Ivan Kavaleridze

Ivan Kavaleridze (1887–1978) was a sculptor and director; he was an author of the first statues of Taras Shevchenko and Bolshevist politician Artem (one of the first Constructivism monuments in Europe); he was a director of several avant-garde historical films, and after the Socialism focus in the Soviet art he became a pioneer cameraman. Soviet critics ranked Kavaleridze, the author of nine full-length films, together with such personalities as Dovzhenko, Pudovkin and Eisenstein. However, Kavaleridze still remains an outsider in Ukrainian culture. He was born in Talaivka, Poltava region, in a Georgian-Ukrainian family. He studied at the Kyiv Art School, Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, and in 1910-1911, he went to Paris to study at Naoum Aronson’s private studio. Upon his return, he took part in a contest for the best project of Princess Olga’s statue in Kyiv and for some time he served in the Russian army. In 1918, he returned to Ukraine where he worked as an art director of Romny Workers’ and Peasants’ Theatre and opened the talent of a bricklayer and amateur actor Stepan Shkurat for Ukrainian cinema. After his acquaintance with Oleksandr Dovzhenko and VUFKU’s deputy head Zinovii Siderskyi, he started his filmmaking career. The biggest mystery of Kavaleridze’s filmography was his lost début film Downpour (1929) inspired by Constructivism, Berezil Theatre’s creative works and Taras Shevchenko’s poetry. The film received severe criticism and polar feedback from press,…