Adam and Eve

David Yakerson

1918

Image

Drawing with line down center separating two nude figures among flowers. — David Yakerson’s *Adam and Eve* dates from a time before his turn to the much more abstract style of suprematism. In this illustration, Adam and Eve blend in with other decorative elements in a composition formed of sensuous flowing lines. The yellow of the sun and flowers recurs in many of his works of this period, dominating the palette of many of his paintings and drawings.

Credits

Courtesy National Library of Israel.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 7.

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Creator Bio

David Yakerson

1896–1947

Born in Vitebsk, David Yakerson joined the art world as a student at Yehudah Pen’s school in that city. He later studied at the Riga Polytechnic Institute and in Moscow. Between 1919 and 1922, Yakerson returned to Vitebsk to lead the sculpture department of the Vitebsk art academy where Kazimir Malevich was working out his Suprematist principles. Deeply influenced by Malevich, Yakerson produced dozens of geometric Suprematist prints in 1920, including his Fourteen Suprematist Studies. Yakerson is remembered for his UNOVIS Cubo-Suprematist sculptures—none of which are known to have survived—and as a teacher of Soviet avant-garde sculptors.