Nathan Altman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nathan Altman (1889-1977) was a Russian avant-garde artist, (Cubist) painter, stage designer and book illustrator.
Altman was born in Vinnytsia, a town in Ukraine. From 1902 to 1907 he studied painting and sculpture at the Art College in Odessa. In 1906 he had his first exhibition in Odessa. In 1910 he went to Paris (for one year). From 1910 to 1911 he studied at the Free Russian Academy in Paris, working in the studio of Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine, and had contact with Chagall, Archipenko, and David Shterenberg.
In 1912 Altman moved to Saint Petersburg. In 1914 he painted his famous Portrait of Anna Akhmatova in Cubist style. In 1921 he moved to Moscow. From 1921 to 1922 he was director of the Museum of Painterly Culture in Petrograd, ( now St. Petersburg) . From 1920 to 1928 he worked on stage designs for the Habimah Theatre and the Jewish State Theatre in Moscow.
In 1928 he moved to Paris. In 1936 Altman returned to Petrograd (then known as Leningrad and after Perestroika as St. Petersburg - as before the October Revolution of 1917). Altman worked mainly for the theatre, as a book illustrator and an author of essays about art. He died in Leningrad.
