Lanskoy, Andre

The painter André Lanskoy (real name Andrei Mikhailovich Count Lanskoy) was born in Moscow in 1902. During the Russian Revolution he fled with his family to Ukraine and finally moved to Paris in 1921 to study painting at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. His works are initially characterized by figurative elements, which mainly include classical still lifes and portraits. Henri Matisse and Van Gogh were among his models during this creative phase. As early as 1923 he was discovered at the "Salon d'Automne" by Wilhelm Uhde, who provided him with many important contacts and curated Lanskoy's first solo exhibition in 1925. The collector acquired almost all of Lanskoy's works. Lanskoy quickly became acquainted with other art collectors, with whom close friendships developed. He soon exhibited in Paris together with renowned artists such as Ossip Zadkine and Robert and Sonia Delaunay. Around 1940, Lanskoy's paintings became increasingly abstract and his techniques more open. He produced numerous book illustrations, collages and mosaics, as well as impressive prints.
 

An intensive friendship with Nicolas de Staël later helped him to international attention, so that André Lanskoys could also exhibit in New York in 1956. This was followed by participation in documenta II and III in Kassel. One of his last major exhibitions was "Les Peintres Russes de l'école de Paris" at the Saint-Denis Museum. Even during his lifetime, Lanskoy's works found their way into many important museums and private collections.
 

A special feature of his life's work are the prints he created in Paris shortly before his death. One example is his expressive lithographs in colors - non-representational depictions that create a lively, moving impression on the surface and almost always resemble an explosion of color, not infrequently reminiscent of his very early collages or mosaics. With a fine feeling for graded as well as complementary color tones, he places his abstract color segments in an often obstinate relationship to each other, seemingly renouncing any hierarchy. Today André Lanskoy is counted among the "Nouvelle École de Paris", the most important representatives of Lyrical Abstraction, Impressionism and Informel.