Nikolai Mikhailovich Suetin, Russian artist, ceramicist and designer

Nikolai Mikhailovich Suetin (1897-1954) was a Russian artist, ceramicist, and designer. He was born in Metlevsk Station Kaluga. He was the husband of Anna Leporskaia. 

Education

Between 1918-22, he studied at Vitebsk Art School. In 1919, he joined Kazimir Malevich’s Posnovis/Unovis group and became one of Malevich’s closest collaborators, along with Il’ia Chashnik. 

Biography

In 1922 with Malevich, Chashnik, Vera Ermolaeva, Lev Yudin, and others, he settled in Petrograd, working with Malevich on Suprematist architectural constructions known as arkhitektony and planity and entering the Inkhuk affiliation there. From 1923, Suetin worked at the Lomonosov State Porcelain Factory in Petrograd, where he decorated much porcelain (including tea sets), in Suprematist designs at first, and where Eva Zeisel was one of his student workers. By 1930, his approach was a sort of stylized folk realism. He became artistic director of Lomonosov in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in 1932, remaining there until 1952. 

With Anna Leporskaia, he rendered the interior design for the 1928 Leningrad ‘The Construction of the NKVD House.’ His work was included in 1930 (I) ‘First All-City Exhibition of Visual Arts’ at the Academy of Arts in Leningrad, the 1932 jubilee ‘Artists of the RSFSR During the Last 15 Years’ at the Academy of Arts in Leningrad, and during the 1930s, in several exhibitions abroad including the 1937 Paris ‘Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques clans la Vie Moderne,’ where he helped design the Soviet pavilion. 

A sample of his work

Sources

Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing.

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