Leopold Lvovich Survage

Leopold Survage studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. By 1906 he was closely tied to Zolotoye runo (Golden Fleece). He maintained close relations and exhibited with artists such as Archipenko, the Burliuk brothers, Larionov, and Goncharova. In 1909 he settled in Paris, and worked as a piano tuner. In Paris he made contact with Henri Matisse, amongst other innovative artists.

Survage exhibited with the Knave of Diamonds in Moscow in 1910, and in 1911 at the Paris Salon d’Automne.The 1930 exhibition titled Painting in Paris at the Museum of Modern Art in New York introduced him to the American public as one of the leading artists of his time.

Survage is celebrated for conveying a certain musicality in his paintings.  In 1912-13 he invented “Le Rythme Colore,” an abstract film concpet which never came into fruition due to a lack of funds.  His 200 original panels however, many of which are in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, are totally abstract.  Like Kandinsky, Survage was a true pioneer of abstract art.  “The flat surface is the area on which I evolve my images. My form generates a rhythm or a group of rhythms. From the rhythm is born the sensation which gives rise to, in its turn, an impression of duration. Rhythm is the contracting factor of a surface. It organizes and seals the unity within it. It is formed by the contours of the body” (Greer Gallery, New York, 1968, p. 4).

Rhythm and musicality is a strong defining characteristic throughout his oeuvre, and is particularly evident in his graceful work of 1933 titled “Surreal Composition.”  Elements of Cubism and Surrealism inform the work, from the abstracted, shattered forms to the multiple view points thoughout the composition. Survage stated of his work: “I chose an object or a landscape accordingly. For a curved line, I chose a bolting horse with a man who chased it, and these curved lines well characterized the incident, this flight. In contrast, vertical lines develop a static group of feminine spectators-an apparition of imaginary personages which accent the impression of the ‘Fleeing Horse' ''(Greer Gallery, New York, 1968, page 11).

In 1937 he was awarded with a gold metal at the Paris International Exhibition, and in 1963, the prestigious Legion d’Honneur.