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Serge Poliakoff (January 8, 1900 – October 12, 1969) was a Russian-born French
modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...
belonging to the 'New' Ecole de Paris (
Tachisme __NOTOC__ Tachisme (alternative spelling: Tachism, derived from the French word ''tache'', stain) is a French style of abstract painting popular in the 1940s and 1950s. The term is said to have been first used with regards to the movement in 19 ...
).


Biography

Serge Poliakoff was born in Moscow in 1900, the thirteenth of fourteen children. His father, a
Kyrgyz Kyrgyz, Kirghiz or Kyrgyzstani may refer to: * Someone or something related to Kyrgyzstan *Kyrgyz people *Kyrgyz national games *Kyrgyz language *Kyrgyz culture *Kyrgyz cuisine *Yenisei Kirghiz *The Fuyü Gïrgïs language in Northeastern China ...
, supplied the army with horses that he bred himself and also owned a racing stable. His mother was heavily involved with the church, and its religious icons fascinated him. He enrolled 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 ...
, but fled Russia in 1918. He arrived in
Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
in 1920, living off the profits from his talent as a guitarist. He went on to pass through
Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...
,
Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mi ...
,
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
, and Berlin before settling in Paris in 1923, all the while continuing to play in Russian cabarets. In 1929 he enrolled at the
Académie de la Grande Chaumière The Académie de la Grande Chaumière is an art school in the Montparnasse district of Paris, France. History The school was founded in 1904 by the Catalan painter Claudio Castelucho on the rue de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, near the Acad� ...
. His paintings remained purely academic until he discovered, during his stay in London from 1935 to 1937, the abstract art and luminous colours of the Egyptian sarcophagi. It was a little afterwards that he met
Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj;  – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...
,
Sonia Sonia, Sonja or Sonya, a name of Greek origin meaning wisdom, may refer to: People * Sonia (name), a feminine given name (lists people named, Sonia, Sonja and Sonya) :* Sonia (actress), Indian film actress in Malayalam and Tamil films :* Sonia ...
and
Robert Delaunay Robert Delaunay (12 April 1885 – 25 October 1941) was a French artist who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, co-founded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. His later works were more abstra ...
, and
Otto Freundlich Otto Freundlich (10 July 1878 – 9 March 1943) was a German painter and sculptor of Jewish origin. A part of the first generation of abstract painters in Western art, Freundlich was a great admirer of cubism. Life Freundlich was born in ...
. Poliakoff held his first one-man Paris exhibition in 1945. With these influences, Poliakoff quickly came to be considered one of the most powerful painters of his generation. In 1947, he was trained by Jean Deyrolle in
Gordes Gordes (; oc, Gòrda) is a commune in the Vaucluse département in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. The residents are known as ''Gordiens.'' The nearest big city is Avignon; smaller cities nearby include Cavaill ...
in the
Vaucluse Vaucluse (; oc, Vauclusa, label= Provençal or ) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019.Gérard Schneider Gérard ( French: ) is a French masculine given name and surname of Germanic origin, variations of which exist in many Germanic and Romance languages. Like many other early Germanic names, it is dithematic, consisting of two meaningful constitu ...
, Émile Gilioli,
Victor Vasarely Victor Vasarely (; born Győző Vásárhelyi, ; 9 April 1906 – 15 March 1997) was a Hungarian-French artist, who is widely accepted as a "grandfather" and leader of the Op art movement. His work entitled ''Zebra'', created in 1937, is consid ...
, and
Jean Dewasne Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * Jea ...
. By the beginning of the 1950s, he was still staying at the Old Dovecote hotel near
Saint-Germain-des-Prés Saint-Germain-des-Prés () is one of the four administrative quarters of the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France, located around the church of the former Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Its official borders are the River Seine on the no ...
, which was also home to
Louis Nallard Louis may refer to: * Louis (coin) * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also Derived or associated terms * Lewis (d ...
and
Maria Manton Maria Manton (1910–2003) was a French painter. Biography Maria Manton was born on 4 December 1910 in Blida, Algeria. During the German occupation of Alsace in 1870, her maternal grandparents came to settle in the outskirts of the city. A nati ...
, and continuing to earn a reliable income by playing the
balalaika The balalaika (russian: link=no, балала́йка, ) is a Russian stringed musical instrument with a characteristic triangular wooden, hollow body, fretted neck and three strings. Two strings are usually tuned to the same note and the thir ...
. A contract enabled him to quickly gain better financial stability. In 1962 a room was given over to his paintings by the
Venice Biennial The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest o ...
, and Poliakoff became a French citizen in the same year. His works are now displayed in a large number of museums in Europe and New York. Poliakoff also worked with ceramics at the
Manufacture nationale de Sèvres The ''Manufacture nationale de Sèvres'' is one of the principal European porcelain factories. It is located in Sèvres, Hauts-de-Seine, France. It is the continuation of Vincennes porcelain, founded in 1740, which moved to Sèvres in 1756. It ...
. He influenced the paintings of
Arman Arman (November 17, 1928 – October 22, 2005) was a French-born American artist. Born Armand Fernandez in Nice, France, Arman was a painter who moved from using objects for the ink or paint traces they leave (''cachets'', ''allures d'objet'') to ...
. In 2006, works by Poliakoff were chosen by the
Musée du Luxembourg The Musée du Luxembourg () is a museum at 19 rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. Established in 1750, it was initially an art museum located in the east wing of the Luxembourg Palace (the matching west wing housed the Marie de' ...
for their exhibition entitled 'L'Envolée lyrique(lit:'lyric Flight'), Paris 1945-1956', namely 'Composition en brun', 1947, Ny Carlsberg Glypothek, Copenhagen; 'Composition rouge avec trait', 1952, Cologne Museum; 'Composition IV', 1954) atalogue : In 2013, The Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris devoted a large-scale retrospective to the abstract painter which included 150 works from the period 1946–1969. Since 1970 there has been no significant exhibition of the work of Serge Poliakoff in what became his home city.


Exhibitions

*Serge Poliakoff, Galleria Lorenzelli, Bergamo (1970) *Serge Poliakoff, Lorenzelli Arte, Milan (1983) *Serge Poliakoff, Le rêve des formes, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2013) *Serge Poliakoff, Galerie Applicat-Prazan, Paris (2013)


Works


Available Paintings, Works on Paper and Biography
Galerie Ludorff,
Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...
, Germany


See also

* Ecole de Paris


References


Sources

''This article draws heavily on the :fr:Serge Poliakoff article in the French-language Wikipedia, which was accessed in the version of November 20, 2006. *
Jean Cassou Jean Cassou (9 July 1897 – 15 January 1986) was a French writer, art critic, poet, member of the French Resistance during World War II and the first Director of the Musée national d'Art moderne in Paris. Biography Jean Cassou was born at Bi ...
, ''Poliakoff'', Bodensee-Verlag,
Amriswil Amriswil ( Low Alemannic: ''Amerschwiil'') is a town and a municipality in Arbon District in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland near the Lake Constance. The official language of Amriswil is (the Swiss variety of Standard) German, but the main ...
(Switzerland), 1963. * Lydia Harambourg, ''Serge Poliakoff'', dans ''L'École de Paris 1945–1965, Dictionnaire des peintres'',
Neuchâtel , neighboring_municipalities= Auvernier, Boudry, Chabrey (VD), Colombier, Cressier, Cudrefin (VD), Delley-Portalban (FR), Enges, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Hauterive, Saint-Blaise, Savagnier , twintowns = Aarau (Switzerland), Besançon (Fra ...
, Ides et Calendes, 1993 (). * Alexis Poliakoff et
Gérard Schneider Gérard ( French: ) is a French masculine given name and surname of Germanic origin, variations of which exist in many Germanic and Romance languages. Like many other early Germanic names, it is dithematic, consisting of two meaningful constitu ...
, ''Poliakoff'', Editions Galerie Française, München, 280 p. () * Françoise Brütsch, ''Serge Poliakoff'', Editions Ides et Calendes, Neuchâtel, 1993, 200 p. ()


External links


Artfacts.net
containing a portrait of Poliakoff, and nine reproductions of his gouache and lithograph work.

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20131004064702/http://www.mam.paris.fr/en/node/785- Serge Poliakoff, The Dream of Forms - Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris {{DEFAULTSORT:Poliakoff, Serge Art Informel and Tachisme painters 20th-century Russian painters Russian male painters 20th-century French painters 20th-century Russian male artists French male painters Abstract painters Burials at Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery School of Paris Abstract expressionist artists 1900 births 1969 deaths Artists from Moscow Alumni of the Académie de la Grande Chaumière French people of Kyrgyzstani descent Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France French abstract artists Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture alumni