Aleksandra Aleksandrovna Ekster (Russian: Александра Александровна Экстер, Ukrainian: Олександра Олександрівна Екстер; 6 January 1882 – 17 March 1949) was a Russian-French painter (Cubo-Futurist, Suprematist, Constructivist) and designer.

She was born Aleksandra Aleksandrovna Grigorovich in Białystok, Imperial Russia (now Poland) to a wealthy Belarusian family. Her father, Aleksandr Grigorovich, was a wealthy businessman. Young Aleksandra received an excellent private education, she studied languages, music, art, and took private drawing lessons.

In 1903, Aleksandra Grigorovich married a successful Kiev lawyer, Nikolai Evgenyevich Ekster. The Eksters belonged to cultural and intellectual elite of Kiev. At that time she studied painting at Kiev art school. In 1907, she spent several months with her husband in Paris, and there she attended Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Montparnasse. From 1908 to 1924 she intermittently lived in Kiev, St. Petersburg, Odessa, Paris, Rome and Moscow.

Her painting studio in the attic at 27 Funduklievskaya Street was a rallying stage for Kiev's intellectual elite. There she was visited by poets and writers, such as Anna Akhmatova, Ilia Ehrenburg, and Osip Mandelstam, dancers Bronislava Nijinska and Elsa Kruger, as well as many artists Alexander Bogomazov, Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine, and students, such as Grigori Kozintsev, Sergei Yutkevich, and Aleksei Kapler among many others. In 1908 she participated in an exhibition together with members of the group Zveno (Link) organized by David Burliuk, Wladimir Burliuk and others in Kiev.

Alexander Porfyrovych Archipenko (also referred to as Olexandr, Oleksandr, or Aleksandr) (Ukrainian: Олександр Порфирович Архипенко, Romanized: Olexandr Porfyrovych Arkhypenko) (May 30, 1887 – February 25, 1964) was a Ukrainian avant-garde artist, sculptor, and graphic artist.

Alexander Archipenko was born in Kiev, in present-day Ukraine (at the time a part of the Russian Empire) to Porfiry Antonowych Archipenko and Poroskowia Vassylivna Machowa Archipenko; he was the younger brother of Eugene Archipenko.

From 1902 to 1905, he attended the Kiev Art School (KKHU), after which he continued his education in the arts as the student of S. Svyatoslavsky in 1906 (also in Kiev). In the same year he had an exhibition in Kiev, together with Alexander Bogomazov. That same year, Archipenko moved to Moscow, where he had a chance to exhibit his work in some group shows.

He moved to Paris in 1908 and was a resident in the artist's Colony La Ruche, among émigré Russian artists: Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine, Sonia Delaunay-Terk, and Nathan Altman.

Krzysztof Penderecki (Polish pronunciation: [ˈkʂɨʂtɔf pɛndɛˈrɛt͡skʲi] (Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki), born November 23, 1933 in Dębica) is a Polish composer and conductor. His 1960 avant-garde Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for string orchestra brought him to international attention, and this success was followed by acclaim for his choral St. Luke Passion. Both these works exhibit novel compositional techniques. Since the 1970s Penderecki's style has changed to encompass a post-Romantic idiom.

He has won prestigious awards including Grammy Awards in 1987 and 1998 and 2001, and the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition in 1992. He has been called Poland's greatest living composer.

As well as the works already mentioned, his compositions include four operas, eight symphonies and other orchestral pieces, a variety of instrumental concertos, choral settings of mainly religious texts, as well as chamber and instrumental works.

Pavel Tchelitchew (Russian Павел Фёдорович Челищев) (21 September 1898, Moscow - 31 July 1957, Rome) was a Russian-born surrealist painter, set designer and costume designer. He left Russia in 1920, lived in Berlin from 1921 to 1923, and moved to Paris in 1923. In Paris Tchelitchew became acquainted with Gertrude Stein and, through her, the Sitwell and Gorer families. He and Edith Sitwell had a long-standing close friendship and they corresponded frequently.

His first U.S. show was of his drawings, along with other artists, at the newly-opened Museum of Modern Art in 1930. In 1934, he moved from Paris to New York City with his partner, writer Charles Henri Ford. From 1940 to 1947, he provided illustrations for the Surrealist magazine View, edited by Ford and writer and film critic Parker Tyler. His most significant work is the painting Hide and Seek, painted in 1940–42, and currently on display in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. He became a United States citizen in 1952 and died in Grottaferrata, Italy in 1957.

Sergey Vasilyevich Malyutin (Russian: Сергей Васильевич Малютин) (1859–1937) was Russian painter, architect and stage designer. He is credited with designing and painting the first Russian matryoshka doll (carved by craftsman Vasily Zvyozdochkin) in 1890.

The original matryoshka by Malyutin and Zvyozdochkin, 1890

Pertsov Building, 1906-1910, Moscow (designed by Malyutin together with N.K. Zhukov and B.N. Shnaubert)

A portrait of Dmitry Furmanov, 1922