Aleksandr Shevchenko (1883–1948) studied art at the famous Stroganov Art School in Moscow and later in Paris, where he was greatly influenced by the works of impressionists and post-impressionists, especially by Paul Cezanne. In 1910 Shevchenko joined a famous artists' group, the "Jack of Diamonds," and became interested in primitive art. In 1913 he wrote the book 'Neo-primiivizm', from which the Russian art movement derives its name. Aleksandr Shevchenko headed the Literary and Art Section of the Art Board in People's Commissariat for Education (1918 — 1921). Besides, the artist taught at the Higher Art and Technical Studios (1918 — 1929). He was a member of the Makovets art group and the Moscow Artists Society. In the late 1920s – early 1930s he visited Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia and created a series of works on the oriental themes. From 1941 Aleksandr Shevchenko headed the Department of Painting at the Moscow Textile Institute. Today, Shevchenko is regarded as one of the most influential Russian avant-garde painters and theorists. Works by Shevchenko are kept in all major Russian museums and included in the permanent expositions of the State Tretyakov Gallery and State Russian Museum.
Alexander Shevchenko possessed an artistic individuality that allowed him to be detached in regards to both avant-garde experiments and the socialist realist canon. His love for the objective world and his desire to express feelings from everyday life were united in his art with the subtlety and generalization of shapes. Incorporated in his still lifes there is a light and wonderful world where everything is significant, entertaining, and also full of the direct feeling of life where thoughts and feeling are combined. Differently from other artists of his time, more interested in an image’s expressiveness and the picturesque essence of things abstracted from their utilitarian purpose, what really mattered for Shevchenko was the inherently lively sense of the thing itself.
A short list of exhibitions featuring Aleksandr Shevchenko’s work include: the Salon des Indépendants (1906), Moscow Fellowship of Artists (1907–08), Vladimir Izdebsky Salon (1910–11), Knave of Diamonds (1910, 1916), Moscow Salon (1911), Union of Youth (1911–12), Donkey’s Tail (1912), Target (1913), World of Art (1913, 1917, 1921), No. 4 Futurists, Rayonists, Primitive (1914), the First Exhibition of Pictures of the Trade Union of Artists at the Art Salon in Moscow (1918), the First State Exhibition of Pictures by Local and Moscow Artists at the Borokhov Club in Vitebsk (1919), XII State Exhibition: Colour Dynamos and Tectonic Primitivism at the Claudia Mikhailova Art Salon in Moscow (1919), XIX State Exhibition at the Claudia Mikhailova Art Salon in Moscow (1920), Die erste russische Kunstausstellung in the Galerie Van Diemen at 21 Unter den Linden in Berlin (1922), Makovets (1922, 1925), series of exhibitions of the Guild of Painters (1926, 1928, 1930), Exhibition of the Latest Tendencies in Art in Leningrad (1927), Exhibition of the Society of Moscow Artists (1928, 1929), Russische Kunst von heute in Vienna (1930), Artists of the RSFSR Over Fifteen Years in Leningrad and Moscow (1932–33) and his historical solo-exhibition at the State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow (1933). More recently, his work has regularly been included in important international exhibitions such as “Alexander Scevchenko”, retrospective at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (2010) and “In Other Worlds: The Art of the Russian Avant-Garde, 1910-1930” at Shchukin Gallery, New York.
Exhibition at the State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow.
Exhibition at the Guild of Painters.
Exhibition at the Russische Kunst von heute in Vienna.
Exhibition at the Society of Moscow Artists.
Member of the Society of Moscow Artists.
Founding member of the Guild of Painters.
Exhibition at the Makovets.
Member of Makovets.
Member of the Moscow Fellowship of Artists.
Worked at the Institute of Artistic Culture.
XIX State Exhibition at the Claudia Mikhailova Art Salon in Moscow.
Helped to found the Museum of Painterly Culture.
First State Exhibition of Pictures by Local and Moscow Artists at the Borokhov Club in Vitebsk.
XII State Exhibition: Colour Dynamos and Tectonic Primitivism at the Claudia Mikhailova Art Salon in Moscow.
Exhibition at the World of Art.
Published "The Principles of Cubism and Other Modern Trends in the Painting of All Times and Peoples".
Exhibition at Target.
Exhibition at the World of Art.
• Exhibition “No. 4 Futurists”, Rayonists, Primitive.
1912, Exhibition at the Union of Youth.
Exhibition at the Moscow Salon.