Piwo, Billard

Material

Gouache, metal and oil on wood; 99 x 20 cm

Dating

1962

About the artist

Paul Mansouroff was a Russian avant-garde artist. He had studied under Johann Wilhelm Mathé at the St. Petersburg School of Technical Drawing before he served in the Imperial Russian Air Force during the First World War. After his military service he returned to St. Petersburg, studied for another year at the State Free Art Studios and afterwards began to experiment with abstract painting.
Despite the strict ideological setting provided by Suprematism and Constructivism the artist succeeded in developing a personal style during the 1920s. In 1928 he moved to Italy, settling down in Rome. But after one year he relocated to Paris, where he worked for fashion houses like Chanel or Schiaparelli, designing textiles and men’s clothing. During his ten years in Paris he had created mainly objective paintings but around 1957 he returned to paint in a manner which was reminiscent of his 1920s style. The artist’s main concern was to investigate questions regarding space and spatial correlations.