View source for Pavel Tchelitchew

{{short description|Russian painter}}
{{family name hatnote|Fyodorovich|Tchelitchew|lang=Eastern Slavic}}

{{Infobox artist
| name             = Pavel Tchelitchew
| image            = Tchelitchew.jpg
| image_size       = 200px
| caption          = Pavel Tchelitchew, photographed by [[Carl Van Vechten]], 1934
| birth_name       = Pavel Fyodorovich Chelishev
| birth_date       = {{birth date|df=yes|1898|10|3}} (21 September Old Style)
| birth_place      = [[:ru:Дубровка (сельское поселение деревня Дубровка)|Dubrovka]], [[Duminichsky District|Duminichsky]], [[Russian Empire]]
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=yes|1957|7|31|1898|9|21}}
| death_place      = [[Grottaferrata]], [[Italy]]
| nationality      = [[Russians |Russian ]], American
| field            = [[Painting]], [[drawing]], [[stage design]], [[costume design]]
| movement         = [[Neo-romanticism]], [[surrealism]], [[futurism]], [[Constructivism (art)|constructivism]]
| works            = [[Hide-and-Seek (painting)|''Hide and Seek'']] (1940-1942), ''Phenomena'' (1936–1938)
| patrons          = [[Gertrude Stein]], [[Edith Sitwell]], [[Edward James]],<ref name="Gibson" />
 [[Lincoln Kirstein]]
| awards           = 
}}
'''Pavel Fyodorovich Tchelitchew''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|t|ʃ|ɛ|ˈ|l|ɪ|t|ʃ|ɛ|v}} {{respell|Che|LIT|chev}}; {{langx|ru|Па́вел Фёдорович Чели́щев}}) ({{OldStyleDate|3 October|1898|21 September}} – 31 July 1957)<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Chilvers|first=Ian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HFExDwAAQBAJ&q=tchelitchew|title=The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists|date=2017-09-27|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-102417-7|language=en}}</ref> was a Russian-born [[surrealism|surrealist]] painter, set designer and costume designer.

== Early life ==
Tchelitchew was born to an aristocratic family of landowners and was educated by private tutors.<ref name="KSL">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Pavel Tchelitchew|url=http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/services/gallery/russia/tchelitchew.php|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120824192633/http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/services/gallery/russia/tchelitchew.php|archive-date=2012-08-24|access-date=2020-11-11|website=[[The Kinsey Institute]]}}</ref> Tchelitchew expressed an early interest in ballet and art.<ref name="KSL"/> His family was forced to flee Russia after the [[Russian Revolution]] in 1917.<ref name="Routledge">David A. Gerstner, ed. ''Routledge International Encyclopedia of Queer Culture.'' (London: Routledge, 2006). p. 553.</ref> He studied under [[Aleksandra Ekster]] at the [[Kiev Academy]], and after graduation worked designing and building theater sets in [[Odessa]] and later Berlin from 1920 to 1923.<ref name="artnet">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Pavel Tchelitchew|url=http://www.artnet.com/artists/pavel-tchelitchew/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-11-11|website=[[Artnet]]}}</ref>

== Career ==
Tchelitchew moved to Paris in 1923 and became acquainted with [[Gertrude Stein]] and, through her, the [[The Sitwells|Sitwell]] and Gorer families. His interest in creating [[multimedia]] experiences during this period that drew together painting, film, and dance, led to collaborations with ballet [[impresario]] [[Sergei Diaghilev]] (stage designer for ''[[Ode (ballet)|Ode]]'' by [[Léonide Massine]], 1928) and choreographer [[George Balanchine]].<ref name="Routledge"/>  He and [[Edith Sitwell]] had a long-standing close friendship and they corresponded frequently. Tchelitchew painted six major portraits of Sitwell.<ref name="Gibson">{{Cite book|last=Gibson|first=Robin|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/44851362|title=Painting the century : 101 portrait masterpieces 1900-2000|publisher=[[National Portrait Gallery, London|National Portrait Gallery]]|year=2000|isbn=1-85514-289-9|location=London|pages=109|oclc=44851362}}</ref>

His first U.S. show was of his drawings, along with other artists, at the newly opened [[Museum of Modern Art]] in 1930. In 1934, he moved from Paris to New York City with his partner, writer [[Charles Henri Ford]]. In New York he continued to work with Balanchine and met his greatest champion and patron, [[Lincoln Kirstein]].<ref name="Routledge"/> From 1940 to 1947, he provided illustrations for the surrealist magazine ''[[View (magazine)|View]]'', edited by Ford and writer and film critic [[Parker Tyler]].

Tchelitchew's early painting was abstract in style, described as [[Constructivism (art)|constructivist]] and [[Futurism|futurist]] and influenced by his study with Aleksandra Ekster. After emigrating to Paris he became associated with the [[neo-romanticism]] movement. He continuously experimented with new styles, eventually incorporating multiple perspectives and elements of surrealism and fantasy into his painting. As a set and costume designer, he collaborated with Sergei Diaghilev and George Balanchine, among others.

Tchelitchew's works can be found in the collections of the [[Art Institute of Chicago]], the [[National Gallery of Art]] in Washington, D.C., the [[Courtauld Institute of Art]] in London, and the [[Philadelphia Museum of Art]].<ref name="artnet"/>

[[File:Pavel Tchelitchew - 'The Juggler', 1931.jpg|thumb|right|175px|''The Juggler'', oil on canvas painting by Pavel Tchelitchew, 1931]]

Among Tchelitchew's well-known paintings are portraits of [[Natalia Glasko]], Edith Sitwell, and Gertrude Stein and the works ''Phenomena'' (1936–1938) and ''[[Hide-and-Seek (painting)|Hide and Seek]]'' (1940–1942). Tchelitchew designed sets for ''Ode'' (Paris, 1928), ''L'Errante'' (Paris, 1933), ''[[Nobilissima Visione]]'' (London, 1938) and ''Ondine'' (Paris, 1939).<ref name="Yale">{{Cite archival metadata
|author = Finding aid author: Lisa Conathan
|title = Guide to the Pavel Tchelitchew Collection
|url = https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/1518
|repository = Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
|location = New Haven, CT
|date = 2009
|accessdate = November 10, 2020
}}</ref> He was known for camouflaging bodies and faces into geometric lines or landscaped forms on artwork. He used abstractionism and symbolism to convey both the outer and inner appearance of the object. 
[[File:Père Lachaise - Division 87 - Tchelitchev.jpg|thumb|upright|Grave of Pavel Tchelitchew]]

== Personal life ==
Tchelitchew became a [[Citizenship in the United States|United States citizen]] in 1952, but lived mainly in Italy from 1949.<ref name=":0" />

Tchelitchew was openly homosexual.<ref name="Gibson" /> He met the American pianist Allen Tanner in Berlin in the 1920s and the two men became lovers, moving to Paris together to pursue their artistic careers.<ref name="Dickinson">{{Cite archival metadata
|author = Collection register authors: Christy Fic, Lily Key, Stephanie McGucken, Dan
Plekhov, and Malinda Triller Doran
|title = Allen C. Tanner Papers
|url = http://archives.dickinson.edu/collection-descriptions/allen-c-tanner-papers
|repository = Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College
|location = Carlisle, PA
|date = 2018
|accessdate = November 11, 2020
}}</ref> In 1934, he left Tanner for the poet [[Charles Henri Ford]]. Ford and Tchelitchew had met shortly after Ford's arrival in Paris in 1933 to publish ''The Young and Evil''.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Pavel Tchelitchew - EXCELSIOR|url=https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/russian-pictures-l18112/lot.74.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111145828/https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/russian-pictures-l18112/lot.74.html|archive-date=2020-11-11|access-date=2020-11-11|website=[[Sotheby's]]}}</ref>

== Death ==
Tchelitchew died in [[Grottaferrata]], Italy in 1957.<ref name="Yale" /> His long time partner, [[Charles Henri Ford]], was by his bedside.<ref name="KSL" /> Tchelitchew's body is interred in [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]] in Paris.

==References==
<references/>

==Further reading==
*Parker Tyler, ''The Divine Comedy of Pavel Tchelitchew: A Biography.'' (New York: Fleet, 1967)

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120824192633/http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/services/gallery/russia/tchelitchew.php The Kinsey Institute: Biography and gallery of several paintings by Tchelitchew]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20051121143254/http://www.glbtq.com/arts/tchelitchew_p.html GLBTQ bio]
*[http://www.artnet.com/magazine_pre2000/features/mmendelsohn/mendelsohn8-27-98.asp Artnet review of "Pavel Tchelitchew: Landscape of the Body" exhibition]
*[https://www.moma.org/artists/5821 MoMA Collection]
*A guide to the [http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.tchelitchew Pavel Tchelitchew Collection] at the [http://www.library.yale.edu/beinecke/index.html Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tchelitchew, Pavel}}
[[Category:1898 births]]
[[Category:1957 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Duminichsky District]]
[[Category:People from Zhizdrinsky Uyezd]]
[[Category:Chelishchev family]]
[[Category:Russian male painters]]
[[Category:Russian surrealist artists]]
[[Category:Gay painters]]
[[Category:Russian gay artists]]
[[Category:Russian LGBTQ painters]]
[[Category:20th-century Russian painters]]
[[Category:20th-century Russian LGBTQ people]]
[[Category:20th-century Russian male artists]]
[[Category:White Russian emigrants to France]]
[[Category:White Russian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:White Russian emigrants to Italy]]