Biography
Iosif Shpinel (also credited as Yosyp Shpinel, I.A. Shpinel and Isaak Shpinel) was a Soviet production designer and art director. He was born on 7 October 1892 in Bila Tserkva, then in the Russian Empire, and died on 2 July 1980 in Moscow.
He graduated from the architectural department of the Kiev Art School in 1914 and studied print-making at Vkhutemas. Shpinel began working in the theatre in 1921 and entered cinema in 1927. He created designs for films including Arsenal (1929), Alexander Nevsky (1938) and both parts of Ivan the Terrible (1944 and 1958).
Shpinel taught from 1928 and joined the faculty of the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography, becoming a professor in 1965. He was named an Honoured Art Worker of the RSFSR in 1940 and received the USSR State Prize in 1951.
