ALEXANDER ARCHIPENKO 1887 – 1964

Alexander Archipenko was an avant-garde artist, sculptor, and graphic artist.

Alexander Archipenko was born in Kiev. From 1902-1905 he attended the Kiev Art School. In 1906 he had an exhibition in Kiev together with Alexander Bogomazov. That same year Archipenko moved to Moscow where he had a chance to exhibit his work in group shows.

In 1909 he moved to Paris. From 1909-1914 he was a resident in the artist’s Colony La Ruche among other emigre Russian artists: Vladimir Baranov-Rossine, Sonia Delaunay-Terk and Nathan Altman. After 1910 Alexander Archipenko had exhibitions at Salon des Independants, Salon D’Automne together with Alexandra Exter, Kazimir Malevich, Vadym Meller, Sonia Delaunay-Terk alongside Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Andre Derain. In 1912 Archipenko had his first personal exhibition at the Museum Folkwang in Hagen.

From 1912 to 1914 he was teaching at his own Art College in Paris.

In 1913 Archipenko’s works appeared at the Armory Show in New York. In 1920 he participated in Twelfth Biennale Internazionale dell’Arte di Venezia in Italy.

In 1921 he started his own College in Berlin. In 1922 Archipenko participated in the First Russian Art Exhibition at the Gallery van Diemen in Berlin together with Alexandra Exter, Kazimir Malevich, Solomon Nikritin, El Lissitzky and others.

In 1923 he immigrated to the United States and in 1929 became an American citizen.

Archipenko participated in an exhibition of Russian Paintings and Sculpture (1923), designed the Ukrainian pavilion in Chicago (1934), exhibited at Cubism and Abstract Art show in New York (1936) and numerous other exhibitions in Europe and US.

His works can be found in the collections of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Kunstmuseum Bern in Switzerland, State Hermitage Museum in Russia among many others.