MASTERPIECES

WEISBERG Vladimir Grigorievich (1924–1985) Cube, ball, pyramid. 1973. Oil on canvas. 55 × 57
NEMUKHIN Vladimir Nikolaevich (1925–2016) Dedicated to Vladimir Weisberg. 1988. Sculpture, wood. 32 × 32 × 33

A duet of two powerful nonconformist artists. Weisberg and Nemukhin are two blocks of unofficial art.

“Dedication to Weisberg” — one of the most famous and most beloved sculptures of Nemukhin. They were friends. Nemukhin with Weisberg studied together in the art center of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions under the direction of Konstantin Yuon. Though Weisberg was a course older. Later, in adulthood, they continued to communicate. They went to see each other's work. Since the fifties, the practice of days of shows for artists had developed, when the authors prepared new works and invited the audience to their workshops. At Weisberg it was Fridays, at Kropyvnytsky — on Wednesday, at Rabin — on Saturday and Sunday. However, there were few people from outside on such views. Mostly the artists themselves went to the artists, discussed paintings. Nemukhin said that in conditions of exhibition hunger, the artists actually worked for each other.

Weisberg is an artist who also needs to be able to watch correctly. He created his works in a special, very painstaking way. “White on white” is not just white paint on a white background. His paintings use a very complicated technology, based on a complex philosophy of metaphysical-color cognition of the world and a special system of color perception. On some viewers, Weisberg's paintings even have a psychic effect. The solution to the white had mystical significance for Weisberg — it was a symbol of the main secret, a great infinity and great silence. He dealt with this riddle for the rest of his life. Weisberg’s works of the “white” period are the decoration of any important collection. They are expensive. Although prices are already far from the record values that were on the eve of 2008. Recall in 2007, Sotheby's set a price record for the artist's work. Then the painting «Naked» was sold for 363,000 dollars.

FIRST NAMES

ZVEREV Anatoly Timofevich (1931–1986) Forest (blue and green). 1984. Hardboard, oil. 68 × 53

More than a hundred works of Zverev have already passed through our hands. But the artist does not cease to amaze. Each time is different. Powerful, accurate, concise. So this time. It is a pity that this is not Nikolina Horus, which experts are hunting for. But also a favorite theme for collectors — trees, pines. Despite the fact that this is a late work, expert Valery Silaev notes that the painting was executed at a high artistic level, characteristic of the artist’s famous early works.

MASTERKOVA Lidia Alekseevna (1927–2008) Southern landscape. Late 1950s — early 1960s. 39.5 × 28 (clear)

Lidia Masterkova is the Amazon of the “second avant-garde”, a bright, powerful, expressive artist, a member of the “Lianozovo Group”. The work “Southern Landscape” was created at the turn of the 50–60s and, despite the figurative name, it can be attributed to the early abstract works. Watercolor comes from the collection of Vladimir Nemukhin. By the way, at that time they were a couple, although they were not married. Lidia Masterkova participated in historical exhibitions in the club «Friendship», in the Izmailovsky exhibition, in the exhibition in the pavilion «Beekeeping» at VDNH. She was appreciated and exhibited by the collector Kostaki. In 1975, the artist emigrated to France, where she lived until the end of her life. The works of Lidia Masterkova are in the Tretyakov Gallery and are presented in the main collections of unofficial art, including the collection of Norton Dodge in the Zimmerli Museum.

SILIS Nikolay Andreevich (1928–2018) Nucleator. Bronze. Height 19 cm. Brand SiLiS

Aesthetic thing: compact, charged, dynamic, completely recognizable. And inexpensive. On the base there is the stamp of Silis. Recall that Nikolai Silis is a 1960s sculptor, a former member of the avant-garde LeSS group (Lemport-Silis-Sidur), one of the main innovators in post-war unofficial art.

FOR THE FIRST TIME AT OUR TRADES

VITING Nikolay Iosifovich (1910–1991) Red. 1978. Oil on canvas. 36.5 × 36.5

Nikolai Iosifovich Viting — artist of the “avant-garde, stopped on the run”. He belongs to a generation of young innovators who were catastrophically unlucky with the era. Their first exhibitions were in the early 1930s, when the country embarked on socialist realism and curtailed the activities of all independent associations. “Inconscious” art was actually banned, and those who disagreed risked not only their careers, but also their lives. Viting was organically part of the old avant-garde. He was a member of the “Workshop of painters” — a union of the late 1920s, assembled by Alexander Shevchenko from young artists of the Moscow VKHUTEMAS. His first major exhibition in the “Workshop of painters” was held just in the tragic year for Russian art in 1930. At first, Rostislav Barto, to whom this work is dedicated, also belonged to the “Workshop”.

During the war, Viting worked on the fronts as an artist at Grekov's studio. In peacetime he was engaged in book illustration.

The work “Red” was painted in 1978. We do not know at the beginning or at the end. But we know that this was a turning point in the life and work of the artist. Early in 1978, Viting spent in a hospital bed, was very ill, but he dealt with the disease. And a period of unprecedented enthusiasm and optimism followed this crisis. And in the middle of the year, the artist lived in anticipation of a large collective exhibition at the Museum of Istra (now the main museum of the Moscow region). There, young and brave art historians put together an exhibition of classics and young lions of Soviet art. By the criteria of artistic power, and not by being guided by the correct political course. Everyone was there: Zhilinsky, Falk, Weisberg, Slepyshev and others. As a result, the commission twice banned the exhibition. Reduced exposure several times. Slepyshev was removed altogether for pornography. But art historians did not back down. They did not show humility.A great scandal came out. The artist left an interesting historical evidence for that. It seemed to us that everyone was walking along the line in front of officials from culture. But no. It can be assumed that the dedication to Barto was written at this time. This is a picture of the memory of the 1930s. Munch's expressionism. Powerful energy, but, unlike Munch, not gloomy, but bright.

Today, Viting's works are in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Historical-Architectural and Art Museum “New Jerusalem”, the State Museum of Fine Arts named after I.V. Savitsky (Uzbekistan).

The work “Red” has impeccable provenance. It was always in the family collection, participated in solo exhibitions in 1992 and 2010, and is mentioned in the catalogs of these exhibitions.

KAPELYAN Grigory Isaakovich (1940) Artist's book “Out of Context”. 2002-2003

A rare format for us so far is the artist’s book. This is a work that is conceived by the artist as a whole work of fine art and, as a rule, is made out manually by the author. Grigory Kapelyan — a nonconformist artist, an emigrant, writer, published under the pseudonym Doctor Grabov. He is better known in St. Petersburg than in Moscow. Not out of the elite. Not at the hearing. For many, it will pass through the category of new names. And this is also interesting.

Back in 1978, Kapelyan left for the United States. And the conceptual book “Out of Context” was also created there. In 2011, Kapelyan, along with Natalia Khlebtsevich, was nominated for the Kandinsky Prize for their project “Word and Deed”.