Nicolas Pashkevich

Edited by Algimantas Kezys

Nicolay Paskevich (Russian: Nikolai Aleksandrovich Paskevich, Lithuanian: Mykolas Paškevičius, born: 18 August 1907 in Riga, Latvia, died: 19 May 2003) was a Russian painter working mostly in ink, acrylic, and pastel, exhibiting an interest in action, power, music, and western motifs.[1][2][3] Paskevich was the recipient of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.[4]

Biography
Paskevich was born in Riga, Latvia in 1907.[5] His father was from Belarus, his mother was from Vilnius.[6] In 1914, his family moved to Vitebsk, Belarus where he received his primary education.[5] In 1922, Paskevich began studying at the Vitebsk Art School under the mentoring of Kazimir Malevich, V. Volkov and T. Ende.[7] Upon graduation Paskevich was accepted by the Academy of Arts in Leningrad where he studied under artists Arkady Rylov and Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin. Having finished his studies at the Academy, he returned to Minsk and worked independently as an artist. Here he had his work exhibited in Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery.[5] In 1933 he married artist Ona Dokalskaitė, then known as Galina Alfonsovna Dokalskaya.[4][8]

When the Germans occupied Minsk at the beginning of World War II, the Paskevichs managed to escape to Kaunas, Lithuania, where they participated in the artistic life of the city for a few years. In 1940, prior to the German invasion during WW II, Paskevich received the Red Banner Badge as an artist in the socialist realism movement in the USSR and dined at the Kremlin with Joseph Stalin.[4] In 1944, he fled the war again and arrived in Bavaria, where he and his family were given shelter by the Americans in a Displaced Persons' Camp. In 1949 the Paskevich family emigrated to the United States.[5] He settled in New York City and started working for the City Services. Later Paskevich moved in the field of commercial art.

In 1994, Paskevich published his autobiography Mykolas Paškevičius.