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Anisfeld, Boris Israelevich

BORN: October 2, 1879 Bieltsy, Bessarabia, Russia

DIED: December 4, 1973 Waterford, CT

MARRIED: 1904 to Freida Glaeserman, deceased through suicide 1933

TRAINING

1895-1901 Odessa School of Art, Kostandi and Ladijinsky

1901-1909 St. Petersburg Royal Academy with Kardovsky and Kovalevsky; graduated 1908

ART RELATED EMPLOYMENT

1905 Illustrated satirical journals including Bugaboo cover

c.1906- c.1908 Stage and costume designs, Maryinsky Theater

1908 Ballet stage and costume designs, Diaghilev Saisons Russes production of Boris Godunov

1910 Designs for the book of Joram

1911 Ballet stage and costume designs, Diaghilev, Saisons Russes production of Sadko

1912-1916 Stage and costume designs for Russian various companies

1914-1917 Villa Wourgaft decorations in St. Petersburg

1919-1924 New York Metropolitan Opera designsii

1921-1926 Chicago Opera Companyiii

TEACHING

1928-1956 Art Institute of Chicago, Head of Painting:

1929-1934; 1956-1957 Painting and Drawing; 1934-1946 Life Drawing and Figure Painting; 1946-1950 Painting; 1946-1956 Still Life Painting

1933-1965 Anisfeld Summer School, Central City, Colorado

RESIDENCES

1879-1895 Bieltsy, Russia

1895-1901 Odessa, Russia

1901-1917 St. Petersburg, Russia

1918-1928 New York Cityiv

1928-1972 Chicago

1972-1973 New London, Connecticut (nursing home)

TRAVEL

1906-1913 Paris

1910 Concarneau, Brittany (summer)

1911 Capri, Italy (summer)v

1912 Gries am Brenner, Tyrol (summer)

1913 Berlin and Stockholm with ballet director, Fokine

1913 Hendaye, France and Spain (summer)

1914 Venice (summer)

1916 Bilbao, Spain

1918 Japan

1931 Motor tour of New York, Maine and Canada (summer)vi

1932 Croton, New Yorkvii

1933viii-1965 Central City, CO (summers)

MEMBERSHIPS/OFFICES

Cor Ardens; Salon d’Automne

HONORS

1906 Sociétaire Salon d’Automne

1926 Gold Medal, Sesqui-Centenial Exposition, Philadelphia

1930 Honorary Master of Fine Arts Art Institute of Chicago

1937 Martin B. Cahn Prize, Art Institute of Chicago, American Annual

1941 Trustees’ Honorable Mention, Art Institute of Chicago, American Annual

JURIES SERVED

Art Institute, Chicago and Vicinity 1930

Chicago Regional Jury, Pepsi-Cola Paintings of the Year, National Academy of Design 1946

Swedish-American Artists annual, Chicago 1951ix

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Great Lakes Exhibition 1938

American Federation of Arts, contemporary Chicago painters, circulating exhibition, organized by the Art Institute of Chicago 1931, 1932x

Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress 1933, 1934

Art Institute of Chicago, A Half Century of American Art 1939

Art Institute of Chicago, International Exhibition of Contemporary Prints 1934

Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings By Contemporary Chicago Artists 1936

Art Institute of Chicago, Work by Teachers in the School of the Art Institute 1929xi

Carnegie Institute International annual 1924, 1925, 1946-1949

Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co. Gallery, Six Chicago Artists 1933 (6/17)

Diaghelev Exhibition, Petrograd 1905

Exposition Baltique in Sweden, Amsterdam, London 1914

International Exposition in Milan 1914

International Exhibitions Foundation, Russian Stage and Costume Designs 1967

Moscow 1909

National Academy of Design, Pepsi-Cola Paintings of the Year 1947

Nebraska Art Association annual 1927, 1929, 1930

Salon d’Automne, Russian paintings 1906

St. Petersburg Academy of Art 1908, 1909

Syracuse University

Union of Russian Artists, Moscow and St. Petersburg 1909, 1911

Venice Biennial 1906

Vienna Secession 1908

World of Art (Mir Iskusstva), Moscow and St. Petersburg 1905, 1909-1011, 1913, 1914, 1916, 1917

ONE, TWO OR THREE MAN EXHIBITIONS

1918 Brooklyn Museum [traveled to Buffalo; St. Louis; Milwaukee; Cleveland; Minneapolis; San Francisco and many others]xii

1919 Art Institute of Chicagoxiii

1919 The Kingore Galleries, New Yorkxiv

1921 Arts Club of Chicagoxv

1922 Art Institute of Chicago, drawings

1924 Worcester Art Museum

1924 Henry Reinhardt Gallery, New York

1924 Boston Art Club

1925 Arts Club of Chicagoxvi

1927 Art Centre, New York Cityxvii

1927 Art Institute of Chicagoxviii

1928 Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Albright Gallery

1932 Art Institute of Chicago, watercolors

1958 Art Institute of Chicago

1968 Vincent Astor Gallery, Library and Museum of the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, New York

1971 National Collection of Fine Art, Smithsonian

1979 William Benton Museum of Art, The University of Connecticut, Storrs

1979 A. M. Adler Fine Arts, New York

1981 Gilman Galleries, Chicagoxix

1984 Shepherd Gallery, New York

1997 Boris Anisfeld and the Theatre, Ohio State University at Lima; Columbus College of Arts and Design; Spencer Museum

PERMANENT COLLECTIONS

Albright-Knox Art Gallery; Art Institute of Chicago;xx Brooklyn Museum; Isabella Garnder Museum, Boston; Philadelphia Museum of Art

INTERESTING NOTES

In 1951 he was represented by Grand Central Gallery in New York.xxi

iFor full details on his life see: Christian Brinton, The Boris Anisfeld Exhibition, (Brooklyn: Brooklyn Museum, 1918); Janet A. Flint, Boris Anisfeldt: Twenty Years of Designs for the Theater, (Washington, D. C.: National Collection of Fine Arts, 1971); Thomas P. Bruhn, Boris Anisfeld: The Early Works and Theatre Sketches, (Storrs, CT: William Benton Museum of Art, 1979); Boris Anisfeldt: 1879-1973 Retrospective Exhibition, (Chicago: Gilman Galleries, 1981) and Elisabeth Kashey, Boris Anisfeld in St. Petersburg 1901-1917, (New York: Shepherd Gallery, 1984). See also, Marguerite B. Williams, “About a Painter Without Theories,” Chicago Daily News-Journal, 1/8/1930, AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 57.

iiFor two very thorough accounts of his work see: “‘The Blue Bird’ in Music and Picture,” Arts and Decoration, Vol. 12, January 1920, pp.187, 206-207 and “The Blue Bird Set to Music at The Metropolitan Opera House: And Staged by Boris Anisfeld,” The Touchstone, Vol. 6, No. 3, December 1919, pp.90-96.

iiiHis original sets for “The Love of Three Oranges” appeared in Vogue Magazine, 11/15/1921. Ben Hecht wrote about the sets and opening in the Chicago Daily News, a compendium of the works to be published by Snickersnee Press in Art & Architecture on 1001 Afternoons.

ivHis 1924 and 1925 residence was listed in the Carnegie Institute’s International exhibition brochure as c/o Henry Reinhardt & Sons, New York

vLouis Weinberg, “The Art Of Boris Anisfeld,” The International Studio, Vol. 66, No. 261, November 1918, p.9.

vi“Heed Call to Vacations at Art Institute,” Chicago Evening Post, 6/30/1931, Art Section, p.6.

vii“Art Institute Faculty Scatters for Vacation,” Chicago Evening Post, 6/28/1932, Art Section, p.8.

viiiEleanor Jewett, “Many Chicago Artists on Summer Trips,” Chicago Tribune, 7/16/1933, part 8, p.5.

ix27th Swedish-American Art Exhibition, (Chicago: The Swedish Club, 11/18/1951).

xEleanor Jewett, “News of Art and Artists,” Chicago Tribune, 7/17/1932, part 8, p.2.

xiEleanor Jewett, “Interesting Exhibits for Art Lovers,” Chicago Tribune, 1/5/1930, p.F4, and “Teachers of Art at Institute Show Their Own Paintings,” 1/2/1930, p.I7.. His self portrait was illustrated in The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 1/14/1930, p.6.

xiiFor an extensive review see: “A Russian Painter and New York Water Colorists,” Nation, Vol. 107, 11/16/1918, pp.595-596.

xiiiThe show is reviewed in Eleanor Jewett, “Art: New Paintings at Institute Form Notable Exhibit,” Chicago Tribune, 4/6/1919, p.D7. His work Gray Day on the Neva was illustrated three weeks later, 4/27/1919, part 8, p.5.

xivOp. cit., Arts and Decoration, January 1920, p.187.

xv“The Art Dealers,” “News of the Art World,” supplement, Chicago Evening Post, 12/13/1921. His sketches for Prokofiev’s The Love for the Three Oranges, were exhibited, see also: The Arts, Vol. 2, December 1921, p.160.

xviEleanor Jewett, “New Art Revealed in Exhibit Here of Survage Paintings,” Chicago Tribune, 2/10/1925, p.21. Eleanor Jewett, “Art And Artists,” Chicago Tribune, 2/15/1925, p.E4.

xviiNew York Times, Sec. 7, Col. 7, 1/23/1927, p.10.

xviiiCharles Victor Knox, “Eight Shows Open Next Tuesday at Art Institute,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 12/20/1927, pp.1, 12 and R. A. Lennon, “Russian Art Shown at Institute in Anisfeld Paintings,” 1/3/1928, pp.1, 3. Eleanor Jewett, “Art And Artists: Mystical Pictures,” Chicago Tribune, 1/1/1928, p.E3.

xixAlan G. Artner, “An in-depth survey of a deliberate and influential painter,” Chicago Tribune, 12/4/1981, p.E10.

xxIn 1922 he gave a series of stage design drawings to the museum. Eleanor Jewett, “Art and Artists: Anisfeld Drawings of Opera Settings Given to Institute,” Chicago Tribune, 1/15/1922, part 9, p.5.

xxi“Who’s Where,” Art Digest, Vol. 26, 11/1/1951, p.69.

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