Volovik Lazar (1902 – 1977)

Painter, theater and film artist. Born in Kremenchug, Ukraine. The son of a businessman. He lost his father early (1909), spent his childhood in poverty. In 1917 – 1919 he studied at an art school in Kharkov and in the Kyiv Academy of Arts. In 1919 – 1920 he decided to go to Paris, from Sevastopol he ended up in Constantinople and spent a year in Turkey, where he served as a model for artists to earn money. In 1921, without money, with the address: cafe “La Rouche”, he arrived in Paris. He found shelter with the sculptor V. Baidarov-Polyakov, the future father of the actress M. Vladi. In 1922 he attended classes at the Academy of Grand Chamie. From 1923 he lived in La Rouche. His neighbors were M. Kikoin, P. Kremen, X. Sutin, later – Y. Shapiro.

He painted portraits, nudes, landscapes, still lifes, scenes from theatrical life, bullfighting. Participated in group exhibitions of Russian artists in Parisian galleries together with H. Sutin and P. Kremen, N. Orik, V. Naiditsch and groups “Blow” and “Numbers”. In 1928 he was among the artists of the Russian department of the Exhibition of Contemporary French Art in Moscow. In 1930 he married the ballerina L. Grzhebina, the daughter of a book publisher. He always accompanied his wife on tour, worked as a theater designer, performed scenery and costume designs. In 1936, during her American tour, he had a solo exhibition in New York. In the 1930s, his entourage included the artists N. Altman, X. Granovsky, L. Indenbaum, D. Ryss, L. Kozintseva, I. Puni, R. Pikelny, S. Fotinsky, and the poet B. Poplavsky. During World War II he remained in Paris. He worked in pastels so that the house would not smell of paints. His workshop at La Rouche was looted and his paintings destroyed. In 1943, together with J. Braque, A. Derain and other artists, he participated in the exhibition “Intimite”. In 1944 he settled in Montparnasse. In Paris, he worked in the same workshop with W. Naiditsch at 51 Boulevard Saint-Jacques (until 1974). In the post-war years, he held solo exhibitions in the galleries A. Maurice (1952, 1958) and Serret-Fauveau (1963, 1965, 1967, 1972), participated in group exhibitions: “La Rouche” (Gallery Montparnasse, 1960), “Russian Artists of the Paris schools” (House of French Thought, 1961), “Russian View” (Heidelberg, 1974).

L. Volovik with his wife Leah Grzhebina. Sweden July 1957

Due to deteriorating health in 1974, he stopped painting. He died in 1977 in Paris. Posthumously, his work was featured in the exhibitions “La Rouche and Montparnasse” at the Musée Jacquemart-André (1978) and “The Mad Thirties” at the Grand Palais (1979). In 1984, a retrospective exhibition was held at the Collette Dubois Gallery. 1985 his works were exhibited at the exhibition “Paris School of Montparnasse. Pugni and his Circle” at the Salon de la Rose-Croix. In the 1980s, the widow gave a number of his works to the Pushkin Museum and the State Russian Museum.

Some of the artist’s works – http://www.artfira.com/