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i was very much impressed by the visual impact of the revolution. all the great marches through the nevsky prospect [in st. petersburg, russia] with red banners, gigantic red banners.
—alexander liberman on his earliest childhood memories in an interview with the bomb magazine.

 

Orb XIV painting by Alexander Liberman

early years

 

Alexander Liberman was born in 1912 in Kiev into the family of rich timber merchant Simon Liberman and theatrical actress Henrietta Pascar. After the Bolshevik Revolution, Simon took a post of economic advisor at the Soviet government and sent his son to an English boarding school. “If you can survive that, you can conquer anything,” Alexander would recall of this period. Then he moved to Paris to study mathematics, architecture, philosophy, and painting.

Equipoise by Alexander Liberman, 1967. Steel. Smithsonian American Art Museum, gift of the artist.

Abstraction V painting by Alexander Liberman, 1964. Lithograph on paper. Smithsonian American Art Museum, museum purchase.

Untitled painting by Alexander Liberman, 1966. Color lithograph on paper. Smithsonian American Art Museum, museum purchase.

Equipoise by Alexander Liberman
Untitled painting by Alexander Liberman
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all art is solitary and the studio is a torture area. —alexander liberman

 

Alexander Liberman stands in his studio with a recent work of welded and painted steel

Alexander Liberman stands in his studio with a recent work of welded and painted steel. Photo via Getty Images.

 

 

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