Tugendkhold, Iakov Aleksandrovich

Born Dec. 5 (17), 1882, in Moscow; died there Nov. 29,1928. Soviet art critic.

Tugendkhol’d studied at Moscow University and at A. Azbè’s school in Munich. In 1908 he began publishing articles in Apollon, Sovremennyi mir, and other journals, acquainting the Russian public with modern European art. After the October Revolution, as head of the fine arts department of the newspapers Izvestiia (from 1923 to 1926) and Pravda (after 1926), he took an active part in the creation of a new Soviet artistic culture. Characteristic of his works are analysis of social content and exacting requirements for artistic form.