Nicolai Cikovsky (1894-1985) American, Hand-Painted Stonelain Ceramic Floral Vase. Stonelain was a glazing technique created by Frances Serber and William Soini to combine the durability of stoneware and the texture of porcelain. They collaborated with numerous artists to create vases and other pottery pieces that were highly decorated and given individual flair, making many of them unique or limited runs. The image is of a vase with flowers, signed on the right side near the bottom. Marked on base. paper label on inside rim with information and prior pricing. 

Condition: Commensurate with age. 

Size: 5 1/4 x 5 1/4 x 11 1/4 in. 

Nicolai Stepanovich Cikovsky was born on December 10th, 1894 in Poland. Little is known of his early life, although in 1923 he was living in Pinsk, a region in modern day Belarus, and emigrated to the United States, where he sought work as a painter. He worked both independently and for a number of galleries, and became a resident of the Yaddo artist colony in 1931. His first solo show, mainly of landscapes in oils and watercolors, was held at the Whitney Museum in 1933, and he became a member of the John Reed Club until it was dissolved in 1935. In the late 1930s he began publishing pieces in Communist journals like New Masses and International Literature, and was one of the founders of the Hampton Bay Art Group, a collective of Soviet émigré painters and sympathizers that included David Burliuk, Arshile Gorky, Moses Soyer, and Milton Avery. He also created several murals commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, and produced sculptures as well as Stonelain vases characterized by his expressive paintings. Although his early works were more abstract, he began shifting towards naturalism in the late 1940s. His political activism as well as work for the American Committee for Yugoslav Relief brought him to the attention of the FBI, who kept a file on him for the rest of his life. Nevertheless, he became a favorite artist of many politicians and socialites, eventually moving to Washington, D.C. for their patronage in the mid 1960s, where he lived until his death on May 6th, 1985. Many of his works are held in collections at the Whitney, the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. His son, Nicolai Cikovsky Jr. (1933-2016), was a noted art historian and curator at the National Gallery of Art, where several of his father’s pieces are on permanent display.

Commensurate with age.