(b Moscow, 3 Nov 1931; d Moscow, 12 Dec 1986). Russian painter. He was born to a working family. In 1954 he entered the In Memory of 1905 Moscow Regional Art College, from which he was soon expelled owing to his unconventional conduct. He developed as an artist independently and first came into contact with original works of Western abstract art at the 1957 Global Youth and Students’ Festival, Moscow. His acquaintance with George Costakis and the latter’s collection of Russian avant-garde art was also significant in his artistic development. Exhibitions in local salons and abroad (the first at Galerie Motte, Geneva, in 1965) displayed the stark originality of his temperamental, even tempestuous, style, which may be termed ‘figurative Tachism’. His oil, watercolour and gouache portraits, for example of George Costakis (1956; Athens, Costakis priv. col.) and D. Planvinsky (1976; Moscow, Rusanov priv. col.), landscapes, including the Church in Peredelkino (1960; Athens, Costakis, priv. col.), animal paintings and still-lifes always retain an underlying naturalism, which was transformed through impulsive and playful brushwork until it verges on the abstract. The rapture of his painting is shown in the sheer beauty of his colour palette and the graphic rhythm combined with a tragic expression of violent emotion. A confessional sincerity of artistic intonation, a mocking foolishness and the influence of the alcoholism from which he suffered is evident in his work, which can be seen as a link between the classic modern and the colourful, frenzied nature of the trans-avant-garde. His premature death may appear to symbolize the difficulties that faced exponents of unofficial art in the USSR.

• Zverev, Anatoly (Timofeyevich)
  • Costakis, George
  • Russia, §IV, 3(ii): Painting, graphic arts and sculpture, after 1956