Culture

Yefim Ladyzhensky, Bandura-Players Have Come to the School, 1974, Collection of Leonid and Irene Kelner.

Yefim Ladyzhensky, I Am Syoma Alabaster—Tonight’s MC, 1977, Collection of the artist’s family.

“The auditorium felt like a dark, dank cellar and the stage – a continuation of the sunny outdoors, which we’d left coming inside the theater. The music made the stage look even more alive, far more ornate and more inviting than the street we’d left behind.”

Yefim Ladyzhensky, An Accident on the Rails, 1974, Collection of the artist’s family.

The posters in the foreground advertise two plays by Odessan writers: Sunset by Isaac Babel, and Squaring the Circle by Valentin Kataev. These titles harken back to Ladyzhensky’s early work as a stage designer.

Yefim Ladyzhensky, Death Trick, 1974, Collection of the artist’s family.

“‘Bread and Circuses’: part slogan, part call to action, part heart’s cry, part stomach’s cry, all fused together; they exist both separately and together inside a person. They are not separated, like latitudes separate the globe. They long for each other, like longitudes, from pole to pole.”

Yefim Ladyzhensky, The Movies Come to Town, Date Unknown, Collection of David Birnbaum.

This painting depicts the filming of a scene from the 1925 film Jewish Luck, which was based on stories by Sholem Aleichem and adapted for film by Isaac Babel. The film stars Solomon Mikhoels, who is shown here descending the Odessa Steps, made famous by the 1925 film Battleship Potemkin. In the foreground, Babel stands beside the cinematographer, Eduard Tisse.

Yefim Ladyzhensky, Our City’s Music Lovers, Date Unknown, Collection of Leonid and Irene Kelner.

“...Music, like painting, can be long-lasting and tactile. But sounds would not behave for me, unfortunately, whereas line and color obeyed, and my stubborn, tireless efforts did their work.”Description goes here