Serge Fotinsky
1887 – 1971

Serge Fotinsky was born in Odessa, Russia in 1887.  In 1903 he left Odessa for St. Petersburg, where he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts. 

Fotinsky was exiled from Russia for his participation in the revolution of 1905.  He traveled first to Berlin and then Munich, where he worked for a time at the Fine Arts Academy.  In 1908 he arrived in Paris, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life. 

Fotinsky exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Indépendants from 1912 to 1965 and at the Salon d’Automne beginning in 1920.  In 1926, 1927, and 1928 he had personal exhibitions at Galerie Billiet-Vorms in Paris.  Fotinsky also participated in numerous collective exhibitions around the globe, including London, Vienna, Moscow, Warsaw, Prague and Budapest.  A friend of André Derain, Fotinsky’s work shows the influence of the cubist and fauvist movements, and particularly of Cézanne.

Fotinsky represents the soul of l’École de Paris, he brought the passion of the East and expressed it with the freedom of 20th century Paris.