Nina Genke-Meller

Nina Genke or Nina Genke-Meller, or Nina Henke-Meller, (Russian: Нина Генке-Меллер, Нина Генке, 1893–1954) was a Ukrainian-Russian avant-garde artist, (Suprematist, Futurist), designer, graphic artist and scenographer.

Nina Genke was born in Moscow in 1893 to a Dutch father, Genrikh Genke, and a Russian mother, Nadezhda Tikhanova. She married the artist Vadym Meller (1884-1962). Nina Genke-Meller died in Kiev in 1954.

In 1912 she graduated from Levandovskaya Private Gymnasium in Kyiv. She received a title to teach Russian language and history. The following year she began teaching history, geography and drawing at the Higher Primary College for Women in Skoptsi. In Skoptsi, she met the artist Yevgenia Pribylska who headed the Art Studio in a Folk Center and became more inspired to become an artist herself. In 1914 Genke began attending Aleksandra Ekster’s studio in Kyiv for her art education, becoming an assistant in Ekster's studio from 1915 to 1917. At the same time, she worked as an artist in Skoptsi (Skoptsy) Village Folk Centre, supervised by Yevgeniya Pribilskaya and in the Verbovka Village Folk Centre, founded by N. Davidova.

Nina Genke was closely connected with the Supremus group that was led by Kazimir Malevich, the founder of Suprematism. From 1915 Genke worked as a head and a chief artist of the Verbovka Village Folk Centre (province in Kiev). She attracted famous avant-garde artists such as Kazimir Malevich, Nadezhda Udaltsova, Aleksandra Ekster, Ivan Kliun, Ivan Puni, Lyubov Popova, Olga Rozanova, Ksenia Boguslavskaya and others to the creative peasant artisans co-operative.

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