MASTERPIECES

KRASNOPEVTSEV Dmitry Mikhailovich (1925–1995) Two shells and beads. 1977. Oil on hardboard. 58 × 52.5

Before us is Krasnopevtsev. Fabulous beauty. Rare in plot, infrequent in color, large and expensive. The authenticity has already been confirmed by the main expert in Dmitry Krasnopevtsev’s art, Alexander Ushakov. He also told us the exact name of this work: “Two shells and beads”.

This is the most valuable period of the master of metaphysical still life. An indisputable masterpiece.

NEMUKHIN Vladimir Nikolaevich (1925–2016) Lombard table. 1974. Oil on canvas, plaster, veneer, playing cards. 100.5 × 80

1974 year. What is the first association of collectors of works by artists of the sixties? Correctly. This is the year of the Bulldozer exhibition. The moment when the prohibitions and meanness of the authorities in relation to the artists resulted in a public protest, destruction of works, a fight, and then an international scandal.

This is how Vladimir Nemukhin told about that time: “To be honest, the authorities hardly touched me with police methods: they did not arrest me, they did not summon me for preventive talks. But friends, Oscar Rabin, were mockingly pressured. Example. Rabin receives a summons — to appear at the police station, to the chief. He arrives — the boss is absent. And they immediately give a summons to come back tomorrow. He comes back — the boss is absent again. It is clear that this is just their way of "having fun". Another summons comes, but Oskar doesn't go. And then "good fellows" come to him: "We came to deliver you by force, since you are not on the agenda". Oscar goes under the escort of those two to the department, and there is the same story — there is no boss, busy and all that. Such a sophisticated mockery. What was Oscar to do? It was all so noticeable: surveillance, listening, hidden shooting. All those ladies with handbags under their arms. Elbow pressed down, the bag "clicks"... Disgusting — not the right word. And Glezer had the same problems, he was "given signals", squeezed out. They even arranged provocations with physical pressure. They would grab him on the street under the guise of a hooligan, or something else would come up with. In short, a planned tactic of petty harassment and bullying was used. And then Oscar decided that enough was enough, something had to be done. And so, I remember, one fine day he said: «Volodya, stop by. We will make an appeal to the world community in defense of artists.» In a sense, the time has come to react to your situation, to tell that unofficial artists in the USSR do not have the opportunity to exhibit, they are experiencing persecution. «Elbow pressed down, the bag «clicks»... Disgusting — not the right word. And Glezer had the same problems, he was «given signals», squeezed out. They even staged provocations with physical pressure. They'll be caught on the street under the guise of a bully, or something else will come up with. In a word, a planned tactic of petty nagging and bullying was used. And then Oscar decided that enough was enough, something had to be done. And then, I remember, one day he said, "Volodya, come over. We're going to make an appeal to the international community in defense of artists". In a sense, the time has come to react to our situation, to tell that unofficial artists in the USSR do not have the opportunity to exhibit, they are experiencing persecution”.

How it ended — everyone knows. The artists and the assembled foreign press were beaten up. The paintings were broken and thrown into the mud. The authorities tried to lie that it was not the disguised special services officers who did it, but ordinary indignant citizens. Allegedly, the exhibitors were beaten by workers, who were not allowed to carry out the improvement. Of course, no one believed it. The “workers” too professionally tore films from foreign press photographers. An international scandal erupted. Podgorny's foreign visit was canceled. And soon Brezhnev's visit to the West was scheduled. And, as they say, the secretary general gave instructions not to imprison the artists.

Okay. We got caught up in politics. But the work itself is a masterpiece. An exemplary Nemukhin, complex, multi-faceted. With cards, with a lomber table, everything you need. And the most convenient meter size.

SHULZHENKO Vasily Vladimirovich (1949) Village amenities. 2015. Oil on canvas. 120 × 100

Taking risks again. And again, we warn you: it is better to remove small children and overly sensitive people away from screens.

Because this is Shulzhenko. And this is his flagship theme, which brought him wide and scandalous fame. Yes, again a village latrine from the author of the scandalous “Latrine”! A seemingly inherently non-commercial plot. How to sell this?

But practice has proven that it is this kind of Shulzhenko, tough, with provocative subjects, that collectors are waiting for. The characters in his paintings are fears and impressions from his childhood. As a child (and these are the post-war 1950s), he lived in a dacha near Kasimov. And there onlooked. Strange old women, freaks, drunks. Today these people inhabit only his creative world. Shulzhenko himself became a prosperous man, graduated from Polygraph, became a member of the Union of Artists, participated in many national and all-Union exhibitions. But not with such work, of course. This tough world appeared on his canvases after perestroika.

RARITIES

PROVOTOROV Vladislav Alekseevich (1947) Dance of Salome. 1995. Oil on canvas. 190 × 75

Artist of the city committee “twenty” — the group “Twenty Moscow Artists”. His signature theme was mystical and religious subjects. And one of his most famous works is The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In the 1980s, mystical surrealism was on the rise. In 1986, one of Provotorov's works graced the cover of Aria's album “Who are you with?”

The picture presented today is a dramatic moment of one of the most famous atrocities in history — the day of the assassination of John the Baptist. The beautiful Salome, having brightened up the leisure of King Herod with a dance, asked as a reward for the head of the preacher who baptized Jesus in the waters of the Jordan. Herod complied with the request. And so in the painting the guard serves her John's head on a platter. In the mid-1990s, the author went into religion. And today Provotorov is a priest, rector of the church.

RUSSIAN ABROAD

BURLIUK David Davidovich (1882–1967) Meeting on the street. 1940s. Black pencil, watercolor, whitewash on paper. 39 × 28.5

Graphics by David Burliuk, the father of Russian futurism and the discoverer of Mayakovsky as a poet. This drawing is a watercolor of the American period, the 1940s, when Burliuk traveled extensively around the country and recorded his impressions in graphic art. The work has undergone Silaev's expertise and is sold with a ready conclusion of authenticity.

1960s UNOFFICIAL ART

MIKHNOV-VOITENKO Evgeny Grigorievich (1932–1988) Abstract composition. 1956–1959. Oil on paper. 59.3 × 41.3

Nonconformist, a prominent abstract expressionist from Leningrad. Mikhnov on his mother's side, Voytenko on his father's side. He was not and could not be in official art. He hid his inspired abstractions, showing them only to friends. But there is an opinion that in some artistic discoveries Mikhnov was the first in the world. But who could know about it, except a narrow circle of “insiders”. Mikhnov lived behind the “Iron Curtain”, he earned his living drawing signs at an art factory. “Tubes” — abstractions made of strips of pure squeezed paint — are one of Mikhnov's most in-demand subjects. Collectors hunt for “tubes”, and they are particularly expensive.

RABIN Oscar Yakovlevich (1928–2018) Landscape with a herring and a church. 1964. Felt-tip pen on paper. 31.5 × 24.5

1964. This is a classic example of investment-grade Lianozovo graphics. With vodka, herring, churches, and shacks. Some people are confused by the fact that these drawings were made with felt-tip pens, which have only recently appeared in Europe, and in the USSR they did not exist. They didn't. But Rabin did have them. Brought in from abroad by journalists and diplomats. They say they were asking for one drawing per pack of felt-tip pens. I don't know if it's true or not. But today such drawings cost in the region of 2,500–3,500 dollars. They are already rare. And they are snapped up.

CONTEMPORARY ART

POLYANSKY Pavel (1980) Showcase No. 3. 2005. Oil on canvas. 80 × 100

Pavel Polyansky is a graduate of Tatyana Nazarenko's workshop. He has exhibited at Askeri Gallery, Aidan Gallery and others. The work is lively and beautiful. And usually there is a surrealistic thing in Polyansky's paintings — some absurdist element. This one has pure beauty. However, not without pepper: the resemblance of the model to the famous gallery owner is too obvious.