Serge CHARCHOUNE - Composition, 1971 - Handsigned lithograph

Serge Charchoune : (1889-1975) is a poet and painter of russian origins, who was born in Bougourouslan in Russia and who died in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges. Serge Charchoune studied painting in Moscow and tried, unsuccessfully to enter the École des Beaux-Arts. He could not draw. In 1912, he arrived in Paris, and joined the workshop of the cubist painter Henri Le Fauconnier. In 1914, he fled to Barcelona, where he met Arthur Cravan, the painters Albert Gleizes, Marie Laurencin and Francis Picabia, and Josef Dalmau. Thanks to the latter, Charchoune could exhibit abstract paintings which qualified himself as ornemental (1916 et 1917). After the bolchevic revolution in 1917, he tried to go back to Russia, but ended up in Paris. In 1920 he took part in the Festival Dada at the salle Gaveau, where he found Picabia. He used to go to Dada meetings at the café Certá and participated in Dada events. He created himself a Dada group entitled Palata Poetov (« La Chambre des Poètes »). In 1922, he went to Berlin, in the hope of getting a visa for the USSR. He create a Dada magazine in russian "Perevoz Dada" (« Le Transbordeur Dada ») and eventually gave up on Dada. In Berlin, he exhibited a new series of paintings which he called "ornemental cubism". He met other artists, disappointed with the Revolution, such as Isadora Duncan. Charchoune gave up the idea of going back to the USSR and came back to Paris (1923). After he met Amédée Ozenfant, il adopted the purist style. Starting from 1954, his work became more and more abstract and uncluttered, quasi monochrome, inspired by music. Until his death, Charchoune never denied his compliance with Dada. Man Ray made a portrait of Charchoune between 1922 and 1925.