Asta Davydovna Brzhezitskaya
Asta (Augusta) Davydovna Brzhezitskaya (July 5, 1912, Moscow – January 7, 2004) was a Soviet sculptor and master of porcelain sculpture. She created over five hundred works using various ceramic materials, including original genre compositions and sculptural portraits. She also produced sculptures for mass production, which were replicated at the Dulevo Porcelain Factory.
Brzhezitskaya was born into a family of artists. She started practicing sculpture systematically at the age of 12 in the workshop of her stepfather, sculptor I. A. Mendelevich. She began studying at the Moscow Art and Industrial School named after M. I. Kalinin in 1935 as an auditor, then from 1937 attended the Faculty of Monumental Sculpture of the Moscow State Art Institute named after V. I. Surikov (graduated in 1944). She worked as a sculptor at the Dulevo Porcelain Factory for more than 50 years, creating sculptures on historical, literary, and everyday themes. Many of her works are kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, the Kuskovo Museum of Ceramics, and the All-Russian Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Art, among other collections. Her pieces are characterized by a subtle understanding of the porcelain medium, and most were highly praised by expert councils.
Works in collections
Her works are held in the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), the State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg), the State Museum of Ceramics and Kuskovo Estate, the All-Russian Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Art (Moscow), Moscow theaters, numerous art and literary museums in Russia and Latvia, and in private collections in Russia and the USA.
Exhibitions and auctions
Since 1946, Brzhezitskaya participated in more than 100 exhibitions both within the Soviet Union and abroad, including Austria, Belgium, Germany, India, Canada, USA, France, and Japan.
Selected exhibitions:
1973 - Painting and Sculpture Exhibition, Moscow
1984 - Solo exhibition, All-Russian Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Art, Moscow
1993 - Solo exhibition, State Museum of Ceramics and Kuskovo Estate XVIII century, Moscow.
Bibliography
I.A. Kryukova, 'Russian Sculpture of Small Forms', Moscow, 1969, pp. 126-127, 138, ill. 98, 99;
O. Kashirina, 'The World-Theatre of A. Brzhezitskaya', Decorative Art of the USSR, N7, 1973, p. 52;
Catalog 'Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture', Moscow, 1973, pp. 57-60;
Catalog 'Quadriennale des Kunsthaudwerks sozialistischer Lander', 1974, Erfurt, p. 190 (in German);
E. Khokhlova, 'Asta Davydovna Brzhezitskaya. Portrait Sketches', Decorative Art 5, 1982, Moscow, pp. 154-165;
S. Kavetskaya, 'The Porcelain Folk of Asta Brzhezitskaya', Decorative Art of the USSR, N11, 1984;
T. Shul'gina, 'Porcelain Plastics of A. Brzhezitskaya', Art, N8, 1985, pp. 18-20;
Catalog 'Asta Brzhezitskaya', Moscow, 1983;
V. Meyland, 'Under Asta's Sign', Stolitsa magazine, N35, 1993;
V. Meyland, 'Queen of Porcelain', Ogonyok magazine, N35-36, 1993.
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