Kikoine, Michel

views updated

KIKOINE, MICHEL

KIKOINE, MICHEL (1891–1968), French painter, born in Gomel, Russia, and a member of the School of Paris. As a Jew he was not permitted to study art at the Royal Academy in St. Petersburg, and therefore moved to Paris in 1912 where he joined the Académie des Beaux Arts and associated with his fellow Russian Jews, *Soutine and Kremègne. Kikoine visited Israel in 1950 and 1953. In 1956 he executed a series of colored lithographs titled Children of Israel.

Primarily a colorist, Kikoine claimed to be influenced by Courbet, with his feeling for the organic life of nature. His paintings of figures and landscape are subtle and poetic, making a slow impact.

bibliography:

Catalogue of Exhibition at the Redfern Gallery, London (1955), introduction; George, in: Roth, Art, 660–1.