Experimenting with Cubism at first, he began painting Jewish subject matter in the 1920s when critics and collectors began to appreciate his analytic Cubism and recognize his importance in the Russian vanguard movement.

Born in 1897 in Yelizavetgrad, Ukraine, Ryback studied at the Kiev Academy in Moscow from 1911 to 1916.

In 1921 he moved to Berlin, Germany, where he participated in the "Der Sturm" group. He returned back to Moscow in 1925 to design costumes for the Moscow Theatre, but moved to Paris in 1926.

In Paris, he developed a new style of Realism in his unsentimental yet strong portrayal of Russian Jewish life. Ryback became an important member of the Russian Jewish modernist movement that included Lissitsky, Altman, Aronson and Chagall.

He died suddenly in Paris in 1935, a few days after the opening of a retrospective exhibition of his work organized by the Wildenstein Gallery.

Source:
Russian Art and Books.com

Born in Ukraine in 1897, Ryback lived in Moscow in 1919 and 1920 and worked closely with the artists of the Russian avant-garde, in particular with El Lissitsky, Pevsner and Gabo. In 1921, he moved to Berlin where he associated with "Der Sturm". In 1925 he was invited back to Soviet Russia to design sets and costumes for the Moscow theatre. He finally settled in Paris in 1926 and there his artistic themes turned nostalgically to Russian Jewish life. In 1935, on the eve of the first large retrospective at Galerie Wildenstein, he suddenly died. In a review published in La Presse, Waldemar George commented: “Ryback is not a realist given to the interpretation of dramatic subjects. He is a visionary who transformed rags and tatters into sumptuous brocades. By virtue of his magical colours, human waifs are changed into kings of legend, the desolated sites of Eastern Europe glow with intense brilliance, and his muddy farmyard evoke a rich tapestry, woven with silken threads.”