Arbit blatas biography for kids

Lithuanian–Jewish artist and sculptor

Arbit Blatas (November 19, – April 27, ), born Nicolai Arbitblatas, was an artist and sculptor of Lithuanian–Jewish descent.^[1]

Early life and career as an artist

Born in Kaunas on 19 November , Arbit Blatas was a precocious talent who began exhibiting in his native country at the age of He fled the communist revolution to Germany in , where he studied in Berlin, Munich, and Dresden.^[2] He left for Paris and, at the age of 21, became the youngest member of the School of Paris.

When Blatas was 24, the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris first acquired some of his paintings; he had already become a colleague and friend of many of the great figures of the Paris art world, such as Vlaminck, Soutine, Picasso, Utrillo, Braque, Zadkine, Léger, and Derain.^[3] He was to paint and sculpt them all, as well as Bonnard, Vuillard, Matisse, Dufy, van Dongen, Cocteau, Marquet, and many others.^[4&#