Kostandi Society of Artists

Kostandi Society of Artists (Tovarystvo khudozhnykiv im. K. Kostandi). A society of realist painters and art lovers that was active in Odesa from 1922 to 1929. Some of its chief members formerly belonged to the Society of South Russian Artists. The society adhered to the artistic principles of the Peredvizhniki, a group of realist painters with populist sympathies (est 1870). Its better-known members were artists such as Danylo Krainiev, Volodymyr Zauze, Yevhen Bukovetsky, P. Vasilev, Pavel Volokidin, and Oleksii Shovkunenko. Other members, such as the writer A. Kipen (the society's president) and the professors of medicine Vladimir Filatov and V. Snezhkov, were devoted supporters of the arts. Owing to its realist style and ideological orientation, the Kostandi Society served as a precursor of socialist realism in art.