Léopold SURVAGE (1879-1968) - Lot 77

Léopold SURVAGE (1879-1968) Burin engraving, signed in pencil lower right. H_40 cm W_50 cm This work is one of the illustrations for Jean Cocteau's "Pegase". Léopold Survage (1879-1968) was a Franco-Russian painter and visual artist, considered one of the precursors of abstraction in Europe. Born in Leningrad (then St. Petersburg) in 1879 to a Finnish family, Survage studied at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg before traveling around Europe, immersing himself in emerging artistic movements such as Impressionism, Fauvism and Cubism. He moved to France in the 1910s, where he became close to the Parisian avant-gardes, frequenting artists such as Fernand Léger, Robert Delaunay and Sonia Delaunay. Survage experimented with the synthesis of color, form and movement, and from 1913-1914 developed his "Rythmes colorés" project, a series of drawings and paintings designed to be animated, making it one of the first works of kinetic and musical abstract art even before the official appearance of abstract animated cinema.Léopold Survage received several international awards, including the Légion d'Honneur in France and prizes for his exhibitions in Paris, Moscow and New York. His works are held in major European and American museums, including the Centre Pompidou, the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and MoMA.