Lot 180
  • 180

Nikolai Akimov

Estimate
20,000 - 25,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Nikolai Akimov
  • Pair of Stage Designs for THE BAT, 1948
  • watercolor, gouache and pencil on paper laid down on board
  • each: 11 by 19 in.
  • 28 by 48.5 cm

Condition

Watercolor, gouache and pencil on paper laid down on board. The sheets are a little dirty, a little yellowed, and slightly buckled. There are minor surface stains. There are several tears and losses to the extreme outer edges of the sheets which do not affect the image. There are a cuople minor tears and very small repairs to the outer edges of the images. Mats are affixed to the outer edges of the sheets. Held in modern wood frames and under glass. Unexamined out of frames.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

Nikolai Akimov was an innovative theater director as well as graphic artist and gifted stage designer. During his artistic career, he designed stage and costume designs for over two hundred theater productions in various theaters in Leningrad and Moscow.

Between 1916 and 1918, Akimov was a student of the prominent World of Art members Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Vasily Shukhaev, and Alexander Iacovleff. From 1927 to 1933 Akimov was the chief artist of both the Leningrad Academic Drama Theater and the Yevgeny Vakhtangov Theater.

In 1935, Akimov was appointed the artistic director of the Leningrad Theater of Comedy, and soon acquired a reputation as one of the most experimental stage directors of the time. The following decade, amid the state's anti-cosmopolitan campaign against European and other foreign influences, his works were severely criticized for their divergence from the tenets of Socialist Realism, and he was subsequently forced to leave the theater in 1949. After Stalin's death in 1953, a department of stage design was established in the Leningrad Institute of Theater, Music, and Cinematography, and Akimov was named its head. In this capacity, Akimov helped launch the careers of a wide range of Soviet nonconformist artists. In 1956—the year of Nikita Khrushchev's "Secret Speech," which initiated the de-Stalinization process—Akimov was reinstated as the artistic director of the Comedy Theater.