(b Kaluga, 21 Sept 1898; d Grottaferrata, nr Rome, 31 July 1957). American painter and stage designer of Russian birth, active also in Russia and France. He grew up in an advantaged and cultivated environment concerned with the arts. Educated by private tutors, he drew from an early age and attended art classes at the University of Moscow from 1916 to 1918. Moving south in 1918 to avoid the Revolution, he studied at the Kiev Academy until 1920 and worked with Alexandra Exter. He moved again in 1920, this time to Odessa, where he worked in the theatre, and then via Sofia in 1921 to Berlin, where he supported himself with theatre work and began to paint still-lifes, figures and portraits such as Natalie Glasko (1926; New Haven, CT, Yale U. A.G.).

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(pä'vĕl chālē'chĕf) , 1898–1957, Russian-American painter. His first commissions, ballet designs, were given him while he was living in Berlin (1921–23), whence he had fled from the Russian Revolution. Moving to Paris (1923), he became associated with Diaghilev. In 1926 he developed his technique of multiple images on a single canvas, which he later combined with triple perspective. Experimenting thus with juxtaposed objects, he sought to recreate the motion of the body. These interior landscapes resulted in complex and fantastic compositions. The best-known work in this manner is Hide and Seek (Mus. of Modern Art, New York City). He was also a portraitist, Edith Sitwell being among his subjects.

Bibliography

See biography by P. Tyler (1967); study by J. T. Soby (1942, repr. 1972).

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