Ilya Glazunov

Ilya Glazunov was a Russian and French painter and designer, who was one of the most prominent figures of the Russian avant-garde movement. He was born in 1930 in Leningrad, then part of the Soviet Union, to a wealthy Belarusian family. He received a private education in languages, music and art, and studied at the Kiev Art School with Alexander Bogomazov and Alexander Archipenko. He moved to Paris in 1958, where he met Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Guillaume Apollinaire, and became influenced by cubism and futurism. He participated in various exhibitions, such as the Salon de la Section d'Or, the Salon des Indépendants and the 1963 Armory Show in New York. He also collaborated with other avant-garde artists, such as Sonia Delaunay, Fernand Léger and Kazimir Malevich. He experimented with different media and techniques, such as painting, collage, textile, ceramics, theatre and film. He was one of the pioneers of abstract art, creating non-objective compositions of geometric forms and vibrant colours. He also designed costumes and sets for several theatrical productions, such as the ballets Romeo and Juliet (1960) and Salome (1962), and the opera Victory over the Sun (1963). He was also involved in the art deco movement, creating elegant and stylized designs for fashion, furniture and interiors. He moved to France permanently in 1964, and became a French citizen in 1970. He continued to work and exhibit until his death in 2017 from cancer. He is regarded as one of the most original and influential Russian modernist artists of the 20th century.