Background
Ossip Lubitch was born on December 6, 1896 in Grodno, Vilnius Governorate, Russian Empire (now Belarus) into a Jewish family of blacksmiths.
artist illustrator painter sculptor
Ossip Lubitch was born on December 6, 1896 in Grodno, Vilnius Governorate, Russian Empire (now Belarus) into a Jewish family of blacksmiths.
He graduated from Grodno Gymnasium. He started studying at the Fine Art Academy in Odessa in 1915. At that time, Odessa was more liberal and less academic in the field of teaching fine arts. Ossip studied not only classical Russian painting (Issak Levitan), but also creativity of the Peredvizhniki artists, influenced by the Barbizon School and the Impressionists. In addition, he was interested in Western painting, from the Italian Renaissance to Fauvism. At the beginning of the 20th century, Odessa was a major center of avant-garde art.
In 1919, Lubitch moved to Berlin with a group of Russian artists including Pavel Tchelitchev, Jean Pougny and Lazare Meerson. While in Berlin, he worked as a decorator for the Berlin Opera as well as local cabarets. Together with his friend Lazar Meerson, art director and innovator of French cinema, Lubich made scenery for films. For four years, spent in Berlin, Lubich acquired a solid experience, he was successful and gained popularity.
In 1923, a contract for the decoration of a Montmartrean cabaret gave him this opportunity to go to Paris, where he met fellow artists Antoine Bourdelle and Pavel Chlischchev. He decorated cabarets, restaurants, and apartments. It was an era of art deco. At the same time, he often visited museums and academies, intensively studying the works of French artists of the 19-20th centuries. The works of Rembrandt, Domier, Goya and Degas revealed to him the rich inner world of these great artists and had a significant influence on Lubich's world view. Sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, who appreciated Lubich’s talent and supported him in every possible way, helped him to organize an exhibition at the Tuileries in 1925. Lubich's works were exhibited in the Autumn Salon in 1926. In 1925, he was accepted into the Salon des Tuileries, and in 1934, he published "Cirque" which featured sketches and poems of circus scenes.
Since 1926, Ossip Lubich regularly exhibited in the Autumn Salon. In 1920-1930, he actively participated in group exhibitions of Russian artists, which took place in Paris galleries "Dominique" (1929), "Zak" (1930), "L'Époque" (1931, the group of the journal "Numbers"), d'Alignan "(1931)," Quatre Chemins "(1932). He exhibited works in the salons of the Exchange (1934), Contemporary Art (1936), Populiste (1937), at the exhibitions "The Ballerinas, Coryphaeus, Acrobats" (Paris, 1937), "Paris Artists 1925-1935" (Brussels, 1935), at exhibitions in Zurich (1935), Limoges (1936) and London (1936).
In 1940, he did not register as a Jew at the police prefecture. In 1944, he was arrested and was sent to a concentration camp in Drancy, barely missing the convoy to Auschwitz. While he was imprisoned from July-August 1944 in Drancy, he dug ditches during the day and sketched scenes of camp life in the barracks after work. Somehow, he was lucky enough to escape the camp with his life. One day in August, the German guards fled because Allied forces were in the region. Ossip walked back to Paris which was liberated by US troops on August 25. It was not until after the war that his career began to pick up. During this time, he met and married his wife Suzanne Boulboire, also a painter whom he later had a daughter with. After the war, he returned to Paris where he worked until his death. Lubitch spent his time painting portraits, still life and landscapes, and exhibited his work around the world in New York, Milan, Jerusalem and Paris.
He held personal exhibitions in Paris galleries "Zak" (1948), "Le Garrek-Sagot" (1950), "Durand-Ruel" (1967) and in the salon "de la Rose-Croix" (1983), as well as in the National Museum "Bezalel" in Jerusalem (1950), Milan (1952), Turin (1953) and New York (1957). He participated in group exhibitions, including exhibitions "Russian artists of the Paris School" in the Museum of Saint-Denis (1960) and in the House of French thought in Paris (1961), gallery "Motte" (exhibition "Vision russe", 1973), etc. In 1975, Lubich published collection "Drawing and sepia" (publisher P. J. Balbo).
Themes for his paintings Lubich found in everything that surrounded him. For him, everything was amazing: faces, objects, interiors, landscapes. Especially, he was attracted by the atmosphere in circus, theater. In the early 1930s, the circus - clowns, dancers, harlequins - became one of the major themes of his works.
Quotations: "If my drawings arouse the interest of friends, it will be the best reward for the work," admitted Lubich
Quotes from others about the person
Jean Dalvez: "Ossip Lubich always drew. He began drawing at the age of 12, although at the same time he was intensively engaged in music. But vision prevailed over hearing."
During World War II, he met and married his wife Suzanne Boulboire, also a painter whom he later had a daughter with.