Stenberg Irina

Stenberg Irina (1903–1984), Irina Stenberg was an artist; German by origin. Her father, Valerian Stenberg, was a civil enggineer. Therefore, he frequiently had to move from place to another. Thereby, it so happened that her parents left Petersburg and moved to Georgia. Irina Stenberg was born in Tbilisi. She received professional education at the Painting and Sculpture School of the ‘Caucasian Society for Promoting Fine Arts’. In 1923 – 27 she studied at the Tbilisi Academy of Art. The years spent at the Academy of Art prompted her to pursue the erotic-decadent aesthetics of Art Nouveau style. In 1929 I. Stenberg left for Moscow; the same year, her first personal exhibition was held there. Several years later, she returned to Georgia. By the end of 1920s, the state intensified idiological pressure on art. Since 1936 I. Stenberg found shelter for her creative activities at theater. Apart from her series of portraits, she did not return to easel painting. As a result, she was acknowledged as a theater designer; her easel paintings were unknown to the public. Art collectors took interest in her paintings at the end of the 20the century, when I. Stenberg’s works appeared at the Philips’ and Sotheby’s auctions.