Aleksandra Ekster

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Alexandra Ekster or Exter (Александра Экстер) (January 6, 1882 - March 17, 1949) was a Russian-Ukrainian painter (Cubo-Futurist, Suprematist, Constructivist), designer, and one of the founders of Art Deco. She was born Aleksandra Grigorovich in Belostok, Imperial Russia (now Poland) to a wealthy Belarusian family. She studied at Kiev art school, then in 1907 attended Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Montparnasse, Paris. From 1908 to 1924 she intermittently lived in Kiev, Saint Petersburg, Odessa, Paris, Rome and Moscow.

In 1908 she participated in exhibition together with members of the group Zveno (Link) organized by David Burliuk, Wladimir Burliuk and others in Kiev. In 1914 Ekster, together with Kazimir Malevich, Alexander Archipenko, Vadym Meller, Sonia Delaunay-Terk and others, participated in Salon des Indépendants exhibitions in Paris. In the same year she participated in International Futurist Exhibition in Milan. In 1915 she joined the group of avant-garde artists Supremus.

In 1915-1916 she worked in the peasant craft cooperative in villages Skoptsi and Verbovka along with Kazimir Malevich, Yevgenia Pribylskaya, Natalia Davidova, Nina Genke, Liubov Popova, Ivan Puni, Olga Rozanova, Nadezhda Udaltsova and others. Ekster later founded a teaching and production workshop (MDI) in Kiev (1918-1920). Meller, Petrytsky, Red'ko, Chelitschev, Shifrin, Nikritin worked there. Also during this period she was one of the leading names of Alexander Tairov's Chamber Theatre.

In 1919 together with other avant-garde artists Kliment Red'ko and Nina Genke-Meller for Revolution Festivities decorated streets and squares of Kiev and Odessa in abstract style. She worked as a costume designer in a Ballet Studio of the dancer Bronislava Nijinska (Vaslav Nijinsky's sister).

In 1921 she became a director of the elementary course Colour at the Higher Artistic-Technical Workshop (VKhUTEMAS) in Moscow, a position she held until 1924 when she emigrated to France to become a Professor at the Academie der Moderne in Paris. From 1926 to 1930 Ekster was a professor at Leger's Academie d'Art Contemporain. In 1936 she participated in exhibition Cubism and Abstract Art in New York and went on to have solo exhibitions in Prague and in Paris. In 1936 she began working as a book illustrator for the publishing company Flammarion in Paris. She continued in this role until 1949 when she died in Paris suburb Fontanay-aux-Roses.