Henry Elinson

Painter, graphic artist, teacher. Born as Genrikh Elinson in the family of David Elinson in Leningrad (1935). Studied at the Alexander Herzen Pedagogical Institute in Leningrad (1954–57). Took up art independently and began to show signs of a professional approach (1956). Graduated from the Novgorod Pedagogical Institute (1958) and the Vladimir Lenin Pedagogical Institute in Moscow (1963). Worked as a speech therapist with mentally handicapped children (1961–73). Emigrated to the United States (1973), where he worked as a liftman at Yale University and a teacher of Russian at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey. Died of cancer in the coastal town of Pacific Grove in California (2010). Contributed to private apartment exhibitions (from early 1960s) and official exhibitions (from 1974), including Abstraction in Russia: XX Century at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (2001–02).