Kustodiev, Boris Mikhailovitch

(3/7/1878 Astrakhan-5/26/1927 Leningrad) (Russia)

   Painter, graphic artist, sculptor, and theatre designer. Trained at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg under Repin, then in Paris under Menard. After 1911 he belonged to the World of Art Movement, then in 1917 turned to producing posters for the new Communist government. Became paralyzed in 1917. It is likely he produced erotica, but at his death his family destroyed more than 500 of his works in fear of the new Soviet laws against pornography.

   Reproductions: Cunnilingus; Flegon, 1976: no. 199 . Reclining nude; 1915; watercolor; Flegon, 1976: no. 20 . Untitled [couple copulating]; c1920; watercolor; Flegon, 1976: no. 200 [B].

   [b]Source: Benezit, vol. 8: pp. 171-172; DoA vol. 18: p. 537.