Sergei Koltsov 1892-1951
Biography
Sergei Koltzov was born in September 1892 in St Petersburg. After completing his basic schooling he studied at Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. During the period 1907-1917 he studied at the prestigious Stroganov Art and Industrial school under Nikolai Andreev, Stanislav Noakovskii and Dimitrii Scherbinovskii. In 1916 he received a gold medal and the rank of artist of the 1st degree for the equestrian statue Archangel Michael.
Later he studied at the State Free Art Workshops. The dictionary of Russian sculptors comments that he worked in the art nouveau style but later, during the early revolutionary period his work was influenced by cubism.
His Russian name is Sergei Vasilevich Koltsov but he signed his work S Kolzoff in the European style. He participated in exhibitions since 1915 and was a member of the revolutionary Artists Association between 1925-1928. Since 1915 - he was a participant of the exhibition ("free creativity") he also exhibited his work at the first Russian Art Exhibition in the Van Diemen Gallery in Berlin (1922). He Took an active role in carrying out of the plan of monumental propaganda along with Babichev. There is only one work by him in this collection, which would seem to confirm the transformation of his style of work.
In 1928 on a Narkompros (peoples commissariat for education) trip with his wife the artist Aleksandra Koltsova-Bychkova, he went to Paris. There he exhibited his work in the Salon d'Automne, the Salons des Independents and also in Bareiro in Portugal. He held a personal exhibition in the gallery 'Senate' in Paris during the year 1930. On his return he conducted a solo exhibition in Moscow in 1931, with the introduction to the catalog by Lunacharskii, which presented Made in Paris sculptures and drawings (genre sketches, landscapes, portraits).
He taught at the Moscow Higher School of Industrial Art (1945-1951), and was Associate Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Decorative Sculpture. He died in Moscow in 1951.
Shown here are images of 2 works by Koltsov which do not form part of this collection. The cubist work (top) was originally part of the collection but was acquired by others.
His work uses the same structured hollow method as Babichev and Lavinskii but noticeably less proficient in the technique.