Pierre Dmitrienko (French, 1925-1974)

Biography

The son of a Russian father and a Greek mother, Pierre Dmitrienko was raised in Paris. After studying at the École des Beaux-Arts from 1944 to 1946, he was drawn to the Montparnasse art academies. He embraced abstract art, frequenting the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, and made his debut in 1947 at "Les Mains Éblouies" group show at Galerie Maeght. His career took off quickly. Beginning with an exhibition at the Hugo Gallery in New York in 1949, he participated in numerous exhibitions in Zurich, Brussels, Berlin, Stockholm, and London over the next five years. He had his first solo show in 1950 at the Galerie de la Paix, and in 1953, he held the first of four exhibitions at the esteemed Galerie Lucien Durand, a key dealer and patron of young abstract painters in Paris. He then moved to Galerie Jacques Massol in 1958, where he held annual exhibitions until 1961.

During the 1950s, Dmitrienko participated the Salon de Mai (1950–1963), the Salon d'Octobre (1952), and the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles (1957–1960 and 1962). He was invited to exhibit at the French Pavilion at the International Exhibition of Brussels (1958), the Venice Biennale (1960), and the São Paulo Biennale (1961).

Dmitrienko was the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the Prix Pacquement (1954), the Premier Prix de la Biennale de Paris (1959), the Guggenheim Prize in New York (1961), the Carnegie Prize in New York (1963–1967), and the First Prize for Young Painters at the Tokyo Biennale (1964).