Alexandre Iacovleff (1887 - 1938)

6138

A. Iacovleff

Brussels: Galerie d'Art Kodak, 1929

560 x 430 mm. Poster

Edition: unknown.

From April 26 to May 10 1927, Iacovleff  had a one man show with works from the Black Crusade (see nr. 117) at the Cercle Artistique et Littéraire Waux Hall du Parc in Brussels. The exhibition drew positive coverage by the Belgian press. In 1928 he was represented with 15 exhibits in the Ancient and Modern Russian Art exhibition (see nr. 120). The exhibition in the Kodak Art Gallery was the third Iacovleff had in Brussels. For this exhibition he designed a poster with a portrait of a young woman. Compared to the naturalism of his designs of the Black Crusade, this portrait shows a remarkable transformation. The portrait has become softer in lines and the contours are more supple, almost baroque, a far cry of the merciless realism of the portraiture of the African chieftains and other people. The young woman is outlined by shaded contours, the lips are suggested rather more than visible and the shadows on the right half of the face give the impression of a basket on her head. The transformation of his art was restricted to a period between two major expeditions: the Black Crusade in 1924-1925 and the Yellow Crusade (as this expedition across the Gobi desert into China came to be called) in 1931-1932. In the years between 1927 and 1930 Iacovleff  spent a lot of time in Italy, particularly on Capri. It was a happy and carefree time. He took to studying ancient and modern Italian art and put in his painting and drawing mythological themes like Penelope next to day to day scenes. The portrait on this poster could be an Italian girl he saw he saw under the bright Mediterranean sun on Capri. It is not an ethnographical portrait but a beautiful young face that caught the artist’ s eye in a passing. A moment, fixed on paper, proof of the master craftsmanship of Iacovleff.       

References:

Paris 1965. p. 19

Nijmegen 2004, p. 140

2005 Brussels, no. 122