Serge Poliakoff, Russian artist born in Moscow, was raised by a very religious family, so when he attended church the strong colors and religious icons called his attention and this would be something that would fascinated him throughout his life. With a very cultured education he had to abandon his country at a young age due to the Russian Revolution of 1917. Then Polliakoff began a journey throughout Europe as a Russian cabaret entertainer, job that continued for the next three decades complementing his painting career.

In 1923 he moved to Paris and years later began to study painting at the Académie de la Grand Chaumiére, the Académie Colarossi and the Académie Frochot, where he met and took classes with a former Fauvist, Othon Friesz, who may have influenced his interest in saturated colors.

He also traveled and studied for a brief period in London at the Slade School of Art, but then returned to Paris in 1937 and attended open salons at the studio of Robert and Sonia Delaunay and later met and became friends with Vasily Kandinsky. Being exposed in this environment confirmed his interest in color, also given by admiring artists such as Giotto or Paul Gauguin.

He is considered part of the new École de Paris, like Jean Dubuffet and Hans Hartung. In his canvases he avoids lines, empirical and too geometric forms and expresses more asymmetrical shapes, given especially in the Tachisme. He made his so-called plastic poems, works in which he emphasized superimposed colors, with nuances given by the texture and grouped in linear shapes on the canvas.

He received the Kandinsky Prize in 1947 and began working in smaller formats and lithography after suffering a heart attack in 1965.

Poliakoff died in 1969 in Paris but several retrospectives were held in various galleries and museums around the world to show the importance of his work and his great artistic career.

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SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

Poliakoff had many exhibitions thoughout his career, both solo and group. His first group exhibition was in 1931 at Galerie Drouant-David and his first solo exhibition in 1937 at Galerie Zak, both galleries located in Paris.

Poliakoff exhibited his first abstract work in 1938 at his first Salon des Indépendants, where he continued to participate until 1945, when a solo exhibition of his work was shown at Galerie L'Equisse. He also exhibited at the Galerie Denise René in the late 1940s . His first private exhibition abroad was directed by Gauguin’s grandson and was at the Galerie Tokanten in Copenhagen.

Poliakoff sold a painting to the Musée de Grenoble and this was his first work exhibited at a museum. In 1950 he exhibited his paintings at the Galerie Denise René and his gouaches at the Beaune Gallery. In 1951, Poliakoff exhibited some of his work at the Galerie Dina Vierny and participated at some group exhibitions in París, England and Japan.

In 1952 he had solo exhibitions at the Circle and Square Gallery in New York and at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. He had his major exhibition in Belgium at the APIAW in Liège, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and the Museum of Verviers and his first solo exhibition in the United States was at the Circle and Square Gallery in New York.

He worked on the set design for the ballet Contrè-point (1957) with director Marius Constant and choreographer Roland Petit. A room in the French pavilion of the Venice Biennale was dedicated to his work (1962) shortly after obtaining French nationality. The Whitechapel Art Gallery in London organized his first major retrospective (1963) and his work was included in the Tokyo Biennale. Other major retrospectives were presented at the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen in Switzerland (1966), the Tel Aviv Museum (1971-1972), the Musée Fabre in Montpellier (France) (1974) and the Lorenzelli Arte in Milan (1978).