The life of Chaim Livchitz spanned one of the most vibrant periods in art history. Born in Vitebsk, Russia (now Belarus) in 1912, his art education started under the tutelage of Marc Chagall. In 1927 Chaim Livchitz entered Vitebsk Art College that had become famous through its close association with Chagall, Kazimir Malevich, and El Lisitsky. After his graduation from Vitebsk Art College in 1930, Livchitz moved to Leningrad where he became a student at the prestigious Academy of Fine Arts. In Leningrad he studied under such prominent Soviet painters as Isaac Brodsky and Boris Ioganson and was also part of the student group associated with Pavel Filonov, one of the leading figures of the Russian Avant-Garde. Livchitz graduated from the Academy in 1938 as one of its best students. Following WWII he settled in Minsk where he was soon invited to teach at the University of Art and Theater. In 1979, after almost 30 years of teaching, Chaim Livchitz was forced into retirement for giving his son permission to immigrate to the United States. The later Soviet years marked a return to Jewish themes for Livchitz as he concentrated intensely on the subject of Jewish experience during Holocaust. In 1991 Livchitz immigrated to Chicago, where he completed his last major painting Prayer in Minsk six months prior to his death on September 4, 1994.

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