1944

The Eye

American (born Russia), 1898 - 1957

Pavel Tchelitchew left his native Russia for Paris at an early age, and then established a successful career in New York. Tchelitchew had dual talents as a fine artist and as a designer of theatrical sets and costumes. This sinuous drawing communicates Tchelitchew’s fascination with the body and its organs. The eye was a prevalent motif in Surrealist art, poetry, and literature, and the magazine View—edited by Tchelitchew’s partner, Charles Henri Ford—was subtitled “through the eyes of poets.”