Andre Lanskoy was an Expressionist and Abstract painter born in Moscow, and was the son of a Russian count. He was a student at the School of Pages at the time of the Revolution. Lanskoy also lived in Kiev where he studied under the painter Soudeikine. He later settled in Paris in 1921 and attended the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere. During this time he studied and admired the work of Matisse and Van Gogh, whose influence is apparent in his earliest work.

In 1923, Lanskoy was discovered by Wilhelm Uhde who helped him to organize his first one-man show in Paris in 1925. These earliest paintings were painted from his imagination and memory, instead of models, and were also Expressionist still life, interiors and landscapes. Lanskoy would not show his work again until 1938 in the Netherlands, and would continue to regularly exhibit his work after that in Zurich, Paris, New York, London, Brussels and Berlin.

Lanskoy began to paint in a more Abstract style in the 1940s, and began to slowly move further away from Expressionism. These paintings were increasingly more graphic and colorful, full of geometric shapes and thickly painted brush strokes. It is his Abstract paintings and lithographs that Lanskoy is perhaps best known for, and are also the type of compositions that dominate his oeuvre.

From early on in his career, Lanskoy was fairly consistent about how he signed his artwork. On his Expressionist paintings, he typically used “Lanskoy” or “A. Lanskoy” in bold capital letters on the front of his canvas. This was carried on into his Abstract pieces, and also most lithographs and prints that he created.

Despite working in a variety of mediums from oil, watercolor, gouache, and lithograph, Lanskoy also created tapestry design.

Today, Lanskoy’s work is housed in modern art museums around the world, and perhaps in your own home. Still wondering about an Abstract painting hanging in your home? It could be by Andre Lanskoy…contact us to find out.