Sergei Bongart

Sergei Bongart (1918–1985) was an American painter. Bongart is admired for his richly colored and emotionally expressive landscapes, still lifes and portraits. He was best known as a colorist, working in exaggerated color, using dynamic but carefully controlled color relationships and extolling the virtues of approaching painting as "color first, subject last".

Bongart was born in Kiev in Ukraine. He studied art in Kiev, Prague, Vienna and Munich, before emigrating to the United States in 1948. Bongart lived 6 years in Memphis, Tennessee, location of his sponsor.

In 1954 Bongart moved to Los Angeles where he founded an art school. He taught a number of aspiring young painters who later became well-known, nationally collected American artists—among them: Peter Liashkov, Del Gish, Sunny Apinchapong, Ron Lukus, Rulon Hacking, Melinda Miles, Patricia LeGrande Bongart, Susan Greaves, James Dudley Slay, Don Sahli and Ovanes Berberian.

In 1969 he established an art school in Idaho. He lived half the year in Santa Monica, California and the other half near Rexburg, Idaho. Much of his art reflects the rustic settings which reminded him of his homeland.

Bongart's work is featured in prominent museums, and has received many awards, including a 1982 Gold Medal from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame for his oil painting entitled "Spring Evening." In 1968, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member.

There are three books written to date about Bongart:

• Balcomb, Mary N. (2002). Sergei Bongart. Seattle: Cody Publishing. ISBN 978-1887532075. 
• LeGrande Bongart, Patricia (2000). Sergei Bongart: Touched by the Gods. P. Bogart. ISBN 978-0974471303. 
• Meyer, Claudia (1982). Sergei Bongart. Profiles In American Art. Ken Meyer Productions. 

• "National Academicians | National Academy Museum". Nationalacademy.org. Retrieved 2013-11-27.