- Lev Kekushev
Infobox Architect
caption=Isakov Apartment Building, 1904-1906
name=Lev Nikolayevich Kekushev
nationality=Russia
birth_date=February 19, 1862
birth_place=Vilno
death_date=?? 1916 - 1919
death_place=??Moscow
practice_name=
significant_buildings=Mindovsky House
Isakov Apartment Building
significant_projects=Completion of Hotel Metropol
awards=|Lev Nikolayevich Kekushev ( _ru. Лев Николаевич Кекушев) was a
Russia n architect, notable for hisArt Nouveau buildings inMoscow , built in the 1890s and early 1900s in the original, Franco-Belgian variety of this style. Kekushev's buildings are notable for his skillful use of metal ornaments and his signature with a lion ("Lev") ornament or sculpture.Biography
Education
Kekushev was born in the family of a Russian officer in
Vilno (Maria Naschokina, p.253;Simbirsk according to other sources). Kekushev graduated high school in Vilno, and the Institute of Civil Engineers inSaint Petersburg (1883-1889). For one year, he worked as a state-employed construction engineer in Saint Petersburg, but relocated to Moscow in 1890. At first an assistant to architectSemyon Eybushits , he started independent practice in 1893. At the same time, Kekushev became a master in applied art technologies - ironforging , silvergalvanization and chemical frosting of glass. Throughout the 1890s, Kekushev andIllarion Ivanov-Shitz were employed by Moscow-based railway companies and designed dozens of extant railway stations.Art Nouveau
Kekushev was the first practicioner of
Art Nouveau in Moscow, starting with his apartment buildings in Varsonofyevskay Lane and Bolshaya Dmitrovks, completed 1893. His style (unlike the next generation of Art Nouveau architects likeWilliam Walcot andFyodor Schechtel ) is very close to the original Belgian style ofVictor Horta . The new wave of architecture was endorsed and financed by prominent business figures like the Khludov and Morozov families and Jacob Reck.In 1898-1899, Kekushev won the first prize in the open contest for Hotel Metropol; financier
Savva Morozov discarded the decision of a professional jury and awarded architectural design toWilliam Walcot . However, the owners retained Kekushev as overall project manager. "None of this (Walcot's earlier) work is on the scale of the Metropole; Kekushev's assistance was probably crucial to the final realization of this complex structure, with its immense dome of glass and iron over an interior court" (Brumfield, chapter 3). Kekushev's talent and recognition peaked in 1900-1903, when Art Nouveau, for a while, became the dominant style in Moscow. His buildings include such diverse luxury residences as the timber-framed Nosov House (Electrozavodskaya Street) and stone and steel Mindovsky House (44Povarskaya Street , now Embassy ofNew Zealand - a part of a large affluent community developed by Jacob Reck). Kekushev, skilled in interior finishes, practicedGesamtkunstwerk approach, designing interiors down to the smallest details. Unlike other architects, who commissioned artwork finishes to independent artists, all Kekushev buildings have distinct Kekushev metal ornaments.Withdrawal from practice
After the
Russian revolution of 1905 , when public opinion "dismissed Art Nouveau asephemera of fashion" (Brumfield, chapter 3) in favor of Neoclassical revival, Kekushev was unwilling or unable to change, and worked on low-profile, unimportant projects. By 1912 he practically disappeared from professional scene.Maria Naschokina, a historian of Art Nouveau, suggested that Kekushev's withdrawal was actually caused by unspecified (probably, mental) illness; this statement has not been thoroughly proved. Kekushev's last years remain a mystery; even the year of his death is disputed (1916 to 1919).
Nikolay Kekushev
The architect's son,
Nikolay Kekushev , was a famousaviator who saw combat in 1924 in Central Asia, later working as aircraft engineer on Arctic flights in the 1920s and 1930s. He was a member ofPavel Golovin 's air crew that was the first to reach theNorth Pole onMay 5 1937 in preparation forIvan Papanin 's polar expedition. DuringWorld War II , he flew 59 missions on a DC-3 to and from besieged Leningrad, evacuating starving residents; later, he served on anti-submarine Arctic patrols. In 1948 Nikolay Kekushev was arrested, and he spent six years inDzhezkazgan labor camps. He survived and wrote a book of memoirs, "Zveriada"; however, it does not reveal much about his father's last years.elected buildings
Assistant to
Semyon Eybuschits * 1890-1893 - Central Public Baths
* 1890-1893 - Okhotny Ryad redevelopmentAssistant to
Sergey Tikhomirov * 1890-1893 - Apartment Building of Gregory the Theosof Church, Bolshaya Dmitrovka Street
Own practice
* 1892 - 1899 I.N.Geyer
Almshouse , 15 Verkhaya Krasnoselskaya, [http://sobory.ru/article/index.html?object=03629 photographs]
* 1893 - Gagarin Apartment Building, Varsonofievsky Lane (partly destroyed by facadist "reconstruction" in 2000s)
* 1894 - 1895 - Korobkov House, Pyatnitskaya Street (withSergey Shutzman )
* 1894 - 1896 - Khludov Apartment Building,
* 1898 - 1900 - Grachev Estate,Khovrino , now 77 Festivalnaya Street, Moscow, modelled after casino inMonte-Carlo by Charles Garnier
* 1898 - 1899 - Gustav List House, 8 Glazovsky Lane, withWilliam Walcot mosaicfrieze . Kekushev started this building for himself, but halfway into construction, List offered him the bounty Kekushev could not resist.
* 1898 - 1899 -Odintsovo rail station
* 1899 - Nekrasov Building, 4Gogol Boulevard
* 1899 - 1900 - Saarbekov House, Povarskaya Street
* 1899 - 1900 - Iberian Trade Rows, Nikolskaya Street
* 1900 - 1903 - Own house, 21 Ostozhenka Street (also known as Kekysheva House, as he had to give it to his ex-wife in settling their divorce)
* 1902 - 21,Gogol Boulevard
* 1903 - Nosov House, Electrozavodskaya Street
* 1903 -Mindovsky House , 44Povarskaya Street (Embassy of New Zealand) [http://www.nzembassy.msk.ru/embassy_building/archit_features_ru.htm interior photographs]
* 1903-1904 -Ponizovsky House , 42Povarskaya Street (Embassy of Afghanistan)
* 1898 - 1907 - construction manager forHotel Metropol (Moscow) , lead architect:William Walcot
* 1904 - 1906 - Isakov Apartment Building, 28 Prechistenka Street
* 1906 - Railway stations ofMoscow -Yaroslavl railroad
* 1906 - Interiors, Praga Restaurant (Arbat Square ) and Morozov House (Prechistenka Street)
* 1910 - expansion ofYaroslavsky Rail Terminal
* 1911 - Rudnev Hospital, Serebryany Lane
* 1912 - Hospital nearPreobrazhenskoye Cemetery References
*William Craft Brumfield, "The Origins of Modernism in Russian Architecture", University of California Press, 1991 [http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft1g5004bj&brand=eschol contents] [http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft1g5004bj&chunk.id=d0e2066&toc.id=&brand=eschol chapter 3]
*Embassy ofNew Zealand in Moscow homepage [http://www.nzembassy.msk.ru/index.html]
*Russian: List of publications by Kekushev: [http://snor.ru/?an=pers_169 www.snor.ru]
*Russian: Nikolay Kekushev's book: Кекушев, Н.Л., "Звериада", М, 1991 [http://www.sakharov-center.ru/asfcd/auth/auth_pages.xtmpl?Key=13515&page=159 online text and biography in Russian]
*Russian: Нащокина, Мария, "Архитекторы московского модерна", М, "Жираф", 2005, стр.236-253 ("Maria Naschokina")
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