The fact that prices have risen noticeably over the past year is a common feeling among collectors. Some whistle in surprise: “Wow!” And someone grumbles: “You've made everything expensive”.

Let us not rush to generalizations. Although, as we know, there is no smoke without fire.

Vladimir Nikolaevich Nemukhin (1925–2016) is the most important figure in the history of unofficial post-war art. Member of the “Lianozovo group”. Friend and associate of Oscar Rabin. Participant of the Bulldozer exhibition in 1974 and the historical exhibition in the pavilion “Beekeeping” at the VDNKh in 1975. He exhibited at the City Graphics Committee on Malaya Gruzinskaya 28 as part of the group “Seven Artists” — together with his friends Krasnopevtsev, Vechtomov, Plavinsky, Kalinin, Kharitonov and others.

Any conversation about the significance of Oskar Rabin's work gets bogged down with politics after a while. Of course it does. After all, his fate is the brightest argument in the eternal dispute about the role of personality in history. There is a hypothesis that in the logic of historical development, a specific figure, a specific person is not so important. They say that predefined historical scenarios are implemented under any circumstances. And if there are objective contradictions, the leaders will inevitably appear. But judge for yourself...

A small, awkward man squints from the numerous photographs that have survived. He began to lose sight while still in school. From the age of thirty he was already regularly in psychiatric hospitals. For the last thirty years of his 64, Yakovlev was almost blind by the standards of ordinary people. Books that he loved very much, friends read aloud to him, he himself could not. For a long time he even redrawn his own surname for signing from the sample so that it came out without errors. No workshop, no apartment of his own. Constantly under the care of caring people.

This time we decided to avoid global generalizations and loud claims to “totals”, “results”, “turnovers”, “volumes”, “statistics”. First of all, we will formulate our own observations made in real trade, “on the ground”, at the forefront of the art market. And here's what we specifically noticed in the dashing 2020: