This is the first time the painting “Loading Bunker” by Konstantin Panteleyev-Kireyev is displayed in the museum’s permanent exhibition. It is larger than other works by the artists who worked in labor camps. Usually, it was difficult to obtain materials in a camp, there was no place to keep artworks and not enough time and energy for creative work. The painting was created after the artist’s release from the labor camp.
The paintings of inmate artists rarely feature detailed images of people. Most often, there are only gloomy shadows of workers wandering among industrial buildings. This reflects the harsh conditions of labor camps and the ruined lives of artists. In Panteleyev-Kireyev’s painting, the figures of people are indistinct, almost blending with the ground. The industrial building is lit by an alarming red sunset light.
“Loading Bunker” depicts the first mine in the Pechora Coal Basin, Kapitalnaya. It was established in 1937, and during the Great Patriotic War supplied coal to besieged Leningrad.
Konstantin Panteleyev-Kireyev, a descendant of Decembrists, was born in 1891. He studied at the Stroganov School and fought in the First World War. He founded an association of Vorkuta artists and was the first curator of the Irkutsk Art Museum. As a young man, he supported the Russian Revolution but in the 1920s and 1930s was arrested repeatedly because of his noble origin.
In 1936, Konstantin Panteleyev-Kireyev was arrested in Moscow and charged with “counter-revolutionary activity and supporting Leon Trotsky”. Initially, the artist served his sentence in the Ukhta-Pechora Camp, and two years later, he was transferred to the Vorkuta Labor Camp.
After his release in April 1941, Panteleyev-Kireyev worked as a freelance artist, scenic designer, and sculptor, designed honorary certificates and posters, tried to set up a puppet theater, and taught technical drawing at a tradesman school.
Together with other inmate artists, Konstantin Panteleyev-Kireyev worked on a book titled “Vorkuta History”. However, the materials were confiscated by the camp commander. In 1944, Konstantin Panteleyev-Kireyev brought together the artists who had served at the Vorkuta Labor Camp but was soon arrested in a fabricated case of the “Vorkuta Rebellion Center” and died after one of the interrogations. Four of the artist’s works are housed by the National Gallery of the Komi Republic.
