MASTERPIECES

KOKURIN Valery Grigorievich (1930–2019) In the fall. 1985. Oil on cardboard. 63 × 44

Among the dozens of artists of the Vladimir school of painting there are three pillars: Kim Britov, Valery Kokurin and Vladimir Yukin. The most expensive, the most famous. Pioneers and discoverers. Russian landscapes, painted in incredibly vivid colors, emitting light themselves, created a sensation in 1960 at the republican exhibition in Moscow. And, like the “Impressionists” after the “Salon of the Outcasts”, the term “Vladimirites” was fixed in our language after the exhibition “Soviet Russia”. But success with the public in the USSR did not guarantee official recognition. Quite the contrary: jealousy, criticism, reproaches for lack of ideas. 1960, the difficult sixth five-year period is ending, and they have a snow and a sun here. Like everything sincere, the Vladimir school posed a threat to official art, opposed it aesthetically. Time has put everything in its place. Today, paintings by Kokurin, Britov, Yukin have become an adornment of the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum. They are valued, collectors hunt for them. And they’re doing it right. Prices for the Vladimir school, by the standards of the market, remain affordable — quite affordable for collectors with an average budget.

BORUCH (STEINBERG Boris Arkadievich, 1938–2003) Easter composition. 1962. Canvas, collage, author technique. 100 × 80

Boruch is the pseudonym for Eduard Steinberg’s brother, Boris Arkadievich. His work is quite rare. And even more so, like this one. 1962 is the most valuable period in the history of unofficial post-war art.

Boruch is the son of an “enemy of the people”. He wrote abstract poems. Until 1960, he lived in Tarusa — beyond the 101st kilometer — the repressed father was not allowed to go to Moscow after the camps. Sveshnikov lived in Tarusa, and Vulokh, Vorobiev, and other future famous nonconformist artists came there. In art, Boruch was self-taught. Joiner's experience and a good eye helped him to take place as a pop art artist. He made reliefs and abstractions using the readymade technique, which Western diplomats willingly bought. Boruch participated in the Bulldozer Exhibition, the Izmailovsky Exhibition, the exhibition in the pavilion “House of Culture” at VDNH and other high-profile exhibitions of unofficial art.

Why is this composition called Easter? Please note that it uses elements of church utensils. There is even the inscription “ХВ” — Christ is Risen. The work of a strong museum level.

NEMUKHIN Vladimir Nikolaevich (1925–2016) Green ombre table (Ratingen). 1998. Oil on canvas, collage, author technique. 100 × 100

A masterpiece, because a masterpiece with all the evidence. 1998, 22 years ago, German Ratingen, where Nemukhin lived and worked at that time. Ombre table theme. Cards. Meter size. Verbal confirmation by expert Valery Silaev. And a fantastically attractive price.

FOR THE FIRST TIME AT OUR TRADES

GOROKHOVSKY Eduard Semenovich (1929–2004) Dead race fast. 1995. Watercolor, ink on paper, author technique. 32 × 47

Eduard Gorokhovsky, a nonconformist artist. Conceptualist, innovator, inventor of his own artistic language — conceptual art based on photography. His works, written in a new language, he called photograms. Gorokhovsky was close to the so-called “Sretensky Boulevard Group”, which included Kabakov, Bulatov, Yankilevsky, Pivovarov and others. Like his friends, he earned in the USSR by drawing book illustrations. Today, Gorokhovsky’s works are in the Russian Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery. In the Tretyakov Gallery in 1999, his personal exhibition was held. Lifetime.

The work presented is conceptually titled “Dead race fast”. It has an impeccable origin. It was in the Gorokhovsky family and was presented to a family friend.

MANUKHIN Yaroslav Nikolaevich (1925–2017) Portrait of the artist Dmitry Krasnopevtsev. 1958. Print

In fact, the drawings of Yaroslav Manukhin are known to almost everyone who grew up in the USSR and whose children were born in the Soviet Union. Manukhin illustrated a huge number of children's books. The artist worked for many years at Reklamfilm together with Dmitry Krasnopevtsev. They were very friendly. And then they quarreled strongly because of creative rivalry. But this particular lithography has an interesting history. Manukhin got a lot for it. The portrait of Krasnopevtsev received an angry rebuke in the newspaper “Soviet Culture” in 1959.

For what? For decadence. For aesthetics. For styling. Well, can a Soviet artist possibly be in this image?

However, here it is worth quoting “Soviet Culture” — you can’t say more sophisticatedly: “What does this artist expose today — green frogs in black water and this refined portrait of his acquaintance: a“stylish”hairstyle, a cigarette in a broken arm, a ring on his finger... Where does this “trendsetter” call and teach a young man? Of course, nobody is forbidden to paint portraits of acquaintances. But the exhibition is not a private matter. At exhibitions, artists say something, fight for something. And is it necessary to demonstrate things that are not of public interest? This would not hurt the organizers of the exhibition to think.”

Today it sounds like a farce. And in those days, such a publication could destroy fate. For this portrait, Manukhin was almost expelled from the Union of Artists, which was tantamount to a “wolf ticket”.

YANKILEVSKY Vladimir Borisovich (1938–2018) From the cycle “Space of experiences”. 1985. Paper, colored pencils. 24.4 × 64

Those who follow the auction will immediately say that Yankilevsky is not the first time put up for auction. And they will be right. But this is the first, especially recognizable, abstract Yankilevsky. This is a series of “Space of experiences” (formerly called “Landscape of forces”). Yankilevsky began to develop it in the early 1960s and returned to it throughout his creative life. The idea is to convey human experiences through the abstract signs of world powers. This can be interpreted as a record of emotions through energy initial symbols. It is not by chance that these abstractions possess a given psychological level and mood. Yankilevsky — an artist of the “Sretensky Boulevard Group”, a participant in the Tagan Exhibition and Exhibition in the Manege of 1962. He is one of the most prominent innovators in unofficial post-war art. The work was verbally confirmed by Rimma Solod-Yankilevskaya.