The context is important here. Remember, what is 1979? In the “decaying West”, there is a computer revolution. There is an incredible seething of energies, a passionate explosion. In the U.S., there is a consumption boom. At the same time, in the USSR, the era of stagnation is in full swing. Propaganda on the background of growing scarcity. But at the same time, 1979 was a time of rapid scientific and technological progress and a paradoxical flowering of culture! Such a strange time of disappointments, successes and hopes. And all these fears, doubts and optimism became part of the large-scale work of Petr Belenok — the creator of the unique concept of “panic realism”.

Nemukhin's original super-elephants exist in many designs. There are even exotic pink elephants. I suppose that initially the construction of Suprematist symbols should have been called “SUPRE-elephant”. But in our latitudes, the elephant became Russified and turned into “super”. This program plot without cards was much beloved by collectors. Everyone wanted one of these.

Kalinin is a man of the 1960s, an artist of unofficial art, close to the Lianozovo group. The artist was expelled from the Abramtsevo School for outrageous paintings presented at one of his first exhibitions. Later he was forced to work semi-underground. Kalinin was a participant of a resonant exhibition in the Beekeeping Pavilion at the VDNKh in 1975. And a year later, after the opening of the “city committee of graphics” on Malaya Gruzinskaya, he began to exhibit there as part of the “seven” with Krasnopevtsev, Nemukhin, Kharitonov and others.

David Burliuk is known as the father of Russian futurism. As a young man, he and his friend Vladimir Mayakovsky gave out a lot of slaps to public taste. The futurists painted their faces, wore bright clothes, decorated the buttonhole of their jackets with spoons — in general, they terrified the average man. Then the revolution — emigration — quiet fruitful work in America. It is no coincidence that the majority of works we see today on the market are items from the American period.

The artist and sculptor Ernst Neizvestny is a lump of post-war unofficial art. He is the author of the 75-meter monument “Lotus Flower” in Egypt, “Masks of Sorrow” in Magadan, “Tree of Life” in Moscow and other outstanding works. The man was not only talented, but also uncompromising and amazingly courageous. Ernst Neizvestny's modernist works are very recognizable stylistically and interesting for philosophical deconstruction. His paintings are populated by powerful centaurs, half-robots, symbolizing the mixing of humanity and technical progress. And also distorted face-masks, Prometheus, Icarus and the humanistic “tree of life” are the pinnacle of his philosophical quest.

Regular viewers of our channel know that Sveshnikov's “grave” stories are a complex dispute with fate, a form of the “vanitas” genre — a reflection on the meaning, purpose and frailty of life. He knew what he was talking about, because more than once he was on the verge of life and death.

Former official sculptor Petr Belenok exchanged a well-fed life in Ukraine for the thorny path of an underground artist in Moscow. He lived in poverty. And today he is one of the most sought-after artists of the post-war unofficial art. Prices for the best paintings have doubled over the past year and are regularly storming the million-ruble mark.

Several major nonconformist artists have interpretations of the plot with a cat seizing a bird. Yakovlev has a cat with a bird in its teeth. Nemukhin has a cat with a card. Zverev has a similar subject. And here we have “Cat that ate a bird” by the main member of the Lianozovo group and the organizer of the Bulldozer exhibition, Oscar Rabin.

And again the uncompromising Shulzhenko. Comparable to his scandalously famous “Outhouse” or “Rural dump”. There seemed to be a real existential horror in the current state of the Russian countryside. If it weren't for the sneering faces and muzzles of Shulzhenko’s characters. Hard Russian absurdism is a theme for which he is respected. And a theme for which he is hated.

At first glance, it is clear that this is a work of a student of Aivazovsky. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Grigory Kapustin worked for several years in the studio of the outstanding marine painter in Feodosia, even made free copies of his works. Kapustin's paintings in tsarist Russia were printed on postcards in huge circulation. The artist was widely known and successful. Today his works are kept in many regional museums, including Peterhof, as well as in Russian and foreign private collections.