Composition jaune, verte, bleue et rouge. 1956.
Lithograph in colours.
Poliakoff/Schneider 10. Signed and numbered 51/220. On wove paper by BFK Rives (without watermark). 33 : 50,3 cm (12,9 : 19,8 in). Sheet: 38 x 55,8 cm (14,9 x 21,9 in). The Russian painter Serge Poliakoff, born in Moscow on 8 January 1900, is one of the most important members of the Ecole de Paris. He fled the Russian Revolution in 1917, first going to Constantinople and then to Paris in 1923, where he spent most years of his life until his death 1969. In 1962 Serge Poliakoff acquired French citizenship.
Since 1929 Poliakoff studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and Académie Forchot in Paris. He went to London in 1935 where he studied at the Slade School of Art. He earned most of his living playing guitar until 1952 and stared as a guitar player in several movies. In 1937 the first solo show took place in Paris. The first abstract paintings did not emerge until 1938. Poliakoff employed colour as colour without any figurative context. A decisive influence in this direction was Kandinsky, whom he met after his return to Paris in 1937. Sonia and Robert Delaunay taught him to appreciate the emotive quality of colour and awakened an interest in simultaneous contrasts. Another important source of Poliakoff's pictorial language was the sculptor Otto Freundlich with his curved colour-form compositions. Poliakoff developed a very individual form of abstract painting, arranging differently coloured fields next to one another. Shades of brown and grey were his preferred colours during the 1940s, while after the 1950s he extended his palette including bright contrasting tones. In his late work Poliakoff abandoned the polychrome palette and returned to earth tones and more monochrome works.
Since 1946 Poliakoff began to work with graphic techniques and designed fabrics. Between 1962 and 69 Poliakoff attended intensively to lithography and commissioned the Erker Presse St. Gallen to print his lithographs. In 1965 the artist had a heart attack, afterwards only small format paintings emerged. Serge Poliakoff died in Paris on 12 October 1969.

Printed by Pons, Paris. Published by Nesto Jacometti, La Guilde de la Gravure, Lausanne (with blindstamp). [NB]
In good condition. Minimally rubbed on the margins.