Artist Masha Pryanichnikova will talk about her illustrations for Polina Pokladok’s new children’s book Experimental House: How I Lived in the Narkomfin Building and about Constructivism and Constructivist architects and artists. During the creative part, each participant will model their own project of a Constructivist building from paper.
About the Artist
Masha Pryanichnikova is an artist and illustrator. She graduated in Painting from the State Academy of Slavic Culture (Moscow) and is a teacher at Prostaya School. She has illustrated books for Anastasia Orlova Publishing House, Booksmart, Polyandria, Alpina, and A+A. She has provided illustrations for the magazines Baku and Seasons Project. Her solo exhibitions include Line and Spot (Artmuza Gallery, St. Petersburg, 2020) and V sebe (Seasons Publishing, Moscow, 2024).
About the Book
Experimental House: How I Lived in the Narkomfin Building by Polina Pokladok is a children’s book on the history of the Narkomfin Building. A young boy named Petya who lived there in the 1930s introduces readers to this amazing building. Petya tells us about its unusual structure, the cell apartments, the new lifestyle of the residents, and even about the secrets of the building, such as where the black-and-white doors from the fourth-floor corridor led. Together with Petya, we visit architect Moisei Ginzburg and see the penthouse of Nikolai Milyutin, who inspired the design for the building.
About the Author
Polina Pokladok is an art historian who specializes in Russian architecture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and a researcher at the Shchusev State Museum of Architecture. She graduated in the History of Russian Art from Moscow State University. She takes part in academic conferences, gives lectures, and leads tours for adults and children. In 2023, the book What Melnikov Invented, co-authored by Polina, won the Arch Moscow exhibition award for «Best Children’s Book on Architecture.» In 2023, another children’s book on architecture that she co-authored was published: Alexey Shchusev: The Architect Who Conquered Time.
