Paul Mansouroff

Painter, graphic artist, applied artist, designer, teacher. Born in the family of Andrei Mansurov in St Petersburg (1896). Studied under Johann Wilhelm Mathé at the Baron Stieglitz Central School of Technical Drawing (1909–12) and at the School of Drawing of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (1912–15). Served in the Imperial Russian Air Force during the First World War (1915–17). Studied at the State Free Art Studios in Petrograd (1917). Took up abstract painting (1917–18). Decorated the Public Library and the Hotel Angleterre in Petrograd on the first anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution (1918). Designed the sets and costumes for a ballet by Arthur Lourié (1918). Invited by Vladimir Tatlin to Moscow (1918), where he worked in his studio and assisted Tatlin on his plans for the Monument to the Third International (1919). Worked in a Constructivist style in painting and book design (1920s). Organised the exhibition for the delegates to the III Comintern at the Hotel Continental in Moscow (1920). Headed a studio of painting at the Kazan School of Art (1920). Founding member of the Institute of Artistic Culture in Petrograd (1921). Member of IZO Sorabis (1922). Established the Museum of Artistic Culture with Pavel Filonov, Kazimir Malevich, Mikhail Matiushin and Nikolai Punin in Petrograd and headed the experimental department (1923). Taught at the Leningrad Technical College of Art and Industry (1924–25). Board member of the Russian Museum (1925). Subjected to political attacks following the closure of the Institute of Artistic Culture (1926). Emigrated to Italy (1928). Lived in Rome (1928–29) and settled in Paris (1929). Returned to objective painting and worked for fashion houses in France (from 1931), designing designed textiles (1930s) and men’s clothing (1940s). Worked as a painting restorer (1945). Returned to non-objective painting and Constructive styles of the 1920s (1957). Died in Nice (1983). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1919). Contributed to the exhibitions of the First State Free Exhibition of Works of Art in the Winter Palace (1919), Exhibition of Pictures by Petrograd Artists of All Trends (1923), Works of the Museum of Artistic Culture-Institute of Artistic Culture (1922–26), First All-City Exhibition of Visual Arts at the Academy of Arts in Leningrad (1927), Jubilee Fine Arts (1927), Super-Independent (1934), Salon des Tuileries (1939), Salon 1940 (1940), group exhibitions by Russian artists in Paris (1930, 1931, 1935–37, 1945), Our Union magazine (Paris, 1936), In Honour of Victory (Paris, 1946), 50 Years of Abstract Art (Paris, 1957), The Russian View (Heidelberg, 1974), More Russians (Paris, 1975), Die erste russische Kunstausstellung in the Galerie Van Diemen at 21 Unter den Linden in Berlin (1922), international exhibitions in Venice (1924, 1929), Milan (1936), Paris (1937) and Menton (biannual, 1968 – Award of the President of the Republic) and one man shows in Rome (1929), Paris (1933, 1968, 1971, 1972–73, 1973–74), Frankfurt-on-Main (1961), Cannes (1962, 1965), Berlin (1963), Milan (1963, 1967, 1975, 1979), Nice (1974) and Genoa (1974).