Yefim Ladyzhensky

Gregory Gallery, New York (acquired from the artist's estate)

London, Concourse Gallery, Yefim Ladizhinsky (1911-1982): A Retrospective Exhibition, 1992
New York, Gregory Gallery, 1996
New York, Gregory Gallery, Yefim Ladizhensky, March-April, 1999

Yefim Ladyzhenskya: The Town of My Childhood, Moscow, 1975 (exhibition catalogue)
Victoria Ladizhinskaya (ed.), Yefim Ladizhinsky: Odessa/Moscow/Jerusalem, 1911-1982, Jerusalem, 1985
Yefim Ladizhinsky (1911-1982): A Retrospective Exhibition, London, 1992 (exhibition catalogue)

Tempera on original canvas. The canvas is a little loose on its stretcher. The surface is a little dirty. There is very nice impasto though a couple of very minor flakes of paint loss have resulted, particularly to the corners. Held in a modern wood frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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Displaying artistic talent at the early age of thirteen, Yefim Ladyzhensky began studying at the Theater Faculty of the Odessa Arts Institute, which he attended from 1928 until 1931. Shortly thereafter, he created stage sets for national theaters in various cities.  Although successful in set design, Ladyzhensky preferred painting, which he viewed as both a more enduring medium and an effective vehicle for expressing his emotions.

Although a member of the Union of Soviet Artists since 1939, Ladyzhensky, who was Jewish, was exiled to Siberia from 1949 through 1956 because of the Soviet government's anti-Semitic policies. He then returned to Moscow and began some of his most important painting series, including Growing Up in Odessa, which draws on memories of his youth.

In 1978, although already in his late sixties, the artist decided to emigrate to Israel. After being informed of the exorbitant customs duties he needed to pay in order to export his life's work, he undertook the unbearable task of destroying nearly two thousand of his paintings and drawings. In spite of this considerable sacrifice, the artist's newly adopted country was a source of great disappointment. Although granted solo exhibitions at the Israel Museum (1979-80) and the University of Haifa Art Gallery (1980-81), Ladyzhensky did not feel that the Israeli art establishment ever properly appreciated his work. Several other factors contributed to his feelings of rejection and loneliness—he lived and worked in a remote section of Jerusalem on the far outskirts of the city, had difficulties coping with the artist's role in a free-market economy, and failed to learn Hebrew. On April 3, 1982, Ladyzhensky hanged himself in his studio.