Livanova, Vera Mikhailovna

Vera Mikhailovna Livanova was a Soviet poster artist, painter and an easel artist. Born in Moscow, her father was a professor of Russian History. Livanova began her artistic studies at the Moscow studio of Countess Tatiana Lvovna Sukhotina-Tolstaia, a painter who was the second child of writer Leo Tolstoi. She continued her studies at the Moscow State College of Fine Arts in Memory of 1905, and from in 1928 to 1930, she studied in the theater department of the Moscow VKHUTEIN [Higher Art and Technical Institute]. In 1932 Livanova worked as a graphic artist in the city of Perm at the All-Union Chamber of Commerce. Her larger foray into graphic design began in the early 1930s when she began designing posters for the publishing houses of Iskusstvo (Art Publishing House) and IzoGiz (State Publishing House of Fine Art). During the 1960s, she designed posters for the publisher Sovietskii Khudozhnik [Soviet Artist]. Livanova joined the Union of Artists of the USSR in 1938.

During World War II, Vera Livanova was awarded the medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945". Subsequently, she was awarded the medal "Veteran of Labor". After the war, she collaborated with the poster production workshop of Agitplakat. As a working artist, Livanova participated in a myriad of exhibitions. Some key exhibits were: the Exhibition of Painting, Graphics and Sculpture of Women Artists (Moscow, 1938), the All-Union Exhibition of Soviet Posters (Moscow, 1941), "Posters about the Red Army" (Autonomous Republics, Territories and Regions of the RSFSR, 1942), the International Poster Exhibition (Vienna, 1948), Exhibition of Soviet Posters (Latvian SSR, 1949), Traveling Exhibition of Soviet Posters (Leningrad, 1949), Exhibition of Soviet Poster Artists (Lithuanian SSR, 1949), the First All-Union Book Exhibition of Graphics and Posters (Moscow, 1950), the Exhibition of Works by Soviet Artists in China (1958), “Poster and Satire 40 years of Moscow artists' works” (Moscow, 1958).