Serge Poliakoff (1900-1969).

Poliakoff was born in Moscow and raised by a religious mother, attending church almost daily as a child, and the strong colors and contemplative, mimetic power of religious icons would fascinate him for his entire life. He took drawing lessons from the age of 14, part of a cultured upbringing that abruptly ended with the 1917 Russian Revolution. Poliakoff settled in Paris in 1923 and began to study painting at the Académie Frochot where he took classes with Othon Friesz, a former Fauve, who influenced his interest in Saturated color. Poliakoff’s work can be characterized by his contrasted rich, jewel-like coors in his mature canvases before returning to more subdued tones in the 1960s.