Serge Poliakoff was a Russian-born French modernist painter belonging to the ‘New’ École de Paris who and came to be considered one of the most powerful painters of his generation. He was born on this day, January 8, in 1900 (d. 1969). Poliakoff was photographed by Karsh during Karsh’s week or so in France in September, 1965; other sitters on the trip included Marc Chagall, Alberto Giacometti, and Max Ernst.