Viktor SimovViktor Andreyevich Simov (Russian: Виктор Андреевич Симов, 14 April 1858, Moscow - 21 August 1935, Moscow) was a Russian painter and scenographer. BiographyHe graduated from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1882. From 1885 to 1886, he worked as a decorator for Savva Mamontov, at his Private Opera. He also created some paintings and lithographs. In 1896, he held a joint exhibition, with Isaac Levitan and Alexander Popov , in Odessa. In 1898, he decided to devote his career to working with the newly founded Moscow Art Theatre, where he would create designs for fifty-one performances and earn the admiration of the iconic actor, Konstantin Stanislavski.[1] Simov not only created a new aesthetic for set design, he was also involved with ideological interpretations of the material, and the directing process. Together with Stanislavski, he began the practice of doing field research.[2] He expanded his activities in 1909, by designing a dacha in collaboration with the architect, Leonid Vesnin.[3] In 1912, for unknown reasons, he left the Art Theatre; working instead at the Moscow Free Theatre , the Maly Theatre, and the Opera Theatre at Stanislavski's acting studios.[1] In 1924, he designed sets depicting Mars, for the groundbreaking science-fiction film, Aelita, by Yakov Protazanov. The following year, he also served as an artist, under the direction of Ivan Stepanov, for The Stationmaster, a dramatic film based on a story by Alexander Pushkin.[1] Later that same year, he returned to the Art Theatre, where he would stay until his death in 1935, aged seventy-seven. References
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