Abraham Palatnik was one of the pioneering artists of kinetic art. He was born in Brazil to parents who emigrated from Ukraine. He studied both Art and engineering in Tel-Aviv, Israel, where he lived with his family between 1943 and 1947. He learned painting and art history with Aron Avni, sculpture with Sternshus, and aesthetics with Shor and Mário Pedrosa. He, then, returned to Brazil. In 1949 he began his research into luminous effects and movement. Also, during this period, accompanied by Ivan Serpa and Almir Mavignier, he visited and taught art to patients at a Psychiatric Hospital in Rio de Janeiro. Between 1954 and 1956, he joined the Grupo Frente, alongside Mavignier and Serpa. He participated in the 1st Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, 1951, where he received a special mention from the international jury. Abraham Palatnik exhibited at this occasion his first "Cinecromatic Apparatus".