He started to take drawing lessons in Moscow. He spent his holidays in Naltchik, at his brother-in-law’s house, Serge Kissikev, who had as a preceptor one of Tchekhov’s younger brothers.The Kissilev family allegedly served as a model for Techekov’s painting «La Cerisaie». As a teenager, Poliakoff painted his first landscapes in Naltchik, exactly where Levitan, the leader of the Russian landscape painters, used to work. Poliakoff’s childhood was divided between his family life in Moscow, where he discovered religious icons while going to Church with his very pious mother, his cultural and aristocratic life with the Galitzines in Saint-Petersbourg, and with his sister Vera, who was hosting a literary parlor and his holidays on the Black Sea coast. He traveled in the south of Russia as far as Caucasia. With little interest in studies, he enjoyed reading more and discovered at an early age not only Russian literature but also all the western classics, thanks to the very well-stocked library of his brother Anatoly, his «spiritual guide». It was also Anatoly, a trained singer, who instilled Poliakoff the taste of opera and music. From the age of twelve, Poliakoff already played the guitar. Furthermore, he was fascinated by mathematics and algebra.

Beginning of the exile through Russia and Caucasia.

Dimitri, Serge, Nastia Poliakoff and cousin Galitzine in Tiflis, Caucasia, 1919.

He settled in Paris.

His work was exhibited for the very first time, with a group, at the Galerie Drouant. Every day, he dedicated several hours of work to painting. From this era, nothing remains, either for he painted several times the same canvas or because his work was scattered. A few reproductions published in Russian newspapers from and for emigrants in Paris, as well as a reproduction published in the catalog from Drouant, Paris, showed his academic learning of painting, through nudes and a male portrait.

Poliakoff left Paris for London, where he took classes at the Slade School of Art for two years. He got married with Marcelle Perreur-Lloyd, a woman from French and Irish origins who had lived in London for years. During those years in London, he took part in several movies as a guitarist. According to his own words, frequent visits to London museums helped him find himself. His preferences already geared toward Italians primitives painters, such as Cimabue, Giotto, Simone Martini. He was also interested in the Flemish school and Impressionism.

Velasquez and Cezanne, Gauguin and Seurat caught his eye. Among the modernists, he liked Klee for his sense of composition, and Juan Gris, who, as Poliakoff will later confide, «was already abstract, unlike Picasso and Braque». During this Londonian period, the Egyptians sarcophagus displayed at the British Museum were a revelation for Poliakoff. The proportions of the sarcophagus’ paintings were food for thoughts. The colour and substance puzzled him to the point that, one day, taking advantage of the guard’s absence, he scratched a corner to see the exact colour of the successives layers.

Poliakoff’s work was exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants; he was represented there until 1945. He met Sonia and Robert Delaunay, with whom he became a very close friend. From that time, he visited them once a week, on a fixed day. During those meetings, Delaunay was teaching his audience, explaining his painter friends his theories about simultaneous contrast.

Without influencing directly Poliakoff's work, Delaunay’s words about abstract art helped Poliakoff to progress. Soon, he exhibited his first abstract canvas at the Galerie «Le Niveau à Paris». Kandinsky was the first to recognize the qualities of the young abstract painter. « For the future, I bet on Poliakoff» Kandinsky said. The same year, Poliakoff met Otto Freundlich too: the man, the abstracted gravity of his painting impressed him very deeply.

Poliakoff’s first abstract painting exhibition (work from 1942 to 1945) took place at the Galerie de l’Esquisse. The critic Frédéric Noël mentioned the emergence of the new abstract painter in his exhibition section. The critic Guy Domand noticed too the participation of Poliakoff to the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles.

He received the Kandinsky Price, created by Nina Kandinsky and aimed to encourage young abstract painters.

He exhibited his paintings at the Galerie Denise René and his gouaches at the Galerie de Beaune. He participated to the Salon de Mai. Parisian critics followed and noticed his evolution. Frank Elgar emphasized in the publication «Carrefour» his «preference» for Poliakoff’s canvas at the Salon de Mai.

His exhibitions increased. His work already had trustly collectors. He stopped playing music as a profession and stayed focus on painting thanks to a contract with the Galerie Bing. The same year, he had the opportunity to see two Malevitch’s canvas, including «White square on white background» owned by the Museum of Modern Art of New York, at the exhibition «L’Art du XXe Siècle», organised at Le Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris. This was a real shock and a confirmation for Poliakoff, who then stated : « He (Malevitch) proved me once more the crucial role of the matter’s vibration. Even if it has no colour, a canvas where matter vibrates stays alive». Poliakoff spent the summer at Gordes, Vaucluse, where he painted a fresco in Charles Estienne’s house.

His special exhibitions increased, as well as his participation to global exhibitions in France and abroad.

Received the Lissone Price.

He had the opportunity to see for the first time the whole Malevitch’s artwork during the exhibition organised at Berne’s Kunsthalle by Fran Mayer. He was deeply impressed. Two of his canvas on projection were used as decor for Jean Tardieu – Jacques Poliéri’s show at the Théâtre de l’Alliance française in Paris.

He received the International price of the Tokyo Biennale.

Retrospective at the Maison de la Culture in Caen.