Etienne Roudenko Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1897 - d. 1987

Etienne Roudenko was born in Ekaterinoslav, Ukraine, now called Kremenchug, on July 31, 1897. He studied in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under the painter Camille Boiry [1871-1954] and in 1959 he moved to New York where drip action painting became his exclusive painterly expression. While Roudenko’s artistic force was clearly focused on Jackson Pollock-inspired techniques, he was also committed to refining his own specific style. Pollack worked in oils and enamel on canvas, while Roudenko worked in tempera and acrylics on artist’ board or heavy paper. Pollack’s drip action paintings were often mural-sized, while Roudenko limited his largest works to 30 x 40 inches. Stylistically, Roudenko, like Pollack, used a stick or hardened paintbrush to cast his web-like drippings. Also unlike Pollack, Roudenko worked in a two part process. He first created a background pattern with pools of one or two pigments that he then layered with a final orchestration of highly-controlled wispy drippings.