MAK Paul (real name: Ivanov Pavel Petrovich)

July 16, 1891 (St. Petersburg) — June 22, 1967 (Brussels)

Graphic artist, scene-designer, painter

Paul Mak studied at the private School-studio of K. F. Yuon in Moscow in 1910s.

In 1912–1913 he worked for Moscow satiric magazine Theatre in Caricatures and Petersburg magazine Satirikon, where he met N. V. Remizov (pseudonym Re–Mi) and V. V. Lebedev. Mak worked as a portrait painter and fashion designer in St. Petersburg and in Moscow. He headed dance studio specialized in tango in Moscow.

In 1914 Mak entered Kiev Military School. He took part in the First World War, served in the Hussars regiment Death’s Head, he was wounded; and then he was awarded Battle Honours. In 1918 he was demobilized in rank of captain. In 1918 Mak was arrested for his renunciation to take off tsarist uniform and was imprisoned in Butyrka prison for six months.  In 1920–1921 he worked for the Theatre of Revolutionary Satire in Moscow.

In 1922 Mak went to Persia (Iran) through Turkestan and Afghanistan. For several years he worked as a trainer of racehorses. In 1920s — early 1930s Mak lived in Tehran and studied technique of Persian miniature. In late 1920s Mak was introduced to Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, who conferred him title of his court painter. Mak painted coronation portrait of Rezā Shāh on the Peacock Throne. The artist was engaged in book graphic art; he created illustrations for the books Scheherazade, Tamerlane, Genghis Khan, One Thousand and One Nights; he executed a series of drawings with scenes of everyday life of Mongols, Turkmen and Persians. At the end of his life, Mak painted allegorical paintings on modern subject; he often used the images from Russian mythology (Sirin, Alkonost, Gamayun, St. George the Victorious).

In 1929 Mak made a trip to Paris and London, exhibited his works at the Paris Salon, the Royal Academy of Arts and at the Leicester gallery in London. In the mid-1930s, after short stay in Athens and in Cairo, the artist moved to Belgium and lived in Brussels. After the World War II, Mak participated in many exhibitions in Belgium: almost every year his personal exhibitions were held in Brussels and its environs. The artist was awarded gold medal at the World exhibition in Brussels in 1958, where his works were shown at Iran pavilion.

The art of Paul Mak combined the style of art nouveau of the beginning of the 20th century and the traditions of Persian miniature. The artist developed his own recognizable manner of painting, having been under the influence of the art of Aubrey Beardsley, the masters of the group Mir Iskusstva (“World of Art”), in particular A. Y. Golovin, I. Y. Bilibin and V. M. Vasnetsov. Works by Paul Mak are characterized by decorativeness, bright colours, and refined drawing.

Paul Mak could be considered as newly-discovered name of Russian art. In Russia his works are little known to the public. Some works by Paul Mak are in the collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow and in the State Museum of Theatre and Music in St. Petersburg (former collection of N. D. and N. Lobanov-Rostovsky).