Pavel Tchelitchew  (Russian, 1898-1957) 

Known mainly for his painting and set design Pavel Tchelitchew (Russian, 1898–1957) spent his early years first studying art at the University of Moscow, from 1916 until 1918, and then at Kiev Academy until 1920. He also worked with Alexandra Exter in Kiev, and started working in theater in 1920, first in Odessa, then in Berlin. In 1923, he settled for a while in Paris where he cultivated a new style in his painting, resembling Surrealism but rooted in Russian Symbolism and his own brand of perspectival Cubism. He was involved in the avant-garde circle of Gertrude Stein, and in 1927, painted her portrait. In 1934, Tchelitchew moved to the United States. A series of paintings on the theme of the soul's journey to immortality occupied much of his oevre from the 1930s until his death. One of his most celebrated works is Hide and Seek (1940–1942)—in which the observer’s eye slowly adjusts from seeing a woman clinging to a tree, to children in the contours of the tree—exposes the similarity of forms and purpose between plants and humans. Tchelitchew delves deeper into the workings and forms of the body in his subsequent works, such as Itinerary for an Aerial Journey (Anatomical Head) (1945). In the last decade of his life, his works segued to abstraction. Throughout his life, Tchelitchew was renowned as a set designer because of his innovative use of material and lighting. His most-celebrated designs include the ballets Ode (1928), choreographed by Léonide Massine to music by Nicolas Nabokov, L’Errante (1933), choreographed by George Balanchine to music by Schubert, and Nobilissima Visione (St Francis) (1938), choreography by Massine to music by Paul Hindemith, as well as Jean Giraudoux’s play Ondine (1939). Tchelitchew became an American citizen in 1952, just before moving to Italy, where he pasted away in 1957.