MANEVICH Abram (Abraham) Anshelovich

November 25, 1881 (Mstislavl, Mogilev province) — June 30, 1942 (New York)

Painter, graphic artist

Abram Manevich was born to a patriarchal Jewish family. Since early childhood he was interested in drawing, and parents found a teacher — painter for education. In 1903 Manevich entered Kiev Art School, studied under the guidance of N. I. Murashko. In 1904 he took part in the exhibition of Moscow Society of Art Lovers in Kiev and in Moscow. One year later Manevich finished the Art School, and he was granted a scholarship for improvement of his mastery in Europe. In 1905 the artist moved to Munich and continued his education at Munich Academy of Arts and at Anton Ažbe’s school of painting.

In 1907 the first personal exhibition of Manevich was held in the gallery Kunstverein in Munich. In the same year he returned to Kiev. In 1909 the personal exhibition of Manevich was held at Kiev Fine Art Museum; the works were later exhibited in Odessa and in Kharkov.

In early 1910s the painter travelled through Switzerland, England, Italy; he visited Maxim Gorky on the Kapri Island. In 1912–1915 he lived in Paris. He participated in the Paris Salon. In 1913 the personal exhibition of the artist was organized at the gallery Durand-Ruel. After returning from Paris, Manevich lived in Kiev, made several short trips to Moscow and Petrograd, where his personal exhibition was held in the Art Bureau of N. E. Dobychina in 1916. In 1915 Manevich became a member of the Jewish Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (EOPKh) in Petrograd.

After the revolution of 1917, Manevich became a professor of the Ukrainian Academy of Fine Arts, and taught till 1921. In 1919–1920 Manevich joined the art section and participated in foundation of the museum of plastic arts the Kultur-Liga (“Culture League”).

In 1921 the artist emigrated, lived in Warsaw for some time and organized his personal exhibition. In 1922 he moved to the USA. In the mid-1920s Manevich obtained the recognition in the New World; the personal exhibitions of Manevich were held in Philadelphia (1923), New York (1924, 1925, 1927, 1932), Chicago (1926), Montreal (1930), Boston (1934), and Toronto (1938). In 1925 the artist exhibited his works at the International exhibition of painting in Pittsburgh.

In 2001 the retrospective exhibition of works by Manevich was held in Kiev and was dedicated to the 120th anniversary of his birth.

Abram Manevich is little-known in Russia, in the meantime he is one of the most interesting and significant painters of the first third of the 20th century, who has his own recognisable style of painting. His early works were close to chamber lyric landscape; he followed the traditions of I. I. Levitan. The artist’s main subject of painting was life of Jewish shtetls in Russia. In 1910s, after trip abroad, the manner of painting changed. His works became bright, with rich colours and large dabs. After emigration, since the mid 1920s, the artist painted views of American province, neglected streets, outskirts with ramshackle houses and shops. Manevich worked as a genre and portrait painter.

Works by Abram Manevich are in many private and museum collections, including the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, the State Russian Museum and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Kiev Museum of Russian Art, Luxembourg Museum in Paris, the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon, the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York and others.