- Aleksandra Ekster
Alexandra Ekster or Exter ( _ru. Александра Александровна Экстер;
January 6 ,1882 -March 17 ,1949 ) was aRussia n-Ukrainian painter (Cubo-Futurist,Suprematist , Constructivist),designer , and one of the founders ofArt Deco .Biography
Childhood
She was born "Aleksandra Aleksandrovna Grigorovich" in
Białystok ,Imperial Russia (nowPoland ) to a wealthy 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
Kiev 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 inParis , and there she attendedAcadémie de la Grande Chaumière inMontparnasse . From 1908 to 1924 she intermittently lived in Kiev,St. Petersburg ,Odessa , Paris,Rome andMoscow .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 Akhmatova , Ilia Ehrenburg, andOsip Mandelstam , dancersBronislava Nijinska andElsa Kruger , as well as many artists and students, such asGrigori Kozintsev ,Sergei Yutkevich , andAleksei Kapler among many others. In 1908 she participated in an exhibition together with members of the group "Zveno (Link)" organized byDavid Burliuk ,Wladimir Burliuk and others in Kiev.Paris
In Paris Aleksandra Exter was personal friend of
Pablo Picasso andGeorges Braque who introduced her toGertrude Stein .In 1914 Ekster participated in "
Salon des Indépendants " exhibitions in Paris, together withKazimir Malevich ,Alexander Archipenko ,Vadym Meller ,Sonia Delaunay-Terk and other French and Russian artists. In that same year she participated in "International Futurist Exhibition" inMilan . In 1915 she joined the group of avant-garde artists "Supremus ".Russian avant-garde
Exter 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 withKazimir Malevich ,Yevgenia Pribylskaya ,Natalia Davidova , Nina Genke,Liubov Popova ,Ivan Puni ,Olga Rozanova ,Nadezhda Udaltsova and others. Ekster later founded a teaching and production workshop (MDI) in Kiev (1918-1920). Meller, Petrytsky, Red'ko, Chelitschev, Shifrin, Nikritin worked there. Also during this period she was one of the leading names ofAlexander Tairov 's Chamber Theatre.In 1919 together with other avant-garde artists
Kliment Red'ko and Nina Genke-Meller she decorated the streets and squares of Kiev and Odessa in abstract style for Revolution Festivities. She worked as acostume designer in a Ballet Studio of the dancerBronislava Nijinska (Vaslav Nijinsky 's sister).In 1921 she became a director of the elementary course "Colour" at the Higher Artistic-Technical Workshop (
VKhUTEMAS ) in Moscow, a position she held until 1924.Emigration
In 1924, Alexandra Exter 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 Leger 's Academie d'Art Contemporain. In 1933 she began creating illuminated manuscripts (gouache on paper), which are beyond doubt the most important works of the last phase of her life. In 1936 she participated in the exhibition "Cubism and Abstract Art" inNew York and went on to have solo exhibitions inPrague and in Paris. In 1936 she began working as a book illustrator for the publishing company "Flammarion" in Paris. She continued in this role until 1949 when she died in the Paris suburb ofFontenay-aux-Roses .External links and references
*Alexandra Ekster, Georgiy Kovalenko, 1993, Galart, Moscow, Russia.
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