Vadim Fedorovich Ryndin

Born Jan. 2(15), 1902, in Moscow; died there Apr. 9, 1974. Soviet costume and stage designer. People’s Artist of the USSR (1962). Member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1964). Member of the CPSU since 1951.

Ryndin attended the Free Arts and Technical Studios in Voronezh from 1918 to 1922 and the State Higher Arts and Technical Studios (Vkhutemas) in Moscow from 1922 to 1924. He was a member of Makovets, the Society of Moscow Artists, the Four Arts, and the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia. In 1965 he joined the faculty of the V. I. Surikov Moscow Art Institute. Ryndin worked in several Moscow theaters. Beginning in 1925 he worked in the Kamernyi Teatr; he was the theater’s principal designer from 1931 to 1934. He also was principal designer at the Vakhtangov Theater (1935–44, 1947–58), the Moscow Dramatic Theater (1944–47), and the Bolshoi Theater (from 1953).

In the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, Ryndin was influenced by constructivism. Later he combined conventional structures with painted backdrops, often varying a single set for all the acts of a play or opera. His work as a whole was distinguished by romantic fervor, emotional intensity, graphic economy, and a tendency toward a heroic and epic style and rich, suggestive metaphors. Ryndin was particularly well known for his sets for Vishnevskii’s An Optimistic Tragedy (1933, Kamernyi Teatr), Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (1936, Vakhtangov Theater), an adaptation of Fadeev’s novel The Young Guard (1947, Moscow Dramatic Theater), and Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1954, Moscow Mayakovsky Theater). His opera credits at the Bolshoi Theater include Prokofiev’s War and Peace (1959), Verdi’s Don Carlo (1963), and Molchanov’s The Unknown Soldier (1967).

A recipient of the State Prize of the USSR in 1950, Ryndin was awarded the Order of Lenin, three other orders, and various medals.