Georgii Zimin

About the Artist

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  Georgii Zimin. Untitled (Montage with Self-Portrait and Building). 1926. Gelatin silver print, 3 11/16 x 3 1/4" (9.4 x 8.3 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Thomas Walther Collection. Gift of Thomas Walther (MoMA 1920.2001)

  Georgii Zimin was born in Moscow in 1900, where he lived and worked for his entire life. Before the Russian Revolution he enrolled as a student at the Artistic-Industrial Stroganov Institute, known after 1918 as SVOMAS (Free state art studios). Zimin continued his studies at VKhUTEMAS (Higher state artistic and technical studios), which replaced SVOMAS in 1920. It was during his time at the school that he published the portfolio Skrjabin in Lukins Tanz (Scriabin in Lukin’s dance), in an edition of one hundred. This set of Cubo-Futurist lithographs from 1922 features costumed dancers in erotic poses, complementing a ballet choreographed by Lev Lukin. This work garnered Zimin acknowledgment by the Academy of Arts and Sciences and marked his affiliation with the Russian Art of Movement group. Throughout the 1920s he showed regularly at Art of Movement exhibitions at GAKhN (State academy for artistic sciences), in Moscow. Zimin also experimented with photography in the late 1920s and early 1930s, producing photograms akin to those made by László Moholy-Nagy and others at the time. Later in life, he served as Art Director of Exhibitions at the Department of Trade and held a post at the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition.

  —Ksenia Nouril

Meeting Points

• Cultural Hubs Moscow
  
• Photo Industry Hubs Moscow
  
• Schools VKhUTEMAS, 1920–30
  

Artist Chronology

Walther Photographs

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  Untitled

Related Essays

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  Gough, Maria
  Lissitzky on Broadway
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  Lodder, Christina
  Revolutionary Photography