Biography: The internationally known artist Svetlana Alexeieff Rockwell was born in Paris in 1923 to Russian parents who fled the aftermath of the Russian Revolution for a more serene life in Paris. Rockwell’s parents Alexandre Alexeieff and Alexandra Grinevsky, both artists, had their daughter in a city that lived and loved the arts in all forms. Paris in the 1930s was a haven for freethinkers and bohemians.