“Here's to twenty years of no-exhibition work!” This was the toast to Evgeny Mikhnov-Voitenko in November 1976, after the exhibition of nonconformists at the Ordzhonikidze Culture Center. Colleagues understood that by objective, unbiased assessment they were drinking to the health of one of the main innovators of abstract art. But formally — yes, it was indeed the first exhibition of Mikhnov.

Andrey Grositsky was an artist in the orbit of unofficial art. He was called the “poet of things”. For Grositsky, not only aesthetics was important, but also the spirit of the object. The metaphysics of the object world remained his field of research throughout his life. He transformed shovels, meat grinders, rusty latches into semi-abstract portraits of things of stunning beauty and depth. Grositsky was lucky to live to be recognized. Nowadays, he can certainly be called a favorite of collectors.

Today it is funny to remember that the word “impressionism” was originally born as an element of sarcasm, derogatory criticism, verbal neglect. The journalist Leroy in his feuilleton called the artists of the Salon des Refusés “impressed”, hinting at their superficiality, lack of elaboration of details, carelessness and lack of ideas. But years passed and Impressionism became a cultural brand in France, recognized as the most valuable direction in art. “Careless” Monet, Renoir and Manet entered the top of the most expensive artists in the world. Well, the critic Louis Leroy is remembered for the fact that he gave the world the word “impressionism”.

The village of the Kiev province — Odessa — Vienna — Paris. A normal route for a talented and moderately ambitious provincial artist. Well, where else to go if not to the cultural capital of Europe? There, where Montmartre, the Salons of the Independent, favorite impressionists and progressive audiences who have seen a lot, and therefore are not inclined to obscurantism. Looking ahead, I will say that a miracle will happen. In a few years, yesterday's shoemaker himself will become a prominent participant in these salons. And his personal exhibition in Paris will be paid for by the famous Baron Rothschild himself.

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”.