Serge Poliakoff (1900-1969) was a Russian-born French modernist painter belonging to the New École de Paris. Poliakoff exhibited his first abstract painting in 1938 at his premiere Salon des Indépendants, in which he participated regularly until 1945, when Galerie L’Equisse, Paris, presented a solo exhibition of his work. Alongside Jean Dubuffet, Hans Hartung, and Nicolas de Staël, Poliakoff is regarded as a member of the “new” École de Paris. Solo exhibitions appeared at the Circle and Square Gallery, New York (1952), and Palais des beaux-arts, Brussels (1953). Poliakoff worked on scenography for the ballet Contrè-point (1957) with conductor Marius Constant and choreographer Roland Petit. Just after he became a French citizen, a room of the French Pavilion at the Venice Biennale was dedicated to his work (1962). The Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, organized his first major retrospective (1963), and his work was included in the Tokyo Biennial (received the International Award, 1965). Additional important retrospectives were presented at Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland (1966); Tel Aviv Museum (1971–72); Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France (1974); and Lorenzelli Arte, Milan (1978). Poliakoff died on October 12, 1969, in Paris.
