Nikolai Alexandrovich Zagrekov

The family of the artist

Possibly Charlottenburg City Hall, 1930
Berlin, Spandau City Hall, 1972, no.14
Berlin, 1985, no.15 (illustrated but incorrectly dated)
Moscow, The State Tretyakov Gallery, Nikolai Zagrekov. Vozvrashchenie v Rossiyu, 20 May - 30 August 2004
St. Petersburg, The State Russian Museum, 23 September - 10 November 2004
Moscow, Ermitazh Gallery, Ostashov - Zagrekov, May 2012

G.Liperovskaya ed., Nikolai Zagrekov, Vozvrashchenie v Rossiyu exhibition catalogue, Moscow: SkanRus, 2004, p.90-91, no.31 illustrated, p.165 listed
O.Medvedko, Khudozhnik Nikolai Zagrekov, Moscow: Trimaran, 2004, p.99

This arresting work is an early version of a composition that no longer exists, which was completed by Zagrekov circa 1929 for a competition set up by the mayor of Charlottenburg, Albert Horlitz. In 1930, this larger work – over 4.5m wide - was presented by Zagrekov to the mayor of Berlin, who subsequently presented it to the West Berlin art school, Gewerbeschule für kunst und Handwerk, where Zagrekov had studied and taught. The school was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1943. Smaller sketches and preparatory works for this composition are also known.

Nikolai Zagrekov and Alexander Deineka both reference the work of the Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918) in their work of the 1920s. Rhythm of Labour uses the same strong colours and geometric figures of Hodler's famous Woodcutter (fig.1, 1910, Musée d'Orsay). Both compositions capture workers in the full energy of movement and encapsulate the tension of the frozen moment, the same pale abstract background and low skyline transforming their subjects into heroic figures.