Léopold Survage (Russian/French 1879-1968)
Born in Moscow, of a Finnish mother and Danish father, as a student at the Moscow School of Art, Survage became acquainted with Larinov, Malevitch and Archipenko, before moving to Paris in 1908. Here he enrolled at Matisse's Academy and frequented the Salon of Helen d'Ottinger where Picasso, Braque, Modigliani and Marcoussis were regular visitors.
From 1911 onwards, he concentrated primarily upon the construction of his paintings and was regarded as a fellow Constructivist by Mondrian and Van Doesburg, who had invited him to join their newly formed group. Survage however, regarded himself more of a Cubist and preferred to exhibit with them at the Salon des Indépendants. He explored the Cubist style by reintroducing colour in the Cubist palette, much like Juan Gris. He also preferred townscapes to the more usual Cubist subject matter of still life as he was dominated by a curious spatial sense, which lent to his work a suggestion of haunting mystery foreign to the more orthodox Cubist work.
In 1919 he was associated with Gleizes and Archipenko in the Section d'Or.
He had several one-man shows at the Galerie Léonce Rosenberg, Paris during the 1920s and exhibited also in New York and Chicago.
With his gift for large-scale decorations he collaborated with Stravinsky and Diaghliev for the design of the ballet Mavra.
Public collections include:
Arts Club Museum, Chicago
Bezalel Museum, Jerusalem
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon
Musée du Petit Palais, Geneva
Musée National d'art Moderne, Paris
Museum of Art, San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art, New York
National Museum of Arts, Moscow
National Museum, Athens