Platunova, Alexandra Georgievna

Alexandra Georgievna Platunova was a versatile artist working with paintings, book and magazine graphics, bookplates and prints. She excelled in portraits, landscapes, abstract-ornamental and symbolic-allegorical compositions. Platunova studied at the Kazan Art School and graduated from the Kazan Art Institute in 1922. Early-on she created covers for the magazine "Kazan Museum Bulletin" and for the Tatar book "Zora Yulduz" (1922) by Zakhoda Iffat . In 1929, Platunova participated in a closed All-Union competition for the lubok (poster) where she was awarded a prize for her sketch "Bookseller in the Mari Village". The work was later published. In the 1930s, Platunova collaborated with the magazines Krasnaia Niva (Red Niva) and Krasnaia Panorama (Red Panorama) both published by the State Publishing House of the USSR and A.Kh.R.R. (Association of Arts of Revolutionary Russia). From the mid-1930s to the 1940s, Alexandra Platunova created illustrations for the works of Pushkin, Gorki, Kamenskii and Nekrasov, in the book "Gilded Foreheads" (a book of fairy tales). She also was the designer on a series of monotypes titled "Fantasy" (1932-1933), "In the Days of the War" (1941), and "Fish" (1962-1963).

While she exhibited work continuously from an early age, a few noted exhibitions demonstrating her talent were: the 5th and 6th exhibitions of the Kazan Art School (1914, 1916), Sunflower Association 1st Exhibition of Paintings (Kazan, 1918), the 1st State Exhibition of Art and Science (Kazan, 1920), the 2nd State Exhibition of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (Kazan, 1921), the Exhibition of the State Art Institute (Kazan, 1922), Art of the Russian Book Mark (Kazan, 1923), the 2nd IZO Exhibition of Laboratory-Production Works of LEF (Left Front of the Arts) (Kazan, 1925), Russian Bookplate Engraving (Leningrad, 1925), and Artistic Ex-libris: 1917 to 1927 (Leningrad, 1928). In 1930, Platunova became a member of the Oktyabr (October) arts group. She taught at Kazan Technical College from 1921 to 1926.