"Portrait of Sasha"

Original oil on canvas painting by Nahum Tschacbasov of his daughter Sondra Tschacbasov (Sasha) at approximately the age of eleven or twelve. Signed lower left and dated 1942. Condition is very good. The painting has been relined. Sasha Tschacbasov later became the second wife of the famous American writer Saul Bellow. Presently unframed. Artist inventory label verso. Provenance: Estate of the artist Nahum Tschacbasov.

Nahum Tschacbasov
Biography :
Russian-American artist Nahum Tschacbasov (1899-1984) is known for his cubo-surrealistic works which feature a strong psychological element. Some of his work bears a resemblance to work of another Russian-American artist--David Burliuk. He was somewhat of a late starter, moving to Paris in 1932 to study under Adolph Gottlieb, Marcel Gromaire and Fernand Leger. He had his first exhibition in Paris in 1934. He then returned to the US where he joined Rothko and Gottlieb at the Galery Seccession. He was one of the co-founders of The Ten, a group of social conscious abstract painters which included Rothko, Gottlieb, Joseph Solman and Ilya Bolotowsky, among others.

In 1944, he began to work at Stanley Hayter's Atelier 17, a center for surrealistic ideas. Between 1936 and 1943, he had five one-man exhibitions at the ACA Galleries and participated in five group shows. He also exhibited at the Whitney, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Knox Albright Museum, the Chicago Institute of Fine Art and Corcoran, among others. His work can be found in the permanent collections of the Met, the Whitney, the Brooklyn Museum and the Jewish Museum.

Tschacbasov has been the subject of two recent retrospective at Fletcher Gallery, Woodstock, NY and Arthur Kalaher Fine Art, Southampton, NY. He was the subject of a retrospective at the National Arts Club entitled: "Nahum Tschacbasov: A Retrospective” in 2013.