Alexandra EXTER

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Status, price and estimate of the artist Alexandra EXTER

Price of a painting by Exter: 900 – 300,000 €.

Estimate for a drawing or watercolour by the artist at auction: 500 – 30,000€.

If you wish to have a painting by the artist appraised, our experts are at your disposal for a free valuation.

Arts education

Alexandra Exter, who was born in Russia in 1882 and died in Paris in 1949, is known for her paintings, drawings, decorations, book illustrations and textile creations.

Born into a cultured bourgeois family, she received a good artistic education at an early age, both in drawing and music. She studied at the Kiev School of Fine Arts until 1907, before completing her studies at the Grande Chaumière Academy in Paris. In the meantime, she married a lawyer and together they ran an artistic and literary salon.

After travelling extensively, she left Russia and emigrated to France with her husband in 1924. From 1926 to 1930, she taught at the Fernand Léger Academy of Contemporary Art.

The influence of different artistic trends

Alexandra Exter is mainly known for her membership of the Russian avant-garde. However, there is an evolution in her work that reflects different sources of influence.

After deepening her knowledge of European painting, Alexandra Exter became interested in Cubism, as shown for example in her series of paintings of Bridges and Cities (1911, 1912) which show a geometric treatment of space inspired by urban modernity.

Introduced to the circle of a great Parisian baroness, she then made the acquaintance of Léger, Braque, Picasso and even Apollinaire, whose influence is evident in her works, which favour colour. Finally, her discovery of Futurism also influenced her and led to the development of her work towards “cubo-futurism” (a Russian synthetic movement combining Cubist, Futurist and neo-Primitivist principles), of which she was one of the representatives.

She participated in and even organised numerous avant-garde exhibitions in France and abroad, such as the exhibitions of the Valet de Carreau and the Union of Youth in Moscow, the Section d’Or in Paris, the International Exhibition of Free Futurists in Milan, and the Salon des Indépendants in Paris.

A wide variety of works

Her work is directly related to her influences and is characterised by a great diversity: Alexandra Exter produces paintings as well as costumes and sets.

She exhibited her work for the first time in 1908 at the exhibition Le Maillon, which she organised herself in the Ukrainian capital with David Bourliouk, where her early paintings and borderies with a Russian folk-art influence were presented.

She created sets, such as those for Alexander Taerov’s Kamerny Theatre in Moscow in 1915, covering the walls, stairs and stage curtain with her paintings.

She also designed clothes and costumes, such as the costumes for Oscar Wilde’s play Salome in 1922. She also designed modern clothing for pavilions at Russian agricultural and industrial exhibitions. She also illustrated books, notably for Flammarion and its Père Castor collection from 1936.

Finally, she participated in exhibitions where she sometimes presented her works. For example, in 1924 she took part in the International Art Exhibition in Venice, Italy, where she also helped to organise the Soviet pavilion, and in 1936 she took part in the New York exhibition Cubism and Abstraction.

Appraise and sell a painting by Alexandra Exter

If you own an Alexandra Exter painting or any other sculpture, ask for a free estimate via our online form.

You will then be contacted by a member of our team of experts and auctioneers to give you an independent view of the market price of your painting. In the event of a sale, our specialists will also advise you on the various options available to sell your work at the best price.