Ilya Grigorevich Chashnik

ILYA GRIGOREVICH CHASHNIK (Lucyn,1902-Leningrad,1929).
Untitled, 1921
Watercolor on paper.
Signed and dated.
Measurements: 35 x 24 cm; 64 x 52 cm (frame).

Ilya Grigorevich Chashnik was a Suprematist artist, a pupil of Kazimir Malevich and a founding member of the UNOVIS school. Chashnik was born into a Jewish family in 1902, in Lucyn, Russian Empire, now Ludza, Latvia. He began studying at Yehuda Pen's art school in Vitebsk when he was only eleven years old. He became a pupil of Marc Chagall. In 1918 he moved to Moscow to work in an art studio run by Kazimir Malevich. He returned after Malevich accepted a position as a full professor at the Vitebsk School of Drawing and Painting. Chashnik was noted for his skill in a variety of media. Aleksandra Semenovna Shatskikh describes him as "famous for his inexhaustible inventiveness and ability to apply suprematist principles to virtually all art forms, including easel painting" He painted, mastered metalwork and designed ceramics produced at the Imperial Porcelain Factory (then known as the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory) Chasnik, along with Nikolai Suetin, was employed by the factory during his time as a member of UNOVIS. He died in 1929 in Leningrad at the age of 27. In 1981, the University of Texas at Austin organized an exhibition dedicated to his work.