.jpg)
Nathan Isaevich Altman (Russian:Натан Исаевич Альтман,romanized: Natan Isayevich Altman;Ukrainian:Натан Ісайович Альтман; 22 December [O.S. 10 December] 1889 – 12 December 1970) was aRussian avant-garde artist,stage designer and bookillustrator.[1][2][3] Born inVinnytsia (now Ukraine), he worked in Russia, France, and the Soviet Union. His works combine elements ofCubo-Futurism andSuprematism.[1]
Altman was born inVinnytsia, in thePodolia Governorate of theRussian Empire (now Ukraine) to a family of Jewish merchants. He studied in a religious Jewish school (cheder), then in a public elementary school in Vinnytsia.[4]
From 1902 to 1907, he studied painting and sculpture at theOdessa Art School. In 1906, he had his first exhibition in Odessa.
In 1910, he went to Paris, where he stayed for one year. He studied at the Free Russian Academy in Paris, working in the studio ofWladimir Baranoff-Rossine, and had contact withMarc Chagall,Alexander Archipenko, andDavid Shterenberg. In 1910, he became a member of the groupSoyuz Molodyozhi (Union of Youth). He also befriended Jewish intellectuals such asChaim Nachman Bialik.[5]
In 1912, Altman moved toSaint Petersburg. His famousPortrait of Anna Akhmatova, conceived inCubist style, was painted in 1914. From 1915 to 1917, Nathan Altman was the teacher at Mikhail Bernstein's private art school. After 1916 he started to work as astage designer.
In 1918, he was the member of the Board for Artistic Matters within the Department of Fine Arts of thePeople's Commissariat of Enlightenment together withMalevich, Baranoff-Rossine and Shevchenko. In the same year he had an exhibition with the groupJewish Society for the Furthering of the Arts in Moscow, together with Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine,El Lissitzky and the others. In this same year, he installed a temporary work of architectural sculpture inPalace Square to commemorate the 1st anniversary of theOctober Revolution.[6] The canvas was subsequently cut up and used for soldiers' foot bindings.[7]
In 1920, he became a member of theInstitute for Artistic Culture (INKHUK), together with Kasimir Malevich,Vladimir Tatlin and the others. In the same year, he participated in the exhibitionFrom Impressionism to Cubism in the Museum of Painterly Culture in Petrograd, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg,Russia). In 1921, he moved to Moscow. From 1921 to 1922 he was director of the Museum of Painterly Culture in Petrograd.
From 1920 to 1928, he worked on stage designs for theHabimah Theatre and the Jewish State Theatre in Moscow. In 1923 a volume of his Jewish graphic art,Evrejskaja grafika Natana Al'tmana: Tekst Maksa Osborna [Max Osborn], was published in Berlin. In 1924, he designed the sets for the filmJewish Happiness.
In 1925, he participated inExposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes (Art Deco) in Paris together withAleksandra Ekster,Vadim Meller, Rudolf Frentz,Sonia Delaunay-Terk andDavid Shterenberg. His first solo exhibition in Leningrad, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia) was in 1926.
Altman moved to Paris in 1928. In 1936, he returned to Leningrad. He worked mainly for the theatre, as a book illustrator and an author of essays about art.
Nathan Altman died in Leningrad aged 81. The apartment building House of Specialists at 61-1 Lesnoy Prospekt features acommemorativeplaque in honour of the artist.
