Introduction

Amshey Marcovich Nurenberg (Russian: Амшей Маркович Нюренберг; 1887, Jelisavetgrad - 1979, Moscow) was an Ukrainian, Russian and Soviet painter, adherent of the School of Paris, graphic artist, art critic, and memoirist.

In 1904-10 he studied at the Odessa School of Arts with Professor Cyriaque Costandi. The years 1911-13 he spent in Paris and joined the artists of the "School of Paris" (École de Paris). During a year he shared an atelier with M.Chagall in the phalanstery La Ruche.

In 1913 he returned to Odessa, where headed the group of modernists "The Independent" and founded the private school "Free Studio" (1918). After the Russian Revolution (1917) he was the People's Commissar of Arts of Odessa and the head of the Committee for Protecting the Artistic and Historic Heritage.

Since 1920 he lived in Moscow, where he worked in the ROSTA Windows together with Vladimir Mayakovsky, was professor of history of the Western art at the VKhUTEMAS, and became the first art columnist of the newspaper "Pravda". In 1927-29 he was missioned to Paris by the People's Commissar for Education A. Lunacharsky to read lectures on new Soviet arts. In 1932 he has contributed to the organization of the Moscow Regional Union of Soviet Artists (МОССХ) which later has been extended to the USSR Union of Artists.

During his life, Nurenberg has worked in different styles — from avant-garde to realism, having always remained faithful to traditions of the School of Paris