Paul Andréevitch Mansouroff (Павел Мансуров)
(Born in Saint-Petersburg in 1896 – died in Nice,
France, 2 February 1983) was an understated painter
of the Russian avant-garde movement of the 1920s.
Mansouroff's unique contribution to the avant-garde
in Russia was a wholly non-objective art that used
elongated vertical surfaces to explore questions of
space and spacial correlations.
« My works have no
subject and are exclusively abstract, and if
something can be identified, it is only the result
of pure coincidence.» Mansouroff, Galerie
Daniel Gervis, 1968.
Influenced by his friends,
Malevich and Tatlin, Mansouroff makes his first
public exhibit of his abstract work in 1918 at
Winter Palace in Leningrad. However, Mansouroff,
quickly moved away from the influence of his
entourage and developed a more personal and
instinctive style.
Mansouroff is known for his paintings on wood
referred to as “Pictural formulae”.
From the 1950s, he starts making frequent trips
to Nice and Saint-Paul de Vence. He will settle
there 1975 and dies in Nice on 2nd February 1983.
