Levin Joseph (1894-1979) Guitarist

Abstraction with figure on guitar
Signed lower left in ballpoint pen

Born in Saint-Petersburg, he grew up there and attended the Imperial Institute of Painting directed by Roerich. His teachers were Resberg, Moscovici, Navozov and Fimon. Then in 1917, he went to New York and studied at the National Academy of Drawing. In 1919, he returned to Russia and adhered to the Imaginist Manifesto published by Essenin. He traveled to China in 1922. In 1926, he went to Paris where he took up a studio. His painting evolves towards an abstract language, where he elaborates his idea of the centrifugal force, symbol of the Universal Movement which he calls "Over-Consciencilism"