MASTERPIECES

WEISBERG Vladimir Grigorievich (1924–1985) Sink and white dishes. 1969. Oil on canvas. 50 × 62

«Moscow Morandi» Vladimir Weisberg is one of the main and most expensive artists of unofficial post-war art. He was a loner. Weisberg used to say that “the only thing I have in common with my contemporaries is a wall”. He exhibited and was friends with many artists of the sixties, with Rabin and Nemukhin. But he was not a member of Lianozovo or any other underground groups. He tried to avoid confrontations. He was a member of the Moscow Union of Artists and exhibited at official exhibitions.

Weisberg invented and described his own coloristic system of “invisible painting”, or “white on white”. In reality it was “white without white”. Studying the nature of color perception, Weisberg did not use pure white. He achieved the effect of “white on white” in complex color combinations. To examine and analyze his techniques is a separate pleasure for a collector.

Weisberg was a perfectionist. He immersed himself in the process, pushed himself to the point of emotional exhaustion. He had nervous breakdowns and was treated in mental hospitals. He left not so many paintings. Therefore, any painting of the master is the object of lust of an experienced collector and syncopation in his collection.

“Sink and White Dishes” from 1969 belongs to a particularly valuable analytical period. The work is signed and listed in the list of paintings by Vladimir Vesberg for the period from 1943 to 1985, which was published in the monograph by E. Y. Khlyupina “In love with classical art. Painting by V. G. Weisberg in the tradition of colorism”. The painting is accompanied by an expertise of Valery Silaev. The specialist notes its museum value.

CONTEMPORARY ART

KOSHLYAKOV Valery Nikolaevich (1962) Torso of Aphrodite. 1990s Corrugated cardboard, mixed media. 101 × 59

Valery Koshlyakov was inspired by a sculpture by a Roman master, copied from a Greek original created some 2,600 years ago. You can see this statue in person at the State Hermitage Museum. Greek Aphrodite (aka Venus to the Romans) is the goddess of love, a symbol of beauty and youth. She is also the goddess of fertility, eternal life and eternal spring. “Afros” is Greek for “foam”. After all, according to legend, one of the Olympic goddesses, Aphrodite, was born from the foam of the sea.

Antique beauty, historical architectural and sculptural monuments for over 30 years remain sources of inspiration for Valery Koshlyakov. He has been called the singer of the passing beauty. In his paintings, the artist uses corrugated cardboard and paper-based collages, as if he is also confronting time.

At the beginning of his career, in the eighties, Valery Koshlyakov, together with Avdey Ter-Oganyan, was a member of the “Art or Death” partnership. Later, the artists worked and held exhibitions in the legendary squat in Trekhprudny Lane. Today, Koshlyakov is a classic of contemporary Russian art and one of its most expensive representatives. At market peak prices for his work at Sotheby's exceeded $100,000. And the record is almost $150,000.

«Torso of Aphrodite» is an exemplary recognizable Koshlyakov, executed in his signature distinctive technique. The work is comfortably sized and of unquestionably high collector's value.

And one last thing for the admirers of the artist. Now at the Shchusev State Museum of Architecture there is a large exhibition of Valery Koshlyakov. It will last until June 12, 2022.

1960s UNOFFICIAL ART

ZVEREV Anatoly Timofeevich (1931–1986) Nude. 1958. Cardboard, dubbed on canvas, colored pencil, oil. 72.5 × 50

Anatoly Zverev is a legend of unofficial art, an outstanding expressionist, improviser. The year 1958 is the most valuable period in his work. Most of the drawings of those times were exported abroad. And a rare subject. Zverev did not often paint nudes. Inspirational, emotional work. Jewel of any collection.

NEMUKHIN Vladimir Nikolaevich (1925–2016) Composition with black cards. 2011. Canvas, graphite pencil, acrylic, collage. 60 × 60

The fact that it is Nemukhin is evident from a hundred steps. Expressive decorative composition of one of the main representatives of the Lianozovo school. Of course, with cards. However Nemukhin himself did not play cards. For him it was an existential image based on a vivid impressionistic experience. Nemukhin once saw a deck submerged in water, which the wind had blown into the river. And since then, the cards had been a faithful companion of his work. The authenticity of the work is confirmed by the expert opinion of Valery Silaev.

STEINBERG Eduard Arkadievich (1937–2012) Composition. 1978. Oil on canvas. 60 × 60

Eduard Steinberg was an artist of the sixties, a participant of the most important exhibitions of unofficial art: the “Glezer” exhibition in the Druzhba Cultural Center in 1967, the exhibition in the “Beekeeping” pavilion at VDNKh and others, which was dispersed by the authorities. From 1988 to 2012 Steinberg lived in two countries. In France and in Russia. The painting “Composition” was created back in the pre-emigration period. It is a classic, very recognizable Steinberg — perfect for the first collection.

1970s UNOFFICIAL ART

SHABLAVIN Sergey Petrovich (1944) Lake in the forest. 1966. Oil on cardboard. 35 × 49

Early Shablavin of the 1960s. Even before the apartment exhibitions. Not yet his trademark circles and horizons, but his multi-level conceptual formula of landscape was already born. Sergey Shablavin's first apartment exhibition was held in 1976 in the studio of Leonid Sokov. Later, his home was the Gorkom on Malaya Gruzinskaya. Shablavin's works have been in the Costakis collection and the Norton Dodge collection. They can be seen, in particular, in the Tretyakov Gallery and the Zimmerly Museum in the United States.

CONTEMPORARY ART

GINTOVT Alexey Yurievich (1965) Star. 2021. Canvas, author's technique. 100 × 100

Alexey Gintovt's flagship theme. For Gintovt, “Star” is like a can of Campbell's soup for Warhol. For many in the art community, Gintovt and his work act like a red rag to a bull. He is not without reason considered the mouthpiece of the Eurasian idea. But this has not always been the case. In the late 1980s, Alexey Belyaev-Gintovt was an unofficial artist who was in the same group as Viktor Pelevin. He was part of Timur Novikov's circle and was friends with Kuryokhin, Tsoi, and Garkusha. It was Timur Novikov who formulated the idea of “the future is in the past”, which Gintovt has been developing for 30 years now. And this Kremlin star is the brightest metaphor of that idea.