Anatoly Krynsky’s "Family" (1979) is a poignant exploration of identity, displacement, and the enduring strength of familial bonds, set against the backdrop of his personal emigration from the Soviet Union to the West in 1976. The work reflects the broader experience of émigrés, grappling with the challenges of maintaining their identity in a foreign land. Through a distinctive blend of Cubist and Constructivist influences, Krynsky portrays the fragmentation and reassembly of identity in a new cultural context.
The painting depicts a tightly-knit family, rendered in a stylized manner reminiscent of Cubism and Constructivism. The parents, whose bodies form a protective embrace around their child, are presented as a unified structure. Krynsky’s use of traditional Christian iconography introduces religious undertones, a reflection of the newfound artistic freedom he experienced after leaving behind the Soviet state’s restrictions on subject matter and style.
Krynsky’s formal training at the Kharkov Institute of Fine Arts is evident in his command of form and structure. The family is arranged like interlocking puzzle pieces—fragmented yet reassembled—while remaining distinct from the background. This suspended, liminal space mirrors Krynsky’s own journey from the USSR to the West, neither fully grounded nor completely adrift, symbolizing the sense of displacement and the search for belonging in a new world.
Born in 1937 in Kharkov, Ukrainian SSR, Krynsky trained at the Kharkov Institute of Fine Arts, where his studies in drawing, colour, and theory laid the foundation for his work. Influenced by Constructivism through Wassily Yermilov and modern sculpture pioneer Alexander Archipenko, Krynsky developed a versatile style blending Soviet and Western influences. His career began in Moscow as an illustrator before he emigrated to New York in 1976, where his artistic scope expanded. Krynsky has exhibited internationally, with solo and group shows in North America, Europe, and beyond, often exploring themes of identity and displacement.
