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Georgy
Nissky

Russia • 1903−1987

Biography and information

Biography and information

Georgy Nissky (January 21, 1903 - June 18, 1987) was a Soviet landscape and marine artist, one of the founders of the so-called severe style in Soviet painting of the 50-60s. The winner of the Stalin Prize of the II degree. For his contribution to art, he was also awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and various medals.

Peculiar features of Nissky’s art: the main direction of the creative activity of Georgy Nissky was landscape painting. On his canvasses, the audience can see not just nature in its pristine beauty, but also the beauty that a person brings to nature through one’s work. The painter developed a unique style of painting featuring soulful lyricism of his landscapes. Imbued with romanticism, love for his native land and common people, the works of Nissky were best characterized by the French painter Albert Marquet, who visited Moscow art museums and exhibitions in 1934. Marquet noted that from all the works he had seen, he was mostly impressed by Nissky’s painting «Autumn. Semaphores.»


Famous works of Georgy Nissky: “Autumn. Semaphores ”, “Green Road", “Moscow. Sorting", "Lineman", "Airfield", "Black Sea Fleet", "On the tracks. May”, “Volley”, “Meeting”, “Pushkin Square”, “Belarusian landscape”.

Nissky’s paintings are mostly art sketches of holidays and everyday life

George spent his early years at a small railway station in the Mogilev province (now Brest, Belarus). Since then, he had had special feelings towards large steel vehicles that were coming from afar and going away on the endless rails. Inspired by his childhood memories, Georgy Nissky began his artistic experiments from the railway subject. He first entered the Gomel art studio named after M. Vrubel, and then graduated from the painting department of the Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops (VHUTEMAS).

The artist’s acquaintance with Alexander Deineka in 1926 and his participation in the activities of the Society of Easel Artists had a significant impact on his work. Nyssky formed as a landscape painter: despite general laconicism, his canvases were filled with lyrical images and dynamics. A trip to the Black Sea in Novorossiysk in 1928 gave a new sound to the artist’s talent: enchanted by the beauty of the sea, George switched from industrial landscapes to marine landscapes and created a number of illustrations for literary works on marine subjects.

Frequent trips around the country gave the painter new impressions to be later painted on canvas. As Nyssky told, he painted the artwork “In the Far East” from memory after catching a glimpse of a ridge with a stubble of forest and a small airfield with airplanes from the train window. Another painting - "Moscow Nights" - appeared as a result of evening skiing, which George did almost daily.

Today, Nyssky's paintings take pride of place in museums such as the Tretyakov Gallery, the Lviv Art Gallery, the Russian Museum, the Art Museum in Dnepropetrovsk etc.