Nivinskii, Ignatii

Born Dec. 30, 1880 (Jan. 11, 1881), in Moscow; died there Oct. 27, 1933. Soviet painter and graphic artist.

Nivinskii graduated from the Stroganov School of Industrial Arts in Moscow in 1898. He taught there from 1898 to 1905 and at the Moscow Vkhutemas-Vkhutein (State Higher Arts and Technical Studios-Higher Art and Technical Institute) from 1921 to 1930. Between 1900 and 1915, Nivinskii worked mainly in the field of decorative monumental painting. Beginning in 1912 he primarily produced etchings. Nivinskii was the founder and chairman of the Engravers’ Union (1918) and a member of the Four Arts Association (from 1924). His graphic works were influenced by G. B. Piranesi and F. Brangwyn (Italian Suite, etching, aquatint, 1912, 1915).

In the mid-1920’s, Nivinskii turned to the theme of industrialization. He believed that the fervor of transforming reality could be conveyed by means of dynamic composition achieved by the juxtaposition of various planes and foreshortenings and by the combination of pictorial elements disparate in time and space (the cycle ZAGES, etching, drypoint, 1927).

Among Nivinskii’s many works for the theater the designs for the staging of Princess Turandot, based on Gozzi’s tale (1922, Third Studio of the Moscow Art Theater, director E. B. Vakhtangov), were particularly noteworthy. The stylized decorativeness and humor of the design were in tune with the ironic and cheerful nature of the production. Nivinskii was also an illustrator.