A whole cycle of pictorial dedications to like-minded people, friends and associates in the art underground can be distinguished in the work of the sixties artist Eduard Steinberg. In particular, he has a dedication to Viktor Pivovarov, a dedication to Dmitry Krasnopevtsev and now a dedication to Ilya Kabakov.

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.

Vasily Yaklich, or Vasya the Lanternman, as he was called by those who were on a short footing with him, is a legend of unofficial art. Seemingly a simple sitter and operator of diapositive display at the Surikov Institute, Vasily Sitnikov was a very influential figure in the world of unofficial art.

Oleg Tselkov is an artist of life metaphors. His trademark face masks and biomorphic plastics are his toolkit for the visual expression of ideas. He invented this language in the late 1950s and used it until the end of his life.

The porcelain black sculptures and their white counterparts are Oleg Tselkov's first and only experience of transferring his characters into small sculptural plastic. In other words: he had plates, vase, dishes and even a porcelain egg, but there the technique of transferring flat images was used. Tselkov had volumetric plasticity only in porcelain and bronze.

1971 — Steinberg's Moscow-Tarusian period. A light, airy, luminous piece. Figurative basis dominates in this work. Although if you look closely, the background on which the bird flies is dissected by a geometric element, typical of the artist's Suprematist line.

In 1977, Oleg Tselkov was going into exile with the status, if not of a living legend, then certainly of an underground celebrity. This “enfant terrible” was kicked out of the Union of Artists, worked on the decorations of provincial theatres for reference, and was deprived of exhibition opportunities. At the same time he was not a political dissident. Tselkov did not participate in the Bulldozer exhibition, shunned loud statements, did not adhere to any influential “circle” or “group”. But at the same time he drank with Yevtushenko and Siqueiros, was friends with Akhmadulina, sipped wine with Akhmatova and sold paintings to the diplomats of the Costakis circle. He lived as if the devil himself were not his brother.

One of the most famous innovators of the post-war generation was expelled several times from various art institutes. Living in the Soviet Union, Oleg Tselkov regularly had to go to subterfuges to be considered an artist and not a slacker. But for some reason, Evtushenko, Akhmatova, Siqueiros and Guttuso came to this untrustworthy subject to see paintings in his room on Sokol. His father, who worked at a secret plant, was then dragged to the KGB to take responsibility for his son's dubious acquaintances.

One of the most beautiful works of the series “Don Quixote” by Anatoly Zverev. And of course, one of the most polysemantic and long-suffering subjects of the “Russian Picasso”. Collectors have heard more than once, that the “knight of the rueful countenance” is the alter ego of Zverev himself. The artist deeply felt and experienced the insecurity described by Cervantes, the ridicule and hostility of pragmatic society to which sincere dreamers are condemned.

One of the main and most expensive Russian nonconformists. His name has been heard even by those with little interest in fine art. After all, stories about Tselkov can be found several times in the prose of Sergei Dovlatov. One of the most famous is in “Solo on Underwood” — about how the artist set prices for his paintings. He did it in a very peculiar way. And all because one day the artist severely underestimated his painting.