Russia. Boris Ioganson – Russian painter. Interrogation of the Communists. 1933. Pictorial Postcard

Boris Ioganson – Russian painter.

Interrogation of the Communists. 1933.

Pictorial Postcard

Ioganson was born in Moscow. His father’s Swedish ancestors russified the surname “Johansson” into “Ioganson”. Ioganson attended the Moscow School of Art and studied under Kasatkin and Malyutin. He was a member of the Society of Young Artists, where he argued for a complete transference of Russian art to Constructivism. He soon abandoned this cause and took up easel painting. In 1922, he helped found the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia, and abruptly transferred into the realm of Socialist Realism. Ioganson’s work was inspired by that of Repin, that is exhibiting certain features of Impressionism, and was often narrative in nature. Possibly his best-known work was “Interrogation of the Communists” a piece thoroughly representative of Socialist Realism but with piercing elements of Romanticism, in addition to an exploitation of some elements of Futurism. A sense of theatricity is present in his paintings, probably due to his studies of theater design under Korovin.