Amshey Nurenberg

Who was Amshey Nurenberg?

Amshey Markovich Nurenberg was a Ukrainian, Russian and Soviet painter, graphic artist, art critic, and memoirist.

In 1904 - 1910 he has studied in the Odessa School of Arts with Professor Cyriaque Costandi. After having graduated from the School he continued his education in Paris. He lived in the Latin Quarter with other artists from Russia and during a year shared an atelier with M.Chagall in the phalanstery La Ruche.

In 1913 he returned to Odessa, where headed the group of modernists "The Independent", founded the private school "Free Studio", and participated in exhibitions of Odessa artists. After the Russian Revolution he was appointed to the People's Commissar of Arts of Odessa and to the head of the Committee for Protecting the Artistic and Historic Heritage.

Since 1920 he lived in Moscow, where was the first art columnist of the newspaper Pravda, worked in the ROSTA Windows together with Vladimir Mayakovsky, and was professor of history of the Western art at the VKhUTEMAS. In 1927-29 he was missioned to Paris by the People's Commissar for Education A. Lunacharsky to read lectures on new Soviet arts. In 1932 he has contributed to the organization of the Moscow Regional Union of Soviet Artists which later has been extended to the USSR Union of Artists.