Pavel Tchelitchew

Pavel Tchelitchew was a Russian-born Surrealist painter, set designer and costume designer from an aristocratic landowning family that fled Russia after the 1917 Revolution. He studied under Alexandra Exter at the Kiev Academy before working as a theatrical designer in Odessa and Berlin, then moved to Paris in 1923, where he became close to Gertrude Stein and the Sitwell circle. In 1934 he relocated to New York, where he produced his best-known paintings, including Phenomena and Hide and Seek, exploring bodies and faces dissolved into geometric and landscape forms.