Nina Genke-Meller

Nina Genke-Meller
Нина Генке-Меллер
Ніна Генке-Меллер
Suprematist Composition, 1915
Born
Нина Генриховна Генке
Ніна Генріхівна Генке
Nina Henrikhivna Henke

19 March [O.S. 7 March] 1893
Moscow, Russian Empire
Died25 July 1954(1954-07-25) (aged 61)
Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, USSR (now Ukraine)
Occupations
SpouseVadym Meller

Nina Henrichovna Genke-Meller [a] (née Genke; Russian: Нина Генриховна Генке-Меллер; Ukrainian: Ніна Генріхівна Генке-Меллер, romanized: Nina Henrikhivna Henke-Meller; 19 March [O.S. 7 March] 1893 [b] – 25 July 1954) was a Ukrainian-Russian and Soviet artist, designer, graphic designer and scenographer.[1][2] A member of the Russian avant-garde, Genke-Meller was a representative of the Suprematist and Futurist art movements.[2]

Early life and education

Nina Henrichovna Genke was born on 19 March [O.S. 7 March] 1893 in Moscow, Russian Empire (now Russia) to a Dutch father, August-Henry Henke, and a Russian mother, Nadiya Lvivna Tykhanova.[1][3] Genke-Meller had one older half-brother,[3] and was the older sister of the illustrator Margarita Genke-Shifrina.

In 1912, Genke-Meller graduated from Levandovskaya Private Gymnasium in Kyiv, and later received a title to teach Russian language and history.

Career

In 1913, Genke-Meller began teaching history, geography and drawing at the Higher Primary College for Women in Skoptsi.[3] In Skoptsi, she met the artist Yevgenia Pribylska who headed the Art Studio in a Folk Center and became more inspired to become an artist herself. In 1914, Genke-Meller began attending Aleksandra Ekster’s studio in Kyiv for her art education, becoming an assistant in Ekster's studio from 1915 to 1917. At the same time, Genke-Meller worked as an artist in Skoptsi (Skoptsy) Village Folk Centre, supervised by Yevgeniya Pribilskaya and in Verbovka or the Verbovka Village Folk Centre, founded by N. Davidova.[4]

Genke-Meller was closely connected with the Supremus group that was led by Kazimir Malevich, the founder of Suprematism.[3] From 1915, Genke-Meller worked as a head and a chief artist of the Verbovka Village Folk Centre (province in Kyiv). She attracted famous avant-garde artists such as Kazimir Malevich, Nadezhda Udaltsova, Aleksandra Ekster, Ivan Kliun, Ivan Puni, Lyubov Popova, Olga Rozanova, Ksenia Boguslavskaya and others to the creative peasant artisans co-operative.[4] During 1915 to 1916 Genke-Meller participated in the creating settings for the play "Kamira Kifared" (I.F. Annenskiy) for Kamerny Theater in Moscow, was teaching drawing at Kruger's Private Gymnasium, was working jointly on a large panel with artist Katria Vasilieva, as a member of the Kyiv Folk Centre, was one of the heads of the Kyiv Committee of the All-Russian Zemstvo Union: together with the group of artists-suprematists was creating a network of artistic and industrial studios aiming at support of folk art in Ternopil, Kolomiya, Chortkiv and Chernivtsi regions.[3]

Shortly after the October Revolution of 1917, Genke-Meller participated in decorating the streets of Kyiv and Odesa for Revolution Festivities together with Aleksandra Ekster and Kliment Red'ko, and began to design grandiose shows and a book on graphic design.[3] Genke-Meller was the chief artist of panfuturist publishing house Golfshtorm (Ukrainian: Гольфстрим; lit. 'Golfstream').[1][3][5] At the same time she worked as a graphic artist. In 1923, she "illustrated the Panfuturists' October Collection, established a symbiosis between poster and poetry".[6] From 1920 to 1924 she taught art in the All-Ukrainian State Center Studio. In 1924 moved to Moscow, working as a stage designer, designer for china (mostly plates) and wallpaper manufacture. Genke also held a position of the Deputy Head of the Board on Fine Arts in Vserabis.

In 1938, Genke-Meller became a member of the Union of Soviet Artists of Ukraine.[1] In later life, Genke worked as an interior designer, a scenographer, and supervisor of decorative and applied arts institutions.[7]

Personal life

Genke-Meller married the artist Vadym Meller (1884-1962).[1][3]

On 25 July 1954 Genke-Meller died in Kyiv aged 61.

Notes

  1. ^ Alternatively spelt Nina Henrichovna Henke-Meller
  2. ^ Also cited as 19 April 1893

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Habelko, V. T. (2025). Dziuba, I.М.; Zhukovsky, A.I.; Zhelezniak, M.H. (eds.). "Генке-Меллер Ніна Генріхівна" [Henke-Meller Nina Henrikhivna]. Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine (in Ukrainian). Kyiv: National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Shevchenko Scientific Society. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
  2. ^ a b "Ніна Генке-Меллер". Бібліотека українського мистецтва (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Papeta, Serhiy (2004). "Nina Henke – Fom Folk Suprematism to Avant-Gardism of Show and Plays". Avant-garde Adventures: Vadym Meller, Nina Genke-Meller, Nina Vetrova-Robinson [Exhibition Catalogue] (PDF). Translated by Marina, L. Kyiv, Ukraine: National Art Museum of Ukraine. pp. 56–80. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
  4. ^ a b Shkandrij, Myroslav (2018). "Vadym Meller and Sources of Inspiration in Theater Art". Avant-Garde Art in Ukraine, 1910–1930: Contested Memory. Boston, Massachusetts: Academic Studies Press. pp. 116–134. doi:10.2307/j.ctv1zjg820.12.
  5. ^ Lozhkina, Alisa (2020). "The Panfuturists, Mykhail Semenko, and Nova Generatsiia". In Kinsella, Ali (ed.). Permanent Revolution: Art In Ukraine, the 20th to the Early 21st Century. Translated by Jeffers, Nathan. Kyiv: ArtHuss. pp. 94–99. ISBN 978-617-7799-77-0. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
  6. ^ Breaking the Rules. The printed Face of the European Avant Garde 1900-1937.p.104. Edited by Stephen Bury, published by British Library on the occasion of the exhibition Breaking the Rules at the British Library. London. 2007.
  7. ^ "Ніна Генке-Меллер". Бібліотека українського мистецтва (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2 April 2023.

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nina Genke-Meller.
  • Sergei Papeta, Nina Henke: From Folk Suprematism to Avant-gardism of Shows and Plays, pp. 48–66, Exhibition Catalogue, Avant-Garde Adventures, National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, 2004.
  • Nina Genke: Avantgarde and Ukraine, p. 193, Exhibition Catalogue, Villa Stuck, Munich, Germany, 1993.
  • Nina Genke: Ukrainian Avant-garde of 1910-1930s, Zagreb, Croatia, 1991.
  • Nina Henke-Meller and Ukrainian Futurism , Ilnytzkyj, Oleh S., Pages 292-296, International Yearbook of Futurism Studies. Multi-volumed work. Volume 5. International Yearbook of Futurism Studies. Ed. by Berghaus, Günter, 2015.
  • Dmytro Horbachov, ed., Ukrainian Avant-garde Art 1910-1930s, "Mystetstvo," Kyiv, Ukraine, 1996.
  • John E. Bowlt, ed., Crossroads: Modernism in Ukraine, Exhibition Catalogue, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, and The Ukrainian Museum, New York, 2006-2007.
  • Breaking the Rules. The Printed Face of the European Avant Garde 1900-1937, edited by Stephen Bury, published by British Library on the occasion of the exhibition at the British Library: Breaking the Rules, London, 2007.
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