Draft:Ivan Riznich (Painter)

Ivan Riznich (St. Petersburg, Russian Empire, 20 January 1908 - St. Petersburg, Russia, 27 November 1998) was a Russian porcelain artist, sculptor, graphic artist, book illustrator and fellow of the Russian Academy of Arts. He was named the People's artist of the Russian Federation in 1994.

Biography
Ivan Riznich came from a long line of Serbian merchants who traded goods between the Russian Empire and Europe. His father Ivan Riznich (II) was one of the first Russian submarine commanders, and his grandfather was the famed Serbian merchant Jovan Stefanovich Riznich of Odessa and Kiev, and his great-grandfather Stevan Riznich was a shipping magnate and negociant in 18th century Trieste.

Biography
Ivan Riznich, the third, was one of the key artists associated with the State Porcelain Factory. From an early age, Riznich demonstrated great skill for drawing, painting, and sculpting. He later attended the Pavlovsk art school from which he graduated and subsequently entered the Lomonsov Leningrad Porcelain Factory. He also worked with painters Aleksey Vorobyevsky and Mikhail Mokh on several government projects.

Riznich worked at the Lomonsov Leningrad Porcelain Factory from 1926 to 1994, being one of the artists who later defined the face of art production. In 1927, he took part in the III International exhibition of the art industry of decorative arts in Monza-Milan, where he was award an honorary diploma, in the anniversary exhibition "Art of the peoples of the USSR" in Moscow, in 1928 — in the Art and industrial exhibition in Leipzig. In 1929, without leaving the factory, he started illustrating books. In 1937, he participated as a painter and sculptor in the creation of basreliefs on the facade of the Khimki station on the Moscow-Volga canal. In 1937, he participated in the International exhibition "Art and technology in modern life" in Paris, was awarded an honorary diploma, and in 1939 — in the International exhibition, better known as 1939 New York World's Fair: The World of Tomorrow. In 1951, he served as the chief artist of the Lomonsov Leningrad Factory. He worked for the factory as a painter and modeller until 1965 and for the next decade he stopped working. Then, from 1975 until 1998, he worked until the day he died.

Ivan Riznich's works are in the State Hermitage Museum, the Russian State Museum, the Russian Museum of Ceramics, and many other museums and private collections in Russia and abroad.