhibition of K. Tereshkovich in the Bernier Gallery 56x45,5 cm, watercolor on paper, mid XX century

Tereshkovich Konstantin Andreevich (Abramovich) (1902-1978) – painter, graphic artist, stage designer, artist of decorative art.

Tereshkovich received his initial art education in the private studios of K. F. Klyun, I. I. Mashkov and F. I. Rerberg, which he had visited since 1911. In 1913 he visited the gallery of S. I. Shchukin, where he first saw the works of the impressionists and post-impressionists, who made a strong impression on him. He finally decided to devote himself to painting and in 1917 entered the Moscow School of Music and Arts, studied for several months with P.V. Kuznetsov.

At the beginning of 1918, wanting to leave the country, he was hired as a paramedic on a train with German prisoners of war, who were waiting to be sent to Europe. However, due to revolutionary confusion, the train went to Siberia, and then to Ukraine in the combat zone of the Volunteer Army. Later he came to Baku, where he worked on a tea plantation, from there he moved to Constantinople, served as a groom in the British cavalry, and portrayed officers. In 1920, after all the misadventures, he ended up in Paris without money and a passport, and settled in the house of art critic and journalist S. M. Romov. Until 1922 he had only casual work, worked as a janitor and model in a sculpture workshop. At the same time he studied at the Academy Grand Shaumiere. Via S.M. Romova met with many Russian artists who lived in Paris at that time, in particular with M.F. Larionov, V.S. Bart, and H. Sutin. Since 1921, he collaborated in the literary and art magazine Udar, writing for the first issue an article directed against the masters of The World of Art. In 1923 he took part in the exhibition of the Udar group in the Licorn Gallery, in 1924 – in the Autumn Salon and Tuileries Salon. In 1925, a joint exhibition with A. Lansky took place in the Henry Gallery, in 1927, the artist’s personal exhibitions were organized in the Katr Shmen and Girard galleries. In the late 1920s, Tereshkovich’s work was noticed by the French press and in 1928 the first monograph about him, written by F. Fels, was published.

In 1928 he exhibited his work at the exhibition of contemporary French art in Moscow. In the 1930s, personal exhibitions were successfully held in a number of Parisian galleries, as well as in the Ateneum Museum in Geneva (1934) and the Carstairs Gallery in New York (1936).

He was one of the most successful post-war artists in France. Retrospective exhibitions of Tereshkovich’s work were repeatedly held in Paris – in the galleries Bernier (1948, 1951, 1953, 1954, 1961) and Petrida (1953, 1958, 1962, 1969, 1971), as well as in Zurich (1949), Helsinki (1953), London (1958), New York (1961), Tokyo (1968-1969). In 1951 he was awarded the Legion of Honor.

He painted views of Paris: gardens on the outskirts of the city, the banks of the Seine and the Marne. He created a gallery of portraits of his friends-artists: I. M. Zdanevich (1930), H. Soutine (1933), P. Bonnard, J. Braque (both done in 1941), M. Utrillo, C. Van Dongen (both in 1942), A. Derain (1943), R. Dufy (1948) and others. I resorted to a variety of pictorial and graphic techniques, believing that in this way you can avoid influences on your art and “not become a victim of any particular style.”

From the 1940s, in addition to painting, he worked a lot in the field of lithography and book graphics. He created illustrations for the books “The Legend of the Minotaur” by N. Havzorn (1954), “Hadji Murat” by L. N. Tolstoy (1955), “Mysterious Love” by I. A. Bunin (1963), “Three Stories” by A. P. Chekhov (1965), “Dear Friend” by Guy de Maupassant (1969).

He worked for the Beauvais tapestry factory, was engaged in art ceramics, furniture painting, as well as scenography. He collaborated with the troupes of the Russian Ballet, Colonel Basil, as well as the Russian Ballet Monte Carlo, for whom he staged the production of the Horearium for the 4th Symphony by I. Brahms (1933).

In 1980, 1986 and 1989 in Paris, memorial exhibitions of the artist’s works took place. Tereshkovich’s works are in the collections of many museums in the world.

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