Maro chermayeff biography of christopher

Serge Ivan Chermayeff was born 1900 in Grozny, in the Caucasus region of the Russian Empire. He arrived in England aged ten to receive a thoroughly English education. His parents had made some serious money due to the discovery of oil on land they owned. It is said that he took the name of the family with whom he lodged (arranged by his family) having entered Britain with a Russian Passport with the name Sergei Ivanovitch Issakovitchin (there is mention that the last name was added by the Russian Authorities to his Russian exit passport). Educated at Harrow, the money ran out when the family abruptly lost it in the 1917 Russian Revolution. His place at Cambridge suddenly evaporating before his eyes.  Perhaps this was the making of Chermayeff as the roaring 20s looked to be a very creative period for him. His adventures as a twentysomething, man about town, saw him as a tango dancer, Argentinian dance hall owner, journalist for Harmsworth’s Amalgamated Press before becoming a designer for a decorating company. His parents got to Paris in 1924 and Serge frequently visited them which gave him maximum exposure to French modernist design. He was considered one of the foremost figures in the modernist scene in London.

British Citizenship

In 1928 he took Br

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