Upheaval
Ladyzhensky’s youth coincided with a time of great upheaval in Odessa. Many of his paintings depict the events surrounding the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and the endeavors of his family and neighbors to survive in the midst of the ensuing Civil War.
The painting We Were Wrapping Candies refers to a memory from the time of the Soviet Union’s New Economic Policy of 1921, which allowed private individuals to run businesses. Ladyzhensky recalls, “when some Odessa residents were finally able to exhibit their entrepreneurial zeal, there were many small enterprises. Two or three entrepreneurs who made caramel and sweets, montpensier and toffee, would provide their goods to Madame Styro, who would then wrap them. We, boys and girls who were playing in the yard and had free time, were enlisted into this sweet enterprise.”
In his Petliura’s Gang Comes to Town diptych, Ladyzhensky recalls a violent pogrom carried out under the authority of Symon Petliura, who from 1919-1921 served as president of the short-lived Ukrainian People’s Republic. “Pogrom” is a Slavic word for a violent riot or massacre, often used to describe attacks against Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe. In Petliura’s Gang Comes to Town I, Ladyzhensky depicts women, children, and elders inside of a small apartment. It is a crowded room, and the figures are relatively still. They sleep, eat, read, and knit. The windows are barricaded, and the chandelier is out. The room is lit by a single candle. In contrast, In Self-Defense of My Home (Petliura’s Gang Comes to Town II) presents the same moment, but outdoors, where the younger men of Ladyzhensky’s community are moving in all directions. They carry and hoist up furniture to act as barricades.
While many of his paintings take a momentous or violent event as their subject – whether it be a pogrom, a burning theater, or an accident on the rails – Ladyzhensky rarely depicts the event itself; he prefers to paint the hubbub and commotion surrounding it. Along with his flattened compositions and bold colors, this choice demonstrates that these are images of childhood impressions and memories rather than illustrations of notable events in Odessa’s history.
Yefim Ladyzhensky
We Were Wrapping Candies
Date unknown
Collection of Yevgeny and Svetlana Kalinsky
Ladyzhensky recalls wrapping “Slivochnye pomadki” (creamy fudge) and “Rakovye sheyki” (crayfish necks) for his industrious neighbor, Madam Styro: “After handing in fifty wrapped sweets, we would receive one unwrapped sweet for ourselves. Such was the price that the old exploiter paid for free labor from children.”
Yefim Ladyzhensky
Petliura’s Gang has Come to Town I
Date unknown
Collection of David and Kathryn Birnbaum
In this diptych, Ladyzhensky recalls a violent pogrom from two perspectives. In the first panel, women, children, and elders sit inside of a small, barricaded apartment.
Yefim Ladyzhensky
In Self-Defense of My Home
(Petliura’s Gang has Come to Town II)
Date unknown
Collection of David and Kathryn Birnbaum
In the second panel of this diptych, men move barricades into place outside.
Yefim Ladyzhensky
A Hold Up at Night
Date unknown
Collection of David and Kathryn Birnbaum
Like the writer Isaac Babel, Ladyzhensky immortalized the Jewish gangsters of Odessa. As with his depictions of pogroms and catastrophes, he alludes to, but does not directly depict, the violence in this scene.
Yefim Ladyzhensky
Who Will Win?
Date unknown
Collection of David and Kathryn Birnbaum
A soldier stands in the center of a crowd, pointing toward a large map of the Iberian Peninsula. The map indicates soldiers’ positions around Madrid during the Spanish Civil War.