Dmitry Borisovich Lion
Dmitry Borisovich Lion (March 17, 1925, Kaluga – September 14, 1993, Moscow) was a Soviet artist and graphic artist.
Biography and Work
He was born on March 17, 1925, in Kaluga to the family of lawyer Boris Sergeevich Lion (1899–1935), a member of the Kaluga Provincial College of Defenders. Grandson of Solomon (Sergei) Efremovich Lion, a lawyer, publicist, and editor. Grand-nephew of civil engineer and architect Iosif Efremovich Lion, and psychiatrist and neurologist Mikhail Efremovich Lion. After moving to Moscow, he studied at Art School No. 1, then at the Graphic Faculty of the Moscow Architectural Institute (MARCHI); he lived in Mytishchi. At the beginning of World War II, together with his mother, Rakhilya Abramovna Lion (1900–1978), an economist, he was evacuated to Krasnouralsk, from where he was drafted to the front in 1943.
In 1953, after demobilization due to injury, he entered the Moscow Polygraphic Institute, where he studied under Pavel Zakharov and Ivan Chekmazov. In 1958, Lion finished his studies, but his subsequent fate as a book artist proved to be extremely challenging. His concept of free drawing in the book, associative illustration not constrained by literal adherence to the text ('The artist is not obliged to follow the author, he is obliged not to follow the author,' claimed Lion), his ideas of the unity of writing and drawing, and dreams of a completely drawn book were far ahead of his time. Many plans for book design remained unrealized.
In 1958, he joined the City Committee of Graphic Artists. In 1959, he became a laureate of the First Prize at the International Book Art Exhibition in Leipzig. Lion joined the Moscow Union of Artists almost twenty years later, already recognized as an educator and artist.
He cannot be attributed to either the underground, non-conformism, or the Soviet official school—Lion, like any true philosopher, stands apart from all currents and ideologies. The artist created graphic cycles: 'Fates of Russian Poets,' 'Bless Those Who Go,' 'Procession,' a monumental triptych in memory of Janusz Korczak, 'Biblical Cycle,' and was actively engaged in book illustration.
He collaborated with the magazines 'Knowledge is Power' and 'Chemistry and Life.'
Works in collections
His works are held in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, galleries and private collections in the United Kingdom, Austria, Italy, USA, Germany, and France.
Exhibitions and auctions
1989 Drawings from Moscow Studios. Paris;
1990 Solo Exhibition. Moscow;
1989 Seventh Book Graphics Exhibition. Academy of Arts of the USSR. Moscow;
1993 Moscow Artists, New Acquisitions. State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. Moscow;
1994 Solo Exhibition. 'A - 3' Gallery, Moscow;
1994 Solo Exhibition. Regional Art Museum, Kaluga;
1994-95 Solo Exhibition. World Bank, Moscow.
Author about himself
... Art is both weakness and strength of spirit, that is, the life of the spirit, the labor of the spirit. True drawing is prophecy. The artist, while drawing, sees the present and lives in the future ...
... True drawing is a sermon of human dignity. Take a closer look, it is always humane ...
... Writings, texts are not simply informative, they are – part of the drawing, the landscape, elements of figuration. The subconscious is involved in the writing, nature creates, and the texts united with the drawing forge complete and free characters and emotions, without the destructive strictness of carpentered strokes ...
Critic
... The text is necessary to him as a kind of spiritual environment, an atmosphere into which he immerses himself. The atmosphere of an era? Rather, it is the atmosphere of eternity, where one can withdraw from the bustle and current affairs of time. The atmosphere of the spirit in its calmness and serenity. That is why his favorite source is the Bible, the eternal book, living for millennia and transforming in the consciousness of ages and peoples.
Y. Gerchuk
Bibliography
Gerchuk Y. 'Dmitry Lion: Writings,' Bulletin 'Book and Art in the USSR', No.3/46, 1985, pp. 66-67, Publication of the All-Union Agency for Copyrights;
Molok Yu. 'White and Black of Dmitry Lion,' Catalogue, compiled by G.V. Marevicheva, 08.01.1990;
Elshovskaya G.V. 'Easel Graphics Today: A New Album of Graphics,' Moscow, 'Soviet Artist' Publishing, 1991, pp. 4-11;
Elshovskaya G.V. 'Dmitry Lion and His Arbatstvo,' 'Nezavisimaya Gazeta', 15.03.1994, p. 7;
Meiland V.L. 'Picturesque Arbatstvo,' magazine 'Stolitsa', No.13, 1994, p. 47;
Zlotnikov Yu. 'D. Lion and the Romanticism of Russian Utopia,' Exhibition catalogue at the World Bank in Moscow, December 1994;
Gerchuk Y. 'Dmitry Lion and the Sheets of Bygone Years,' 'Nezavisimaya Gazeta', December 1994.
Works 10
