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Chernikhov, Iakov (1889–1951) By Vronskaya, Alla G.
Article
Iakov Georgievich Chernikhov was born in Pavlograd, Yekaterinenskav Gubernia, in the Russian Empire (now Dnepropetrovskaya oblast, Ukraine) into an impoverished petit bourgeois Jewish family. Having shown a talent for art during childhood, as a teenager Chernikhov worked as an apprentice in a photographer’s workshop (having run away from home, where his desire to become an artist found little support) before beginning his studies at Odessa Art School (Odesskoe Khudozhestvennoe Uchilishche) in 1906–1914. After graduating from the School, Chernikhov entered the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, from which he received a diploma in architecture in 1925. Chernikhov’s training as both an artist and an architect determined his idiosyncratic approach to architectural form and his particular interest in the aspects of its representation.