Aleksandra Ekster
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
(Cubo-Futurist
Cubo-Futurism
Cubo-Futurism was the main school of painting and sculpture practiced by the Russian Futurists.When Aristarkh Lentulov returned from Paris in 1913 and exhibited his works in Moscow, the Russian Futurist painters adopted the forms of Cubism and combined them with the Italian Futurists'...
, Suprematist, Constructivist
Constructivism (art)
Constructivism was an artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in 1919, which was a rejection of the idea of autonomous art. The movement was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes. Constructivism had a great effect on modern art movements of the 20th...
) and designer
Designer
A designer is a person who designs. More formally, a designer is an agent that "specifies the structural properties of a design object". In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, such as consumer products, processes, laws, games and graphics, is referred to as a...
.
Biography
Childhood
She was born Aleksandra Aleksandrovna Grigorovich in Białystok, Imperial Russia (now PolandPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
) to a wealthy Belarusian
Belarusians
Belarusians ; are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Old Belarusian...
family. Her father, Aleksandr Grigorovich, was a wealthy businessman. Young Aleksandra received an excellent private education, she studied languages, music, art, and took private drawing lessons.
Marriage
In 1903, Aleksandra Grigorovich married a successful KievKiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
lawyer, Nikolai Evgenyevich Ekster. The Eksters belonged to cultural and intellectual elite of Kiev. At that time she studied painting at Kiev art school. In 1907, she spent several months with her husband in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, and there she attended Académie de la Grande Chaumière
Académie de la Grande Chaumière
The Académie de la Grande Chaumière is an art school in the VIe arrondissement of Paris, France. The school was founded in 1902 by the Swiss Martha Stettler , who refused to teach the strict academic rules of painting of the École des Beaux-Arts. It opened the way to the "Art Indépendant"...
in Montparnasse
Montparnasse
Montparnasse is an area of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail...
. From 1908 to 1924 she intermittently lived in Kiev, St. Petersburg, Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
, Paris, Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
.
Kiev
Her painting studio in the attic at 27 Funduklievskaya Street was a rallying stage for Kiev's intellectual elite. There she was visited by poets and writers, such as Anna AkhmatovaAnna Akhmatova
Anna Andreyevna Gorenko , better known by the pen name Anna Akhmatova , was a Russian and Soviet modernist poet, one of the most acclaimed writers in the Russian canon.Harrington p11...
, Ilia Ehrenburg, and Osip Mandelstam
Osip Mandelstam
Osip Emilyevich Mandelstam was a Russian poet and essayist who lived in Russia during and after its revolution and the rise of the Soviet Union. He was one of the foremost members of the Acmeist school of poets...
, dancers Bronislava Nijinska
Bronislava Nijinska
Bronislava Nijinska - February 22, 1972)) was a Russian dancer, choreographer, and teacher of Polish descent.Nijinska was born in Minsk, the third child of the Polish dancers Tomasz and Eleonora Nijinska . Her brother was Vaslav Nijinsky...
and Elsa Kruger, as well as many artists Alexander Bogomazov
Alexander Bogomazov
Alexander or Oleksandr Bogomazov was Ukrainian painter, known artist and modern art theoretician of Russian Avant-garde . In 1914 Alexander wrote his treatise The Art of Painting and the Elements...
, Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine
Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine
Vladimir Davidovich Baranoff-Rossine was a Russian-French painter, avant-garde artist , and inventor.-Biography:Vladimir Baranov-Rossine was born in Kherson, Russian Empire, to parents of Jewish ethnicity....
, and students, such as Grigori Kozintsev
Grigori Kozintsev
Grigori Mikhaylovich Kozintsev was a Jewish Ukrainian, Soviet Russian theatre and film director. He was named People's Artist of the USSR in 1964.He studied in the Imperial Academy of Arts...
, Sergei Yutkevich
Sergei Yutkevich
Sergei Iosifovich Yutkevich was an award-winning Soviet film director and screenwriter.-Life and career:He began work as a teen doing puppet shows. Later he helped found the Factory of the Eccentric Actor , which was primarily concerned with circus and music hall acts. He entered films in the...
, and Aleksei Kapler
Aleksei Kapler
Aleksei Yakovlevich Kapler ;Kiev, was a Soviet filmmaker, screenwriter, actor, and writer. He was known as an anchor and director of the TV program Kinopanorama...
among many others. In 1908 she participated in an exhibition together with members of the group Zveno (Link)
Zveno (art)
Zveno was a group of Russian avant-garde artists formed in the first decade of the 20th century by brothers David Burliuk and Wladimir Burliuk.Group members included:*David Burliuk*Wladimir Burliuk*Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine...
organized by David Burliuk
David Burliuk
David Davidovich Burliuk was a Russian avant-garde artist of Ukrainian origin , book illustrator, publicist, and author associated with Russian Futurism...
, Wladimir Burliuk
Wladimir Burliuk
Wladimir Burliuk was an avant-garde artist , book illustrator.-Biography:Burliuk was born on March 27, 1886 in Kharkiv, the brother of David Burliuk.In 1903 he studied at Azbe School in Munich....
and others in Kiev.
Paris
In Paris, Aleksandra Ekster was a personal friend of Pablo PicassoPablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
and Georges Braque
Georges Braque
Georges Braque[p] was a major 20th century French painter and sculptor who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art style known as Cubism.-Early Life:...
, who introduced her to Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
.
In 1914, Ekster participated in the Salon des Indépendants exhibitions in Paris, together with Kazimir Malevich
Kazimir Malevich
Kazimir Severinovich Malevich was a Russian painter and art theoretician, born of ethnic Polish parents. He was a pioneer of geometric abstract art and the originator of the Avant-garde Suprematist movement.-Early life:...
, Alexander Archipenko
Alexander Archipenko
Alexander Porfyrovych Archipenko was a Ukrainian avant-garde artist, sculptor, and graphic artist.-Biography:...
, Vadym Meller
Vadym Meller
Vadym Meller or Vadim Meller, was a Ukrainian-Russian Soviet painter, avant-garde Cubist and Constructivist artist, theatrical designer, book illustrator, and architect...
, Sonia Delaunay-Terk and other French and Russian artists. In that same year she participated with the “Russians” Archipenko, Koulbine and Rozanova
Olga Rozanova
Olga Vladimirovna Rozanova Olga Vladimirovna Rozanova Olga Vladimirovna Rozanova (also spelled Rosanova, Russian: (Ольга Владимировна Розанова) (1886-7 November 1918, Moscow) was a Russian avant-garde artist in the styles of Suprematist, Neo-Primitivist, and Cubo-Futurist.-Biography:...
in the International Futurist Exhibition in Rome. In 1915 she joined the group of avant-garde artists Supremus
Supremus
Supremus was a group of Russian avant-garde artists led by the "father" of Suprematism, Kazimir Malevich. It included Aleksandra Ekster, Liubov Popova, Olga Rozanova, Ivan Kliun, Ivan Puni, Nadezhda Udaltsova, Nina Genke-Meller, Ksenia Boguslavskaya and others.-See also:*Suprematism*Kazimir...
.
Russian avant-garde
Ekster absorbed from many sources and cultures in order to develop her own original style. In 1915–1916 she worked in the peasant craft cooperatives in the villages Skoptsi and Verbovka along with Kazimir MalevichKazimir Malevich
Kazimir Severinovich Malevich was a Russian painter and art theoretician, born of ethnic Polish parents. He was a pioneer of geometric abstract art and the originator of the Avant-garde Suprematist movement.-Early life:...
, Yevgenia Pribylskaya, Natalia Davidova, Nina Genke
Nina Genke-Meller
Nina Genke or Nina Genke-Meller, or Nina Henke-Meller, was a Ukrainian-Russian avant-garde artist, , designer, graphic artist and scenographer. -Biography:...
, Liubov Popova, Ivan Puni
Ivan Puni
Ivan Puni or Puny was a Russian avant-garde artist .-Biography:Ivan Puni was born in Kuokkala to a family of Italian origins...
, Olga Rozanova
Olga Rozanova
Olga Vladimirovna Rozanova Olga Vladimirovna Rozanova Olga Vladimirovna Rozanova (also spelled Rosanova, Russian: (Ольга Владимировна Розанова) (1886-7 November 1918, Moscow) was a Russian avant-garde artist in the styles of Suprematist, Neo-Primitivist, and Cubo-Futurist.-Biography:...
, Nadezhda Udaltsova
Nadezhda Udaltsova
Nadezhda Andreeva Udaltsova was a Russian avant-garde artist and painter.-Biography:Nadezhda Udaltsova was born in town Orel in Russia. Udaltsova studied at private art studios in Moscow, then in Paris under André Segonzac....
and others. Ekster later founded a teaching and production workshop (MDI) in Kiev (1918–1920). Vadym Meller
Vadym Meller
Vadym Meller or Vadim Meller, was a Ukrainian-Russian Soviet painter, avant-garde Cubist and Constructivist artist, theatrical designer, book illustrator, and architect...
, Anatol Petrytsky
Anatol Petrytsky
Anatol Petrytsky was a Ukrainian painter, graphic designer, and stage designer.-External links:*...
, Kliment Red'ko
Kliment Red'ko
Kliment Red'ko or Redko , 15 October 1897 - 18 February 1956) was a Ukrainian-Russian painter-scientist, avant-garde artist , graphic artist.-Biography:Kliment Red'ko was born in Cholm, Russian Empire....
, Tchelitchew
Pavel Tchelitchew
Pavel Tchelitchew was a Russian-born surrealist painter, set designer and costume designer. He left Russia in 1920, lived in Berlin from 1921 to 1923, and moved to Paris in 1923. In Paris Tchelitchew became acquainted with Gertrude Stein and, through her, the Sitwell and Gorer families...
, Shifrin, Nikritin
Solomon Nikritin
Solomon Nikritin was a Ukrainian painter, avant-garde artist , graphic artist, designer, and author.- Biography :Solomon Nikritin was born in Chernihiv, Ukraine.In 1909–1914 he attended Kiev Art School ....
worked there. Also during this period she was one of the leading names of Alexander Tairov
Alexander Tairov
Alexander Tairov was one of the leading innovators of theatrical art, and one of the most enduring theatre directors in Russia, and through the Soviet era.-Childhood:...
's Chamber Theatre
Kamerny Theatre
The Kamerny Theatre was a chamber theatre in Moscow, founded in 1914 by director Alexander Tairov . Over the next 35 years, this small, intimate theater became "recognized as a major force in Russian theater"...
.
In 1919 together with other avant-garde
Russian avant-garde
The Russian avant-garde is an umbrella term used to define the large, influential wave of modern art that flourished in Russia approximately 1890 to 1930 - although some place its beginning as early as 1850 and its end as late as 1960...
artists Kliment Red'ko
Kliment Red'ko
Kliment Red'ko or Redko , 15 October 1897 - 18 February 1956) was a Ukrainian-Russian painter-scientist, avant-garde artist , graphic artist.-Biography:Kliment Red'ko was born in Cholm, Russian Empire....
and Nina Genke-Meller
Nina Genke-Meller
Nina Genke or Nina Genke-Meller, or Nina Henke-Meller, was a Ukrainian-Russian avant-garde artist, , designer, graphic artist and scenographer. -Biography:...
she decorated the streets and squares of Kiev and Odessa in abstract
Abstract art
Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an...
style for Revolution Festivities. She worked with Vadym Meller
Vadym Meller
Vadym Meller or Vadim Meller, was a Ukrainian-Russian Soviet painter, avant-garde Cubist and Constructivist artist, theatrical designer, book illustrator, and architect...
as a costume designer
Costume Designer
A costume designer or costume mistress/master is a person whose responsibility is to design costumes for a film or stage production. He or she is considered an important part of the "production team", working alongside the director, scenic and lighting designers as well as the sound designer. The...
in a Ballet Studio of the dancer Bronislava Nijinska
Bronislava Nijinska
Bronislava Nijinska - February 22, 1972)) was a Russian dancer, choreographer, and teacher of Polish descent.Nijinska was born in Minsk, the third child of the Polish dancers Tomasz and Eleonora Nijinska . Her brother was Vaslav Nijinsky...
(Vaslav Nijinsky
Vaslav Nijinsky
Vaslav Nijinsky was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish descent, cited as the greatest male dancer of the 20th century. He grew to be celebrated for his virtuosity and for the depth and intensity of his characterizations...
's sister).
In 1921 she became a director of the elementary course Color at the Higher Artistic-Technical Workshop (VKhUTEMAS
VKhUTEMAS
Vkhutemas ) was the Russian state art and technical school founded in 1920 in Moscow, replacing the Moscow Svomas. The workshops were established by a decree from Vladimir Lenin with the intentions, in the words of the Soviet government, "to prepare master artists of the highest qualifications for...
) in Moscow, a position she held until 1924. Her work was displayed alongside that of other Constructivist artists
Constructivism (art)
Constructivism was an artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in 1919, which was a rejection of the idea of autonomous art. The movement was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes. Constructivism had a great effect on modern art movements of the 20th...
at the 5x5=25
5x5=25
5x5=25 was a two-part abstract art exhibition held in September–October 1921 in Moscow. Five atists presented were Aleksandra Ekster, Lyubov Popova, Alexander Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova and Alexander Vesnin...
exhibition held in Moscow in 1921.
Emigration
In 1924, Aleksandra Ekster and her husband emigrated to France and settled in Paris. Initially she became a Professor at the Academie der Moderne in Paris. From 1926 to 1930 Ekster was a professor at Fernand LégerFernand Léger
Joseph Fernand Henri Léger was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of Cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style...
's Académie d'Art Contemporain. In 1933 she began creating extremely beautiful and original illuminated manuscripts (gouache on paper), which are beyond doubt the most important works of the last phase of her life. The "Callimaque" manuscript (c. 1939, the text being a French translation of a hymn by Hellenistic poet Callimachus
Callimachus
Callimachus was a native of the Greek colony of Cyrene, Libya. He was a noted poet, critic and scholar at the Library of Alexandria and enjoyed the patronage of the Egyptian–Greek Pharaohs Ptolemy II Philadelphus and Ptolemy III Euergetes...
) is widely regarded as her masterpiece. In 1936 she participated in the exhibition Cubism and Abstract Art in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and went on to have solo exhibitions in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
and in Paris. She was a book illustrator for the publishing company Flammarion
Groupe Flammarion
Groupe Flammarion is the fourth largest publishing group in France, comprising many units, including its namesake, founded in 1876 by Ernest Flammarion, as well as units in distribution, sales, printing and bookshops . Flammarion became part of the Italian media conglomerate RCS MediaGroup in 2000...
in Paris from 1936 until her death in the Paris suburb of Fontenay-aux-Roses
Fontenay-aux-Roses
Fontenay-aux-Roses is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.École Normale Supérieure was a girls school located in the area....
. During the past few decades her reputation has increased dramatically, as have the prices of her works. As a consequence, hundreds of fakes have appeared on the market in recent years, and virtually all of the recent monographs on Exter were published for the sole purpose of making such fakes appear to be authentic.
External links and references
- Alexandra Ekster, Georgiy Kovalenko, 1993, Galart, Moscow, Russia.
- Andrei Nakov, Art HistorianAndrei NakovAndrei Nakov, born in 1941 in Sofia, Bulgaria, is a French-Bulgarian art historian engaged principally in research on Russian non-objective art, Cubo-futurism, Dada and Constructivism, where his work as a precursor in these areas gained him an authoritative reputation.He has published numerous...
,about Alexandra Exter - Alexandra Exter Association