Ivan Puni or Puny was a Russian 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...

  artist

Artist

An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

 (Suprematist, Cubo-Futurist).

Biography

Ivan Puni was born in Kuokkala (then Grand Duchy of Finland

Grand Duchy of Finland

The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed 1809–1917 as part of the Russian Empire and was ruled by the Russian czar as Grand Prince.- History :...

 in the Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

, now Repino

Repino

Repino is a municipal settlement in Kurortny District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, and a station of the Saint Petersburg-Vyborg railroad. It was known by its Finnish name Kuokkala until 1948, when it was renamed after its most famous inhabitant, Ilya Repin...

 in Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

) to a family of Italian

Italian people

The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...

 origins. He is the grandson of the famous Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 of ballet music Cesare Pugni

Cesare Pugni

Cesare Pugni was an Italian composer of ballet music, a pianist and a violinist. In his early career he composed operas, symphonies, and various other forms of orchestral music. Pugni is most noted for the ballets he composed while serving as Composer of the Ballet Music to Her Majesty's Theatre...

.

In 1909-1910 he studied in various workshops, including the Académie Julian

Académie Julian

The Académie Julian was an art school in Paris, France.Rodolphe Julian established the Académie Julian in 1868 at the Passage des Panoramas, as a private studio school for art students. The Académie Julian not only prepared students to the exams at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, but offered...

 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...

.
In 1915 Puni together with the group of avant-garde artists (Aleksandra Ekster

Aleksandra Ekster

Aleksandra Aleksandrovna Ekster was a Russian-French painter and designer.-Biography:-Childhood:...

, Liubov Popova, Ivan Kliun

Ivan Kliun

Ivan Kliun was a Russian painter, Avant-garde artist , graphic artist and sculptor.-Biography:Ivan Vasilyevich Kliun was born in 1873 in Bolshie Gorki village ....

, Ksenia Boguslavskaya

Ksenia Boguslavskaya

Kseniya Boguslavskaya was a Russian avant-garde artist poet and interior decorator. Her husband Ivan Puni was also a notable painter...

, 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....

, 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:...

 and others) joined 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...

a group led by the founder of Suprematism

Suprematism

Suprematism was an art movement focused on fundamental geometric forms which formed in Russia in 1915-1916. It was not until later that suprematism received conventional museum preparations...

, 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:...

.

In 1915-1916 Puni, together with other suprematist artists, worked at Verbovka Village Folk Centre

Verbovka Village Folk Centre

Verbovka Village Folk Centre was an artisan cooperative in the village of Verbovka founded by Natalia Davidova in the Ukrainian province of Kiev...

.

In 1919 he taught at the Vitebsk

Vitebsk

Vitebsk, also known as Viciebsk or Vitsyebsk , is a city in Belarus, near the border with Russia. The capital of the Vitebsk Oblast, in 2004 it had 342,381 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth largest city...

 Art School under Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century."According to art historian Michael J...

.

He was married to Ksenia Boguslavskaya

Ksenia Boguslavskaya

Kseniya Boguslavskaya was a Russian avant-garde artist poet and interior decorator. Her husband Ivan Puni was also a notable painter...

.

In 1920 Ivan Puni and Ksenia Boguslavskaya

Ksenia Boguslavskaya

Kseniya Boguslavskaya was a Russian avant-garde artist poet and interior decorator. Her husband Ivan Puni was also a notable painter...

 emigrated first for Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, and then (in 1923) for France

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...

. Since then Ivan Puni adopted the name Jean Pougny. He has become French citizen since 1946.

Ivan Puni (Jean Pougny) died 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...

in 1956.