Painter, graphic artist, engraver and educator, representative of neo-classicism and modern styles.
Shillingovsky was born into the family of a scene and set designer. He got art education at the Odessa Art School (1895-1900), where his teachers were K. Kiriak Kostandi, Gennady Ladyzhensky and Andrei Popov. In 1901, he was admitted to the Higher Art School with the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg where he studied at Dmitry Kardovsky’s studio (1901-1911) and learned the engraving technique under Vasily Mathe (1912-1914).
He worked in etching, xylography, linoleum engraving, and lithography, but it was engraving that became the focus of his artistic interest. He created many landscape series – Bessarabia (etching, 1913), St. Petersburg. Ruins and Revival (woodcut, 1922-1923), “Besieged City” (woodcut, 1941—1942), as well as woodcut portraits of T.T. Zalkaln (1918), Vladimir Lenin (1924), and Karl Marx (1933). He carefully studied the ‘old masters’ who inspired him to emulate their style in his compositions. An outstanding book artist, he collaborated with numerous publishing houses, such as Academia (1929-1936). His design of Homer’s Odyssey in the spirit of Ancient Greek black-figure ceramics (woodcut, 1935) is an unsurpassed book design masterpiece among his works. Shillingovsky did a lot of teaching, worked at the Printing Department with the Academy of Fine Arts (1922-1929), was director of the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Architecture and Sculpture (1935-1937). He nurtured a galaxy of outstanding graphic artists.
