Felix Lembersky


Felix Samoilovich Lembersky was a Russian/Soviet painter, artist, teacher, theatre stage designer and organizer of artistic groups. He is known for his 'Execution: Babi Yar' series, which are considered to be among the earliest artistic representations of the Nazi massacres of Jews in Kyiv.

Biography

Lembersky was born in 1913 into the family of Samuil Lembersky of Lublin and relocated with his family to Berdyczów following the Russian loss of Lublin to the Austro-Hungarian army in 1915. In 1928, Lembersky moved to Kiev to attend the Jewish Arts' and Trades' School. He worked as a set designer for the Jewish Theater in Kiev and Berdichev from 1930 to 1933 and attended the Kiev Art Institute from 1933 to 1935 to study painting with professor Pavel Volokidin. He then moved to Leningrad to study at the Russian Academy of Arts in 1935.
During his studies, Lembersky toured the Urals to collect material for his thesis, and he returned to Leningrad after Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. His parents remained in Berdichev and perished in the Holocaust. Lembersky was wounded during the defense operations on the outskirts of Leningrad in July 1941. He then contracted typhoid and was brought back to the Academy, which was converted into a home and a hospital for its students, professors, and staff during the war. He completed his thesis during the Siege of Leningrad and defended it in December 1941, earning a degree in easel painting with honors for academic achievement.
Lembersky joined the Union of Soviet Artists in 1944 and offered private art classes at his studio. From 1944 to 1954, he worked on commissions and portraits of workers, and he headed group projects. During this time, he created his Execution: Babi Yar series, which are the earliest known artistic renderings of the Nazi massacres of Jews in Kiev. He created the triptych Leaders and Children for Anichkov Palace in 1955, and he worked on the Novgorod and Pskov series from 1956 to 1957. He worked on the Urals Series from 1958 to 1964, and he created the Railway Pointer and Miners series and the Staraya Ladoga series during this time. Lembersky held a personal exhibition at the LOSSKh exhibition gallery in Leningrad in 1960.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Lembersky spoke out for greater freedom in Soviet art, and he organized unofficial exhibitions of young artists. He died on 2 December 1970 at his home in Leningrad.

Career

Lembersky joined the Leningrad Union of Artists after the war and participated in national and private art shows in Russia. He toured and worked in various places, such as the Urals, Ladoga, Pskov, and Baltic Republics. Lembersky's art was influenced by his childhood in Eastern Europe, particularly Ukraine and the Soviet Union. He was exposed to the early Soviet avant-garde during his time as a theater set designer in Kiev in the 1920s and early 1930s. He furthered his exposure to the avant-garde at the Kiev Art Institute, where Malevich and Tatlin taught, and continued to be influenced by them during his studies in the 1930s. Lembersky attended art history lectures given by Punin at the Academy of Art, and his classical education at the Academy influenced his realist and impressionist techniques. Despite state-imposed restrictions on Western art, Lembersky included various influences in his work, including German Expressionism, the French School, Mexican mural painting, Russian icons, African folk art, and Dutch and early Renaissance painting. He was interested in modernist and contemporary literature, poetry, and theater, and music was essential to his art. Lembersky's work is spiritual and frequently includes religious symbols. The memory of the Holocaust haunted Lembersky, and he included Holocaust symbols in his work. The themes of war and industrial labor appear in his work, yet his paintings are known for their brilliant color, light, and formal beauty, which evoke emotional responses and delight the eye.