Vladimir Baranoff-Rossiné

Painter, sculptor, colour-music theorist, inventor, teacher. Born Shulim Wolf Leib Baranov to Jewish merchant David Baranov and his wife Rosalia in the Pale of Settlement (1888). Studied under Kyriakos Kostandi and Gennady Ladyzhensky at Odessa School of Art (1903–08) and at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg (1908–09, expelled for failing to attend classes). Visited Norway (1908–09) and travelled to Paris via Stockholm, Kiel and Munich (1910). Lived and worked in Paris (1910–14), where he painted in a Cubist style and exhibited under the pseudonym of Daniel Rossiné (from 1910). Met Robert Delaunay and Sonia Terk (1910) and was influenced by Orphism (1910–13). Lived at 7 Rue Belloni in the 15th arrondissement (1911) and at La Ruche in Montparnasse (1912–13), where he shared a studio with Nathan Altman. Met Jean (Hans) Arp in Lucerne (1911) and Wassily Kandinsky in Munich (1912). Attended the soirées held by Baroness Hélène d’Oettingen and Serge Férat for members of the Russian and French avant-garde (1912–13). Visited Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Leipzig and Baden-Baden (1913). Moved into his own house at 107 Rue Brancas in Sèvres (1913–14). Returned to Russia following the outbreak of the First World War (1914). Visited Petrograd and settled in Tauride Province (1914). Lived in Norway (1915–17), where he invented the optophonic piano, which simultaneously generated sounds and projected coloured lights onto a screen (1916). Gave the first performances of the optophonic piano in Christiania and Stockholm (1916). Returned to Russia following the February revolution (1917) and helped to decorate Petrograd on the first anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution (1918). Taught at the State Free Art Studios/VKhUTEMAS in Petrograd (1918–19) and Moscow (1919–21). Married a woman in Moscow (1919), who died giving birth to his son Eugène (1920). Visited the Ukraine and the Crimea (1920). Designed a new version of the optophonic piano called the clavier optique (1921–22) and held a series of optophonic concerts in Moscow, where he met and married the pianist Pauline Boukour (1923–24). Emigrated to France with his family (1925). Patented the optophonic piano in France (1925) and gave optophonic concerts in Paris, Riga and Berlin (1925–29). Founded the Académie optophonique on Rue Cambronne and continued to study the relationship between colour and sound (1927). Birth of his son Michel in Paris (1928). Started working in a more Surrealist style (late 1920s). Joined the Confédération des Travailleurs intellectuels (1930). Birth of his daughter Tatiana (1934). Invented the multiperco for making fizzy drinks (1934), the photochromometer for determining the quality of precious stones (1938) and the chameleon for making people and objects invisible (1939–41). Birth of his son Dimitri (1942). Arrested by the Gestapo (1943) and deported to Germany (1944), where he died in Auschwitz concentration camp (1944). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1907). Contributed to Wreath-Stephanos (1907–08), Moscow Fellowship of Artists (1908), Link (1908), Fellowship of South Russian Artists (1908), Wreath-Impressionists (1909), New Society of Artists (1909), Impressionists (1909–10), Salon d’Automne (1910, 1911, 1913), Salon des Indépendants (1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1926–40), Modern Painting in Ekaterinodar (1912), Moderne Bund at the Zurich Kunsthaus (1912), III Beeldende Kunstenaars in Amsterdam (1914), Exhibition of Studies (1917), World of Art (1918), Exhibition of Pictures and Sculptures by Jewish Artists (1918), Exhibition of Modern Painting and Drawing (1918), I State Free Exhibition of Works of Art (1919), Die erste russische Kunstausstellung in Berlin (1922), Abstrakte und surrealistische Malerei und Plastik at the Zurich Kunsthaus (1929), Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne in Paris (1937), Salon des Tuileries (1939), Exposition d’art sur la Corse (1939), Salon Réalités Nouvelles (1939) and Salon de Peinture Musicaliste in Limoges (1939). One-man shows at the Galleri Blomqvist in Christiania (1916), Rutland Gallery in London (1970), Galerie Jean Chauvelin in Paris (1970), Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris (1972–73), Galerie Brusberg in Berlin (1983), Galerie Verneuil Saints-Pères in Paris (1984), Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (2002), Russian Museum in St Petersburg (2002, 2007) and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow (2007).