Metal Arches for a Projected Monument to Sverdlov

Aleksei Vasilievich Babichev (Moscow, March 2nd, 1887; Moscow, May 1st, 1963) studied at the Department of Mathematics of the University of Moscow and at the same time at the private studios of Ivan Dudin and Konstantin Yuon (1905-1906). From 1907 to 1913 he attended the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Moscow and in 1913 he participated in the World of Art exhibition. After his graduation he visited Vienna, Berlin and Paris, where he studied briefly with Antoine Bourdelle, and in 1914 he visited Greece. After returning to Moscow, in 1915, he set up his studio. From 1918 to 1920 he taught at the Free State Art Studios (SVOMAS) and from 1920 to 1921 he was a professor at the Higher State Art-Technical Studios (VKHUTEMAS). He was a member of the “Monolith” group of sculptors, which included Boris Korolev, Sergei Konenkov and Vera Mukhina (1919-1920). The group was deeply interested in the realization of monumental sculpture for propaganda purposes. He was a member of the Institute of Artistic Culture (INKHUK) in Moscow, where he came in contact with the Constructivists and evolved into a preminent methodologist and theoretician of Constructivism (1920-1923). From 1923 he directed the Department of Art of the Workers’ Faculty (RAFBAK) at VKHUTEMAS. From 1926 to 1929 he participated in the exhibitions of the Association “Artists of Revolutionary Russia” (AKhRR). He returned to representational sculpture and painted in a cézannesque manner. He taught at the Polygraphic Institute (1940-1943) as well as the Architectural Institute (1944-1963) in Moscow.