This article forms part of the Decorative and Applied Arts Encyclopedia, a master reference hub providing a structured overview of design history, materials, movements, and practitioners.
Sergei Vasil’evich Chekhonin (1878 – 1936) was a Russian graphic artist and ceramicist. He was professionally active in St. Petersburg and Paris.
Biography
In 1904, he worked at S. Mamontov’s Abramtsevo Ceramic Workshop.
He contributed caricatures and cartoons to progressive publications from 1905 to 1906.
In 1907, he produced several majolica panels for buildings in St. Petersburg at the Petr Vaulin ceramics factory in Kikerino, near St. Petersburg.
In 1910, he joined V mireiskusstv (World of Art) and contributed to its exhibitions regularly until 1924.
From 1913 to 1918, he worked as a specialist consultant on artistic crafts for the Ministry of Agriculture and directed the Rostov-Yaroslavkii school of decorative enamel work.
He was artistic director of the State Porcelain Factory in Petrograd/Leningrad after the 1917 Revolution, 1918—23, and 1925–27.
Agitprop
He was credited with much of the period’s agitprop (or agitation-propaganda) porcelain design. He painted brightly painted forms with colourful slogans on ceramic blanks originally intended for pre-revolutionary ware. He made no new shapes for porcelain but painted many plates, cups, and saucers himself. He also created hundreds of compositions, drawings, monograms, and anniversary marks for the Volkhov Factory.
In 1928, he moved to Paris and worked as a designer for Nikita Baliev’s cabaret “Chauve-Souris” and Vera Nemtchinova of the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo in 1929, as well as for Vogue magazine, designing jewellery, porcelain, and posters.
His work was displayed at the 1925 ‘Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes’ in Paris and was the subject of a 1928 exhibition in the same city.
Sources
Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing.
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