Survage is a known member of the école de Paris, the famous Parisian movement made up immigrant artists such as Chagall, Picasso and Modigliani. Survage remained an innovator throughout his artistic career. His painting developed rapidly from a post-Cézannesque vocabulary, through a short period of Cubist expression to the radical form of Abstraction of his 'Rythmes Colorés' of 1911-1913. In 1919, Survage was a founder member of the second Section d'Or alongside Braque, Gleizes and Marcoussis. During the mid-1920s, Survage discovered the sinuous line, expressed in monumental female bathers. His profane icons of the 1940s reconnected with his Russian childhood.
During the 1950s he began combining sinuous and straight lines, each of which would represent a different reality. In 'Les Présences', Survage reserved the curves for the natural elements of foliage and fish, as well as for the hand of the man pointing at the foliage. The background, referring to the man-made world, is presented in a strict geometrical manner. Overseeing it all from the background is Survage's trademark black man with the large hat, a reference to himself.

Survage's works can be found in museums worldwide, including: Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon; National Museum of Arts, Moscow; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Musée national d'Art Moderne, Gentre Pompidou, Paris.