Felix Lembersky

Felix Lembersky 1913–1970. Building Block after Gun Fire. Leningrad, 1959. Oil on board, 28 3/4 x 20 7/8 inches Felix Lembersky. Execution: Babi Yar, ca. 1944–1952. Oil on canvas

Felix Samoilovich Lembersky (Russian: Феликс Самойлович Лемберский) (11 November 1913 – 2 December 1970) was a Russian/Soviet painter, artist, teacher, theatre stage designer and organizer of artistic groups. He is known for his 'Execution: Babi Yar' series (1944–52), which are considered to be among the earliest artistic representations of the Nazi massacres of Jews in Kyiv.

Biography Lembersky was born in 1913 into the family of Samuil Lembersky of Lublin and relocated with his family to Berdyczów (now Berdychiv, Ukraine) following the Russian loss of Lublin to the Austro-Hungarian army in 1915. In 1928, Lembersky moved to Kiev to attend the Jewish Arts' and Trades' School (known as the "Kultur-Lige Art School," studio of Mark Epshtein). He worked as a set designer for the Jewish Theater in Kiev and Berdichev from 1930 to 1933 and attended the Kiev Art Institute from 1933 to 1935 to study painting with professor Pavel Volokidin. He then moved to Leningrad to study at the Russian Academy of Arts in 1935.