The Clowns By Isaac Palais

Isaac Païles grew up in a family of goldsmiths. His maternal grandfather was a wood engraver. At thirteen, Isaac became interested in printmaking and sculpture. His first sculptures are kept in the kyiv museum. In 1910, he entered the Beaux-Arts in kyiv where he met Issachar Ryback and Max Kaganovitch, who would become his dealer forty years later. Helped by his father, Isaac Païles arrived in Paris in 1913. He shared a room with Mané-Katz and studied sculpture for a year at the Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1914, he decided to return to kyiv. He goes to the Russian embassy, steals money from a drawer and arrives in Russia via London, Norway, Sweden and Finland. When the revolution broke out in Russia, he was sent to the front in the Crimea but, refusing to continue fighting, he embarked without papers or ticket on a boat. In exchange for a gold ring, the captain of the boat deposits it in Constantinople. Païles dreams of returning to Paris. He embarks again and improvises himself as a sailor to reach France. He arrived in Paris in 1919 and went straight to the La Rotonde café. There he finds his friends Michel Kikoïne and Isaac Dobrinsky. He welcomes her to his home and gives her clothes. In the early days, to earn a living, Païles became a model. In 1920, he abandoned sculpture for painting and began to collect primitive art. It was then that he came into contact with the art lovers of the time: Commissioner Zamaron, the merchants Paquereau and Georges Bernheim. Attached to his Slavic origins, Païles participates in the activities of the Society of Russian Artists, chaired by Wildhopff and led by Russian artists from Montparnasse. When World War II breaks out. Païles settled in the Pyrénées-Orientales and then in Auvergne. He then joined a resistance group in Rochefort. Called to compulsory labor in Germany, he decides to hide in an attic where he will remain for eleven months. At the Liberation, he returned to his studio in Montparnasse and continued to paint. In 1948, Isaac Païles produced his first abstract works.