Vladimir Kemenov

Born May 20 (June 2), 1908, in Ekaterinoslav, present-day Dnepropetrovsk. Soviet art historian and critic. Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR (1968), doctor of the arts (1958), member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1954; vice-president, since 1966). Became a member of the CPSU in 1939.

Kemenov studied at the first Moscow State University from 1928 to 1930. He taught at several educational institutions in Moscow, including the State Institute of Theatrical Arts (1933–38). Between 1938 and 1940, Kemenov was the director of the Tret’iakov Gallery. From 1940 to 1948 he served as the chairman of the Board of the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. He was the deputy minister of culture of the USSR from 1954 to 1956 and the permanent representative of the USSR to UNESCO from 1956 to 1958.

Kemenov’s principal works, which include numerous articles in Soviet and foreign publications, are devoted to the conflicts among various trends in contemporary art and aesthetics, the affirmation of socialist realism in the fine arts, and questions concerning classical Russian and foreign art, as well as Soviet art.