ANDRE KOHN

The precise convergence of three dynamic forces-culture, environment and talent-combined to produce one of the most collected figurative painters on the American art scene today. Raised by an artistically gifted family near the Caspian Sea in southern Russia, Andre Kohn's childhood was marked by the natural splendor of mountains and sea, and by an unfettered access to all the creative arts.

His mother was a symphony violinist and his father a noted linguist, writer and sculptor. Both were educators trained in psychology who gave their only child unrestricted opportunity to explore the depths of art and his own obvious talent. Paintings, sculpture and books filled the family's tiny, one-bedroom home. It was a childhood without material possessions, but a childhood which taught him that the creative arts are the only true wealth. Kohn's parents also encouraged their son to draw on any surface-including the wallpaper in their home-which they simply re-papered when he grew old enough to favor sketchbooks. His memory of childhood is that "music and art were everywhere.

" While always innovative in drawing and painting, Kohn's professional art education began at age 15 when he was chosen to apprentice in the studios of Moscow's most esteemed Impressionist and Social Realist artists. At that time, Impressionism in Russia was nearing the end of a harmonic and prolific century-a prodigious period in Russian art that literally changed the world. Kohn's childhood and art education corresponded with an eruption of cultural progress in all the arts, including ballet, literature, music and painting. He was principally influenced by such artists as He followed the apprenticeships with a classical art education at the University of Moscow where he studied with members of the last great generation of Russian Impressionists. With his talent already in evidence, he quickly earned an invitation from the Artist's Union of Bulgaria (Europe) to stage a prestigious one-man show in one of their country's major exhibition halls. Still in his first year of college, Kohn was the only student so honored for the year.