Vadim Meller was born in
Saint-Petersburg. He was the second son of a top official in the
Ministry of Justice in the
Russian Empire. His father George Meller was a noble-born
Swede, his mother Helena Caruso, half-
Italian-half-Greek, was also from a noble family.
From 1903 to 1908 he was the student of
Kiev University.
In 1905 Vadim Meller visited
Geneva, Switzerland where he was taking art lessons in private
school of
Franz Roubaud.
In 1908 with recommendation of Roubaud he continued his education in private art school of Drawing and Painting of Heinrich Knirr in
Munich, Germany. There Vadim Meller met his student
Paul Klee who introduced him to
Der Blaue Reiter group.
After graduating from the
Kiev University with a degree in law, he acquired artistic education in the
Munich Academy of Fine Arts (from 1908 to 1912).
Meller was in close contact with
Der Blaue Reiter group. In this time he met
Wassily Kandinsky with whom he became friends. He started to exhibit his works after he had moved to
Paris, where he joined the
Société des Artistes Indépendants. Vadim Meller was also a student of
Antoine Bourdelle.
In 1912-1914 together with
Kazimir Malevich, Sonia Delaunay, Alexander Archipenko, Aleksandra Ekster he participated in exhibitions:
Salon des Indépendants, Spring Salon, and Salon D' Automne along side
Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and
André Derain.
After returning to
Kiev in
1917, he worked at
easel and
monumental painting,
graphic design, and
costume design. His transition to
scenography as the main field of artistic activity took place in the first post-revolutionary years.
From 1918-1921 , he worked with
scenographer and dancer
Bronislava Nijinska (
Vaslav Nijinsky's sister) in her
ballet studio.
In 1922
Les Kurbas invited Vadim Meller to the recently founded Berezil theater.
In 1925 Vadim Meller together with Sonia Terk, Alexandra Exter,
Nathan Altman participated in
Exposition Internationale des Modernes (
Art Deco ) in Paris. There Vadim Meller was awarded a gold medal for his
scenic design of the Berezil theater.
In 1925 Vadim Meller participated in the
International Theater Exposition in
New York.
Vadim Meller became the leader of
Constructivism in Ukrainian
theater design. He worked in the National theater as a chief artist till 1945.
From 1925 he also taught at the Kiev Art Academy (KKHI) together with
Vladimir Tatlin and
Alexander Bogomazov. In the same year Vadim Meller became the member of the union of artists
Association of the Revolutionary Masters of Ukraine together with
David Burliuk ( co-founder), Alexander Bogomazov (co-founder),
Vasiliy Yermilov, Victor Palmov and
Khvostenko-Khvostov.
Meller worked as an acting director of the Monumental Painting and Sculpture Institute of the Academy of Architecture of the
Ukrainian SSR (1946–1948), a chief artist of the Kiev Music Comedy Theater (1948 - 1953) and a chief artist of the Iv. Franko Kiev Academic Theater (1953–1959).
He was married to
Nina Genke.
Vadim Meller died in Kiev.
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