Alexis Gritchenko

Painter, graphic artist, teacher, writer on art. Born in the family of Vasily Grischenko in Krolevets in the Ukraine (1883). Studied philology at St Petersburg, Kiev and Moscow Universities (1905–12) and painting at Sergei Svetoslavsky’s studio in Kiev (1905–07), Konstantin Juon and Ivan Dudin’s school of art (1908–10) and Ilya Mashkov’s studio in Moscow (1909–11). Studied modern art in Paris (1911) and ancient art in Italy (1912 or 1914). Travelled across Russia, studying Old Russian painting (1912–14). Passed through periods of interest in Impressionism (1909–12) and Cubism (1915–18). Published articles on art (1910s). Helped Alexander Shevchenko to organise the Colour Dynamos and Tectonic Primitivism exhibition (1919). Member of the “left-wing” federation of the Trade Union of Artists (1918) and the Board for Museums and the Protection of Monuments. Taught at the State Free Art Studios in Moscow (1919). Lived in Turkey and Greece (1920–22) and settled in Paris (1922). Painted landscapes (late 1920s) and published several books of memoirs. Died in the town of Vence in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of south-east France (1977). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1910). Contributed to the exhibitions of the New Society of Artists (1910), Moscow Salon (1911), Knave of Diamonds (1912, 1913), Union of Youth (1913–14), 1915 (1915), Leftist Tendencies in Art (1915), Contemporary Russian Painting (1916–17), World of Art (1917), Free Creativity (1918), Contemporary Painting and Drawing (1918), Colour-Dynamos and Tectonic Primitivism (1919), Contemporary French Art in Moscow (1928), Contemporary Ukrainian Graphic Art in Lviv (1932), Salon d’Automne (1930s), Die erste russische Kunstausstellung in the Galerie Van Diemen at 21 Unter den Linden in Berlin (1922), exhibitions of Russian art in Brussels (1928) and Paris (1932) and one-man shows in Athens (1921, 1923), Paris (1922–24, 1925, 1926, 1928–30, 1933, 1936, 1945, 1947, 1950, 1957, 1962), Madrid (1934), Barcelona (1935), Stockholm (1937), Gothenburg (1937), Lviv (1937), Limoges (1943, 1944), Strasbourg (1952, 1953, 1955), Cannes (1960), New York (1958, 1966) and Toronto (1960–77).