Mikhail Andreyenko-Nechitailo

Painter, theatrical designer, writer. Born in Kherson in the family of Fyodor Andreyenko-Nechitailo (1894). Studied at the Faculty of Law of St Petersburg University (1912–17) and under Arkady Rylov, Nicholas Roerich and Ivan Bilibin at the School of Drawing of the the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (from 1912). Worked for newspapers and magazines in St Petersburg, created book plates and designed sets for the theatre of the Literary-Arts Society (1910s). Painted in a Cubist style (from 1916). Worked for the Chamber Theatre in Odessa (1918–19). Lived in Czechoslovakia and Roumania, where he worked as a theatrical designer (1920–23). Worked in theatres (including work for Sergei Diaghilev) and in film, turning towards Constructivism (1920s). Member of the Association of Independent Ukrainian Artists. Painted Surrealist works (1930s). Worked in the traditions of the Paris school, painting landscapes of the Vaugirad Quarter and street scenes (1940–50). Returned to Constructivist principles and included such “non-artistic” materials as sand, clay and wire in his landscapes (1958). Wrote reviews, essays and stories for Russian and Ukrainian émigré publications. Lost his sight and died in Paris (1982). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1910). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Kherson Fine Arts Society (1910–12), Contemporary Russian Painting (1916), group exhibition of Russian artists in Paris (1925), All-Ukrainian Exhibition in Celebration of the 10th Anniversary of October (Kharkiv-Kiev-Odessa, 1927), Contemporary Ukrainian Graphic Art (Lviv, 1932), Salon d’Automne (1930s), Salon des Indépendants (1930s), Super-independent (1938), First Generation of Abstract Artists (Saint-Etienne, 1958), Russian Artists of the Paris School (Paris, 1961), Avant-Garde, 1910–30 (Berlin, 1967), The Non-Objective World (London-Paris-Milan, 1971), The Russian View (Heidelberg, 1974), More Russians (Paris, 1975), Set Designs and the Russian Avant-Garde (Washington, 1976), international exhibitions in Leipzig (1914) and New York (1926) and one-man shows in Paris (1964, 1972, 1974), Florence (1964), Rome (1965), West Berlin (1974), Geneva (1974) and Amsterdam (1976).