Robert Rafailovich Falk (russian: Роберт Рафаилович Фальк, October 15, 1886 - October 1, 1958) was a painter.

Biography

Falk was born in Moscow in 1886. In 1903 to 1904 he studied art in the studios of

Konstantin Yuon Konstantin Fyodorovich Yuon or Juon (russian: Константи́н Фёдорович Юо́н; – April 11, 1958) was a noted Russian painter and theatre designer associated with the Mir Iskusstva. Later, he co-founded the Union of Russian Ar ...

and

Ilya Mashkov Ilya Ivanovich Mashkov (russian: Илья Иванович Машков; – 20 March 1944) was a Russian artist, one of the most significant and at the same time most characteristic painters of the circle of " Jack of Diamonds" (russian: Бу� ...

, in 1905 to 1909 he studied at the

Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture The Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (russian: Московское училище живописи, ваяния и зодчества, МУЖВЗ) also known by the acronym MUZHZV, was one of the largest educational insti ...

with

Konstantin Korovin Konstantin Alekseyevich Korovin (russian: Константи́н Алексе́евич Коро́вин, first name often spelled Constantin; 11 September 1939) was a leading Russian Impressionist painter. Biography Youth and education Konstan ...

and

Valentin Serov Valentin Alexandrovich Serov (russian: Валенти́н Алекса́ндрович Серо́в; 19 January 1865 – 5 December 1911) was a Russian painter and one of the premier portrait artists of his era. Life and work Youth and educ ...

. In 1910, Falk was of the founders and the most active participants of artistic group Jack of Diamonds. The group considered

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a ...

the only painter worth following, and the rest of visual art to be too trivial and bourgeois. The distinctive feature of Falk's paintings of the time was ''sculpturing'' of the form using many layers of different paints. In 1918-1928, Falk taught at VKhUTEMAS (State Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops). In 1928 Falk went on a supposedly short trip to France and refused to return; he worked in Paris until 1938, when he returned to Moscow. After 1938, until his death in 1958 he worked in Moscow, most of the time in isolation. His works of that time were in

neo-impressionist Neo-Impressionism is a term coined by French art critic Félix Fénéon in 1886 to describe an art movement founded by Georges Seurat. Seurat's most renowned masterpiece, '' A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte'', marked the beginn ...

style with characteristic ''white-on-white'' colors (not unlike the later paintings of his teacher

). During the

Khrushchev Thaw The Khrushchev Thaw ( rus, хрущёвская о́ттепель, r=khrushchovskaya ottepel, p=xrʊˈɕːɵfskəjə ˈotʲ:ɪpʲɪlʲ or simply ''ottepel'')William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, London: Free Press, 2004 is the period ...

Falk became popular among young painters and many considered him to be the main bridge between the traditions of the Russian and French Moderne of the beginning of 20th century and Russian avant-garde and the Russian avant-garde of the 1960s. There are numerous paintings by Falk in the New Tretyakov Art Museum in Moscow.

External links

BiographyRobert Falk Gallery at MuseumSyndicate
{{DEFAULTSORT:Falk, Robert 1886 births 1958 deaths Painters from the Russian Empire Soviet avant-garde Soviet Futurist painters Russian Jews Jewish painters Post-impressionist painters Academic staff of Vkhutemas Soviet expatriates in France Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture alumni