PAVEL YAKOVLEVICH ZALTSMAN (RUSSIAN 1912-1985) Sketch for the Film "Na Granitse" [On the Border], ink wash on paper 42 x 56.7 cm (16 1/2 x 22 3/8 in.)
EXPERTISE The authenticity of this painting has been confirmed by Bakhyt Seraliyev of Kazakhstan State Art Museum (copy available upon request)
LOT NOTES Pavel Zaltsman was an extraordinary Soviet artist, art director and production designer, illustrator, decorator and poet. He was born in a family of a russified German and a polish Jewess. In 1925 they moved to Leningrad, where Zaltsman soon began drawing for magazines and taking lessons from the well-known stage designers Anatoly Arapov and Vladimir Egorov, who got him interested in designing for films. From 1929 Zaltsman was also a pupil of Pavel Filonov, and a member of the Masters of Analytical Art group. Unlike some other students, however, he deviated from the strict norms of the analytical method and acquired his own distinct manner. In that period, he got a job at the Lenfilm studio where he worked with the outstanding film directors – the Vasiliev brothers, I.Trauberg and A.Ivanov. In 1938 A. Ivanov directed the film Na Granitse (On the Border) with Pavel Zaltsman as a film art director. In 1942 Zaltsman was evacuated to Alma-Ata with the Lenfilm studio. However, after the end of the war, due to his German descent he was interned in Kazakhstan, where he at first worked at the Central United Film Studio, and later became a chief designer of the Kazakh Film studio. He remained in Kazakhstan and worked in film production until his death in 1985.
