«Moscow Morandi» Vladimir Weisberg is one of the main and most expensive artists of unofficial post-war art. He was a loner. Weisberg used to say that “the only thing I have in common with my contemporaries is a wall”.

Rare in mood Belenok. The inventor of “panic realism” suddenly turned to a warm, optimistic plot, even if not without a slight melancholy. The author's title is “Sheer Joy”. Where did this come from? One might speculate. The year of 1987 was a time of hope and optimism.

Russian Bosch. Leonid Purygin. Or “Lenya Purygin the Genius”, as he later wrote. In Nara, in Naro-Fominsk, in the local palace of culture there was a drawing circle, which became all Purygin's universities. The artist is loved and appreciated as a creator of amazing fairy-tale worlds, where good magic neighbors with hellish images.

“The Moon with Letters” is an uncommon, conceptual subject in the work of the sixties artist Vladimir Nemukhin. We are used to card tables and jacks. And here the moon, and also strange syllables. We can assume that this is a dialogue with Velimir Khlebnikov, a reference to the poetry of the Russian avant-garde.

One and a half meter Steinberg of amazing beauty and the highest museum level. This is a classic subject for one of the main representatives of the second avant-garde. The laconic language of Suprematism, a dialogue with Malevich, but at the same time a very special aestheticism. No wonder one of his first teachers was “Petrovich” — Boris Petrovich Sveshnikov.

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.

Natalia Nesterova created her very recognizable, distinctive contemplative neo-primitivism almost 50 years ago. And her language remains contemporary even today. Her paintings are a conversation about life here and now. She tries more often to remind of modest pleasures and moments of happiness. Nesterova does not reproach or educate. Her paintings are about rejoicing in good weather, pleasant company, delicious food and the opportunity to travel to interesting places.

Thirty years ago, Valery Koshlyakov, together with Avdey Ter-Oganyan, were associates in the “Art or Death” partnership. The artists lived, worked and organized exhibitions in the legendary squat on Trekhprudny Lane. Today, Valery Koshlyakov is already a classic of contemporary Russian art. He lives and works in Paris. And auction prices for some of his works are approaching $ 150,000.

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.