The past year 2022 should be counted not even in two, but in four. The crisis sharpened and accelerated all the subtle processes on the art market. It became clear who holds the punch, who wins, and who, on the contrary, is the weak link. At the same time the new tendencies manifested themselves in a much harsher way than during a normal crisis.

In 1977, Oleg Tselkov was going into exile with the status, if not of a living legend, then certainly of an underground celebrity. This “enfant terrible” was kicked out of the Union of Artists, worked on the decorations of provincial theatres for reference, and was deprived of exhibition opportunities. At the same time he was not a political dissident. Tselkov did not participate in the Bulldozer exhibition, shunned loud statements, did not adhere to any influential “circle” or “group”. But at the same time he drank with Yevtushenko and Siqueiros, was friends with Akhmadulina, sipped wine with Akhmatova and sold paintings to the diplomats of the Costakis circle. He lived as if the devil himself were not his brother.

What is happening in the Russian art auction market? How are the prices now? Are they buying anything at all? And what are our thoughts on where things are going?

Calligraphic sign “Kalinin VV” — the signature of Vyacheslav Vasilievich Kalinin (1939) — is a valuable attribute for his paintings, but not a necessary one. It is impossible not to recognize, and even more so to confuse Kalinin with someone. Original, distinctive organic style of the artist has not changed since the early 1960s. Cubist chopped outlines, tracing the movement of figures and turns of faces, dense narrative plot — all this fills his paintings for more than sixty years. Kalinin himself has more than once admitted that all his life he paints his autobiography on canvases.

Nikolay Vechtomov (1923–2007) was a nonconformist artist, the creator of an original system of biomorphic cosmism, the artist of the “Lianozovo group”, a friend and associate of Rabin and Nemukhin. And also Vechtomov was a front-line soldier, a participant of Stalingrad battle, a partisan, twice escaped from a captivity. According to one of versions, it was the front impressions that set the vector for his creativity in peacetime. The vivid burgundy, red and yellow colours, Vechtomov's colour “flashes” in the biomorphic constructions — this is the memory of the outbursts from the war.

Artist of the 1960s. An innovator of meditative conventionality. Igor Alexandrovich Vulokh (1938–2012) is an important figure in the ranks of artists of the postwar unofficial art. And another striking example of the fact that the talent, like water, sharpens the stone of destiny. Starting conditions are slightly better than none at all. War orphanage childhood, his father died of wounds. It would seem that what can be achieved under such circumstances? But somehow it worked out.

An innovator of metaphysical still life, an intellectual, a loner, he chose the path of a recluse, avoiding fashion, noise and current trends. Today Dmitry Krasnopevtsev is one of the most expensive and sought-after masters of unofficial post-war art. His best works are bought with a fight, in a passionate rivalry. It can be seen that the artist is still a favorite of collectors, as in the epic times of Richter, Costakis, Sanovich.

“There is an angel and a devil in you. We like the angel, but we will erase the devil out of you”, Nikita Khrushchev, first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, tried to teach him. Khrushchev himself had no idea that in less than two years his “comrades-in-arms” surrounding him would remove him from power and give up with great difficulty the organization of the staged murder. And in another 13 years, his “ideological enemy” Ernst Neizvestny, who was standing in front of him, would build and erect a tombstone for him. He would erect it in time for his emigration.

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.

A virtuoso capable of creating a masterpiece in a matter of minutes using a simple set of paints, a couple of cigarette butts and leftover snacks. An outstanding improviser. A brilliant representative of the underground art, forever persecuted by the monstrous Soviet laws. Today his works are in great demand. Zverev's craftsmanship is admired by the third generation of collectors. His exhibitions are still sold out. Memoirs and monographs are published. Dozens of buyers are competing for his works at auctions. There is a whole private museum named after him in Moscow.