Background
Pinchus Kremegne was born on July 28, 1890 in Žałudok, Lida region, Vilnius Governorate, Russian Empire (now Belarus) into the family of a Jewish craftsman. Pinchus was the youngest of 9 children.
Portrait of Pinchus Kremegne by Modigliani
Krémègne
Pinchus Kremegne was born on July 28, 1890 in Žałudok, Lida region, Vilnius Governorate, Russian Empire (now Belarus) into the family of a Jewish craftsman. Pinchus was the youngest of 9 children.
He received primary art education at Vilnius Academy of Art, where he studied in 1909-1912. The academy was founded in 1866 by the graduate of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts Ivan Trutnev and existed till 1915. It was the leading art educational institution in the Belarusian-Lithuanian lands. During his studies in Vilnius, Pinchus met Chaim Sutin and Michel Kikoine. They became friends.
In Paris, Kremegne attended classes at the Paris National Higher School of Fine Arts for about a year. He studied in the studio of the artist-academician Fernand Cormon, master of historical and religious compositions, portraitist. However, the creative environment in which he was staying, his close contact with Marc Chagall, Fernand Léger, Ossip Zadkine, Amedeo Modigliani, and other avant-garde artists had a much greater influence.
A target of the infamously violent Russian pogroms, Pinchus Kremegne together with his friends Chaim Sutin and Michel Kikoine, fled to Paris in 1912. Kremegne did not have a passport at that time, and had to cross the border illegally. He lived in Montparnasse in the ‘beehive’ structure of artist studios known as La Ruche. There he met Marc Chagall, Fernand Léger, Ossip Zadkine, Amedeo Modigliani, etc. In this hostel for artists, with 140 studios, there was no electricity and heating, the artists worked only in daylight, heated by homemade ovens, with many cockroaches and rats. In Paris, Kremegne joined the group of painters of Montparnasse and soon became one of the respected residents of La Ruche.
In 1914, he exhibited 3 sculptural works at the Salon des Independents, but during the First World War Kremegne ceased sculpting and took to painting instead; a luscious style influenced by Cubism, Fauvism and Expressionism and exhibited at the Salon des Independents in Paris. Until Kremegne’s influence upon Frank Auerbach was recently recognised, his work had long been side lined by that of his friends Marc Chagall and Chaïm Soutine. It was he, who encouraged Soutine to come to Paris.
Kremegne left Paris to live in a small town in the Pyrenees called Ceret, a village a little inland from Collioure, which attracted other painters. Since 1916, famous Paris art dealers Leopold Zborowski, Paul Guillaume, and others became interested in the works of the artist. In 1919, the first solo exhibition of Kremegne’s works was held at the J. Povoltzky Gallery. Kremegne presented his works painted in 1918 during his stay in Ceret.
Kremegne took part in many exhibitions. Since 1921 - the Autumn Salon, since 1924 - the Salon of the Tuileries. He participated in group exhibitions in the gallery "Devambez" (1920) and "Hundred from Parnassus" (Café du Parnasse, 1921); exhibitions of Russian artists in the Paris galleries La Licorne (1923), d'Alignan (1931), L'Époque (the group of the magazine Numbers, 1931, 1932), La Renaissance (1932), Zak "(Organized by the magazine" Our Union ", 1936); in the London gallery "Whitechapel" (1921), others. In 1928, Kremegne’s works were presented at the exhibition "Contemporary French Art", held in the halls of the State Museum of New Western Art and the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Together with Chaim Soutine and Lazarus Volovik, Kremegne exhibited in 1924 in the Paris gallery "La Licorne", participated in the exhibitions of the Literary and Artistic Group "Via" (Café de Port-Royal, 1924).
In 1923, Pinchus Kremegne signed his first contract with the art dealer Paul Guillaume; in 1927 - contract with Paris gallery "Van Leer", where in 1927, 1929 and 1931 three personal exhibitions of the artist took place. In the 1930s, personal exhibitions of Kremegne were also held in Paris galleries "Druet" (1932), "Gerbo" (1936), in the artist's creative studio (1933). In 1920-1930s, Kremegne traveled often in France, went to Corsica, visited Sweden. In 1937, he lived for some time in Burgundy, in 1938 - near Bourges.
In 1940s, when hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed in France, Kremegne was hiding in the house of a village resident, along with the peasants working in the field. One of the Toulouse galleries supplied Kremegne with paints so that he could work.
By the end of 1944, Pinchus Kremegne returned to Paris. In 1945, he took part in the "Exhibition of Modern Russian Painters and Sculptors", organized by the "France-USSR" Committee of the XIV District of Paris; in 1946 - in the exhibition "In honor of the Victory", organized by the Union of Soviet Patriots (1946).
From 1949 to 1956, he lived and worked in Israel and participated in exhibitions in Jerusalem. In 1960, the artist bought some land in Ceret and built a house-workshop. This small unassuming house, a reflection of the man himself, is nestled into the mountain and overlooks the village. Throughout his creative work, Kremegne painted landscapes, portraits, still life and nu in a dynamic manner, stylistically close to expressionism.
He continued actively exhibit his works in France, Great Britain, the USA. In Paris, Kremegne’s personal exhibitions took place in many prestigious galleries: Creuze (1946); "Art vivant" (1951); "Mouradian-Vallotton" (1955); "Durand-Ruel" (1960, 1969); "J. Chalom "(1962); "Seine 38" (1974); London (in the galleries Redfern, 1954, Adams, 1960), Philadelphia (1958), Geneva (1969), Cannes (1974).
He participated in group exhibitions: "Russian artists-emigrants in Paris" in the London gallery "Redfern" (1957), "Russian artists of the Paris school" in Saint-Denis (1960) and in Paris (House of French thought, 1961), "Montparnasse artists "In London (" Goupil ", 1970)," Significant paintings of Russian artists in French collections "(Autumn salon, 1972)," The Russian view "in Heidelberg (1974), etc.
Kremegne died at the age of 91 in Ceret.