Serge Férat (1881 - 1958)

Serge Férat

Serge Férat, born Count Sergei Nikolaevich Iastrebtsov (Russian: Сергей Николаевич Ястребцов), was a Russian and French avant-garde artist, painter, graphic artist and scenographer.

Sergei Iastrebtsov was born into a Moscow noble family, studied at the Kiev Art School, and in 1902 moved to Paris and entered the Académie Julian in Paris. In France, he first took the pseudonym Alexander Rudnev, and then began to sign his works with the name Serge Ferat. In the magazine Les Soirées de Paris he signed his publications with the pseudonym Jean Cérusse.

In 1910, Ferat began working on still lifes, combining the techniques of cubism with the warm colors of Russian folklore. Until the 1920s, Serge Fera painted in the style of Picasso's cubism, and on glass. Serge Ferat knew and was friends with many contemporary European artists, including Guillaume Apollinaire and Amedeo Modigliani. In the surrealist production of Apollinaire's play Mamelles de Tirésias (Théâtre René Mobel, Montmartre), he contributed to the set and costume design.

Ferat was engaged in book graphics and scenography, was a member of the group "Golden Section", and collaborated with the Russian magazine "Blow". In 1949 he took part in the design of the anthology Poetry of the Unrecognized, and in 1953 his works were exhibited at the Great Exhibition of Cubism at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris.