Summer Landscape 

Michel Kikoine rendered this unnamed “Summer Landscape” with oil on canvas. Kikoine was part of the School of Paris, a group of émigré artists working between the wars, many of whom were Jewish. Kikoine, like many of his peers, came from Eastern Europe and made Paris his home. In his early life, Kikoine experienced the tumultuous political upheavals of the Russian Empire, events which deeply shaped his identity and artistic vision. In this landscape, it seems Kikoine seeks refuge from the human world in the natural one. The heavy brushstrokes evoke an emotionally charged response to nature. Yet even here, one senses a deep anxiety, a feeling that the forest itself might not be a safe haven. The painting is both an escape and a confrontation with the sense of rootlessness experienced by so many in the diaspora. It reminds us of the complex interplay between identity, place, and belonging.