Robert Pikelny

1904-1986

Pikelny was born to a Jewish family in Lodz, Poland in 1904, the family moved to Moscow in 1908.

Pikelny studied at the Moscow school of fine art and then at the age of 17 he went to Paris, intending to settle there permanently.

There were some difficulties at the beginning of his career, In 1922, he traveled to Vienna and Berlin, where he met Jean Pougny who became his friend, and this friendship helped to make himself become known in Paris.

In 1923, Pikelny arrived in Paris and settled in the atelier next to Pougny's on Rue du Moulin de Beurre. Pougny introduced him to the Russian Artists Society in which Païles, Kikoïne and Pougny himself took part. Lazare Volovick, Vladimir Naïditch and Ossip Lubitch will be among his closest friends, as well as the art collector André Fize who supported him and believed in his talent and other Russian painters at the École de Paris.

After initially engaging in Cubist experiments, Pikelny found his own identifiable style. He painted circus and dance subjects, showing the miserable side of their milieux, in an Intimist style reminiscent of Vuillard or Ensor.

Pikelny wrote and painted for several artistic magazines and reviews.

He met Eliane Steinville a model at the Grande-Chaumière and married her.

Like many Jewish artists during World War II, Pikelny took refuge in the South of France. He came back to Paris straight after the Liberation and then traveled to Italy and Spain.

As his craft became more established and more refined, he began in 1950 to broaden and clarify the scope of his preoccupations; his dance and racing subjects showed a happy release. Pikelny took part in many group exhibitions, particularly at the Salon d'Automne, where he began exhibiting in 1930.