Nathan Altman

Natan Altman Isayevich (Russian Натан Исаевич Альтман; scientific transliteration Natan Isaevič Al'tman; * 10.jul / December 22 1889greg in Vinnytsia, .. † 12 December 1970, Leningrad ) was a Russian- Soviet painter and stage designer.

Natan Altman was born in the Ukrainian capital Vinnytsia region in the family of a merchant. He studied from 1902 to 1907 at the Art School in Odessa. In the years 1910 and 1911 he lived in Paris, where he continued his study of painting and sculpture at the Russian school of Maria Vasilyeva. In Paris he met, among others with Marc Chagall, Alexander Archipenko and David Shterenberg together. After his return to Vinnytsia, where he gave drawing lessons, he went in 1912 to St. Petersburg, where he lived until 1921. The First Russian Art Exhibition in Berlin in 1922 showed the following selection: the paintings of Russia ( Polychromoscher object) Petrokommuna, painting, sculpture, Head of a young Jews and several watercolors, drawings and studies. With it, a new branch of nonobjective art began. He approached the visible composition of the picture of the material construction of things and gave her by a conscious, social content with him. His work did not just affect the eye, but also organize awareness. Basis of his work was the material itself, which he enriched it.

Altman was one of the founders of the Jewish Association for the Advancement of the Arts ( Еврейское общество поощрения художеств ). He sought a connection to ancient Jewish symbolism with elements of Art Nouveau. Later, his works began to approach the style of the international avant-garde, Cubism and Futurism. His most famous work is a portrait of the poet Anna Akhmatova ( Портрет Анны Ахматовой ) from the year 1914. After the October Revolution, he held various positions in cultural, political and cultural institutions from. From 1921 to 1928 he lived in Moscow. In 1925 he received the gold medal at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris. In 1928 he went to Paris again. After his return in 1936 he lived until his death in 1970 in Leningrad.