Nicolai Cikovsky

Nicolai Cikovsky
Desert, Department of Interior Building, Washington, D.C.
Born
Николай Степанович Циковский

(1894-12-10)December 10, 1894
Pinsk, Russian Empire (modern Belarus)
DiedMay 6, 1985(1985-05-06) (aged 90)
New York

Nicolai Stepanovich Cikovsky (December 10, 1894 – May 6, 1985) was an American painter. His work is held at the Whitney, MoMA, the Brooklyn Museum and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.[1] He also had three New Deal-era Treasury Section of Fine Arts commissions for public buildings: two murals at Maryland post offices and a set of the murals at the Interior Building in Washington, D.C.[2]

Born "near the Polish border," Cikovsky emigrated from Pinsk to the United States in 1923.[3] He published a number of pieces in proletarian (Communist) journals like New Masses and International Literature in the 1930s. He was a member of the John Reed Club and showed landscapes at the Whitney.[4] Cikovsky was a resident at Yaddo in 1931.[5] Cikovsky was one of the Soviet émigré painters who formed the Hampton Bays Art Group.[6][7] Other members of the group were David Burliuk, Arshile Gorky, Moses Soyer, Raphael Soyer, John D. Graham, George Constant, and Milton Avery.[6] Originally producing slightly abstracted images, by the late 1940s Cikovsky had moved toward naturalism.[8] Cikovsky died in Washington, D.C. at age 90.[9]

Nicolai Cikovsky Jr. (1933–2016) was a noted art historian and curator at the National Gallery of Art.[10]

References

  1. ^ "St. Louis Globe-Democrat 17 Jan 1949, page 7". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-04-05.
  2. ^ "Nicolai Cikovsky - New Deal Projects". Living New Deal (Geography Dept., UC Berkeley). Retrieved 2023-04-05.
  3. ^ "St. Louis Globe-Democrat 17 Jan 1949, page 7". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-04-05.
  4. ^ Hemingway, Andrew (2002). Artists on the left : American artists and the Communist movement, 1926-1956. New Haven. p. 69. ISBN 0-300-09220-2. OCLC 49225403.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ^ McGee, Micki; Library, New York Public (2008). Yaddo: Making American Culture. Columbia University Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-231-14737-8.
  6. ^ a b Jacobson, Aileen. "ON THE ISLE Painting a Story of Friendships." Newsday, Feb 24, 2008. ProQuest 280111106
  7. ^ Everitt, David. "That Other East End Artists Colony: A Glimpse at the Work of Hampton Bays' Russian Emigres." New York Times, Feb 10, 2008, pp. 1. ProQuest 897744241
  8. ^ "The Courier-Journal 08 Jun 1947, page Page 91". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-04-05.
  9. ^ "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VSFV-7T1 : 7 January 2021), Nicolai Cikovsky, May 1984; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
  10. ^ "Sun-Journal 08 May 2016, page A4". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-04-05.


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