Biography
Pierre Dimitrienko (b. Paris, France 1925 - d. Paris 1974), of Ukrainian-Greek parents, studied architecture at the Ecole de beaux-arts, Paris (1944-6) but was also a self-taught painter who went to the studio of the Dutch painter an dart critic, Contrad Kickert (1882-1965). Dimitrienko's first solo exhibition was at the Galerie de la Paix, Lausanne (1950) followed by his first own in Paris in 1953 at Lucien Durand, which was followed by two others there. He moved to Nivillers (Oise) in 1955. He was awarded a prize at the Paris Biennale (1959) and first prize at the Tokyo Biennale of young artists (1964). In 1963 he began to paint pictures with shadowy oval forms evocative of the human head and entitled Presences. From 1965 he lived mainly in Paris, on the Balearic Islands and near Roubaix where he often worked in isolation and rarely exhibited; his late works are anguished in character, and include figures that have been gagged and shot.
