Marenkov, Alexei Vasilievich

Alexei Vasilievich Marenkov was a graphic artist and arts educator in the Soviet Union. For the initial part of his artistic schooling, he studied drawing under the tutelage of the German artist Werner Ernst Hoffmann. From 1905 to 1912, Marenkov was enrolled in the Kiev Art School where he was graduated. After obtaining his education, Marenkov worked in the field of book illustration. Following the collapse of Tsarist Russia in 1917, Marenkov served as an illustrator on the first issue of Krasnoe ytro (Red Morning), a journal produced by the literary branch of the Orel Proletkult in western Russia. From the 1920s through the 1930s, Marenkov taught at the Kharkov Art Institute. He also was a member of A.Kh.Ch.U. (Association of Artists of the Red Ukraine). As a pioneer in Soviet political art of the 1920s, Alexei Vasilievich Marenkov designed a number of posters, such as these titles from 1921: “Long Live Soviet Power! The route to happiness of the laborers is via the soviets, led by the Communist Party!”; “Hunger threatens the Soviet republics. Until it's too late - everyone fight hunger.”; "Labor is a curse for the slave and hired hand. For а free man, work is a blessing.”