Isaac Païlés (1895 Kiev - 1978 Paris) Ukraine Trees 46x33 Cm Sbdg

Isaac Païles grew up in a family of goldsmiths. His maternal grandfather was a wood engraver. At thirteen, Isaac became interested in engraving and sculpture. His first sculptures are preserved in the Kiev Museum. In 1910, he entered the Kiev Fine Arts School, where he met Issachar Ryback and Max Kaganovitch, who would become his dealer forty years later. With his father's help, Isaac Païles arrived in Paris in 1913. He shared a room with Mané-Katz and studied sculpture for a year at the Beaux-Arts de Paris.

In 1914, he decided to return to Kiev. He goes to the Russian embassy, steals money from a drawer and arrives in Russia via London, Norway, Sweden and Finland. When revolution broke out in Russia, he was sent to the front in Crimea, but refusing to fight any longer, he boarded a ship without papers or a ticket. In exchange for a gold ring, the ship's captain drops him off in Constantinople. Païles dreams of returning to Paris. He embarks again and improvises himself as a sailor to get to France.

He arrives in Paris in 1919 and goes straight to the Café de La Rotonde. There he met up with his friends Michel Kikoïne and Isaac Dobrinsky. Dobrinsky welcomed him into his home and gave him some clothes. At first, to earn a living, Païles became a model. In 1920, he abandoned sculpture for painting and began collecting primitive art. It was then that he came into contact with the art lovers of the day: the curator Zamaron, the dealers Paquereau and Georges Bernheim. Attached to his Slavic origins, Païles took part in the activities of the Société des artistes russes, chaired by Wildhopff and run by the Russian artists of Montparnasse. When the Second World War broke out. Païles moved to the Pyrénées- Orientales and then to Auvergne. He then joined a Resistance group in Rochefort.

Called up for compulsory labor in Germany, he decided to hide in an attic, where he remained for eleven months. After the Liberation, he returned to his studio in Montparnasse and continued to paint. In 1948, Isaac Païles produced his first abstract works.