Meter-sized, powerful, museum-level! Mammoth in the world of “Super Elephants”! A giant standing in the water, constructed of suprematic blocks, is one of the most recognizable subjects in Nemukhin's work.

Evgeny Rukhin had a reputation not only as one of the most daring nonconformists, but also as one of the most commercially successful artists of “dip-art”. The young member of the Lianozovo group and participant of the Bulldozer exhibition lived a very short life. Only 33 years. Rukhin's undeniable talent and his early tragic death made the artist a legend of unofficial post-war art.

Among the striking effects of Krasnopevtsev's “Wrapped Bowl” is the change in brightness and tonality depending on the angle from which you look at it. If you look straight ahead, the composition seems a little darker, but if you move half a step, the colors become brighter. There may be a scientific explanation for this: the paint lies intricately within the textural structure of the hardboard and the light is reflected differently. But the effect is truly mystical.

The artists of the duo Komar and Melamid are known primarily as the inventors of Sots Art, which they coined in 1972. The term itself is a combination of “pop-art” and “socialist realism”. But unlike American pop-art, which drove advertising to the point of absurdity, Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid came up with the idea of bringing symbols of ideological propaganda to the point of absurdity.

A one-meter canvas, a main theme and a ringing title: “Steel Soul”. An unquestionable museum level. Neizvestny is one of the main representatives of unofficial post-war art. A legend. “Steel Soul” belongs to the fertile period of Neizvestny's first years in exile, a period in which he was able to reproduce in material many of the ideas that were conceived in his homeland.

The works of “Vasya the Lanternman” — Vasil Yaklich — Vasily Yakovlevich Sitnikov are a rarity at auction. And so characteristic of his nude — a rarity and even more so. That's exactly the kind of Sitnikov collectors are after. Sitnikov, as it is commonly said, is a legend of the 1960s. A self-taught man who went through hell in prison and a mental hospital. No formal education. Only books, museums, lectures at the Surikov Institute (there he showed slides on a projector — hence the “lanternman”). Vasily Sitnikov is in the top of the most expensive 1960s artists.

Little Burliuk of incredible beauty! Roses against the background of the sea. This is from the American period, most likely the late 1940s. Burliuk is successful, enjoying a measured life, building a house on Long Island with his own gallery. He is praised by American critics. His works are bought. All is well, and the picture conveys that mood.

Vasily Shulzhenko. A terrible picture. A mixture of itinerant movement with undiluted existential horror of the level of Edvard Munch and Alfred Kubin. There will certainly be something to think about and something to talk about. The picture is not only with a powerful subtext, but also a virtuoso technical performance. A real old school. Few artists paint like that today.

Works by the 1960s artist Boris Sveshnikov regularly participate in our auctions, but still recall the biography. At the age of 19, he was sent to a prison camp due to slander, for anti-Soviet activities. The “goner” dying of exhaustion was saved by the paramedic Arkady Akimovich Steinberg — the artist of the “Silver Age” and the father of Eduard Steinberg. Perhaps it was precisely that camp horror that gave rise to that very unique imagery in Sveshnikov's work — with monsters, graves, infernal figures. What is called “Kafkaesque romance”.

In 2005 this painting was sold at Christie’s Russian Sales under the title “Portrait of a lady with dark eyes”. No clarification. Only later, experts identified the model as Ashkhen Melikova. She was a friend of the brilliant Salome Andronikova, who was called the last muse of the Silver Age. Melikova moved in the circle of artists and poets, which included Shukhaev, Grigoriev, Sorin, Sudeikin, Serebryakova, Tsvetaeva. Melikova is known, in particular, for the portrait of another Russian Parisian, Alexander Yakovlev, which depicts her and Salome in 1922.