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Gustav Klutsis
Gustav Klutsis was born into a Latvian family in the Konig District near Rujiena town on January 4, 1895. In 1911 - 1915 he studied at the art school in Valmiera and City Art School in Riga. Janis Rozentals, Vilhelms Purvitis and Janis Tilbergs were his teachers.
He continued education at the Drawing School of the Society for Encouragement of Arts in Petrograd (1915 — 1918), and then in the State Free Art Studios under Konstantin Korovin, Antoine Pevsner and Kazimir Malevich (1918 — 1920), and the VKHUTEMAS, aka the Higher Art and Technical Studios (1920 — 1921) in Moscow.
He collaborated with the Institute of Art Culture (Inkhuk), the literary and art association The Left Front of Arts (LEF), and the Founders of New Art Association (Unovis). He was one of the founders of the October group (1928). Besides, he taught in the Higher Art and Technical Studios (1924 — 1930).
His most well-known paintings include The Red Man (1918), Dynamic City (1919), Axonometric Painting (1920), The USSR is Shock Brigade of the Entire World Proletariat (1931).
On January 17, 1938 Gustav Klutsis was arrested on a fabricated charge of involvement in “the fascist plot of Latvian nationalists” (accused of membership in an armed Latvian terrorist organization) and executed 5 weeks later. The artist was posthumously rehabilitated in 1956.
