10 Facts About Serge Poliakoff

Serge Poliakoff was a Russian-born French modernist painter belonging to the 'New' Ecole de Paris.

Serge Poliakoff was born in Moscow in 1900, the thirteenth of fourteen children.

Serge Poliakoff's mother was heavily involved with the church, and its religious icons fascinated him.

Serge Poliakoff enrolled at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, but fled Russia in 1918.

Serge Poliakoff arrived in Constantinople in 1920, living off the profits from his talent as a guitarist.

Serge Poliakoff went on to pass through Sofia, Belgrade, Vienna, and Berlin before settling in Paris in 1923, all the while continuing to play in Russian cabarets.

Serge Poliakoff's paintings remained purely academic until he discovered, during his stay in London from 1935 to 1937, the abstract art and luminous colours of the Egyptian sarcophagi.

In 1962 a room was given over to his paintings by the Venice Biennial, and Serge Poliakoff became a French citizen in the same year.

Serge Poliakoff's works are now displayed in a large number of museums in Europe and New York.

Serge Poliakoff worked with ceramics at the Manufacture nationale de Sevres.