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.

This work was painted 57 years ago by the sixties artist Igor Vulokh. It has been exhibited many times and published in catalogs. It was last seen in 2008. And recently it was confirmed that the painting no longer exists. That's what happens sometimes. But in this story, all ends well. And what really happened — we tell you in another video from the series “Examining Artworks”.

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.

Why did Nikolina Gora become such a place of power in Zverev's work? Oksana Aseeva had a dacha in this picturesque village near Moscow. She was a widow of the poet Nikolay Aseev, a friend of Mayakovsky. A woman of progressive views, she was the “muse of Russian futurism”. But today we often think of her as the muse of Anatoly Zverev. Zverev loved to visit Nikolina Gora, lived in pleasant company and worked with pleasure.

A new way of filling in the backgrounds and techniques for the embedding of objects in assemblages and abstractions was shown to his friend from Leningrad, Yevgeny Rukhin, by Vladimir Nemukhin in the 1960s. A geologist by training, Rukhin became one of the most brilliant artists of unofficial art. And one of the most daring. Rukhin's intransigence and courage, his open confrontation with the authorities gave rise to the version of his murder for political reasons.

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.

Artist of the 1960s. An innovator of meditative conventionality. Igor Alexandrovich Vulokh (1938–2012) is an important figure in the ranks of artists of the postwar unofficial art. And another striking example of the fact that the talent, like water, sharpens the stone of destiny. Starting conditions are slightly better than none at all. War orphanage childhood, his father died of wounds. It would seem that what can be achieved under such circumstances? But somehow it worked out.

What many consider Sveshnikov's Kafkaesque romance is actually a sublimation of the difficult and traumatic memories of his youth. At 19, he was arrested on a trumped-up case of preparing an assassination attempt on Stalin and sent to the camps almost to certain death. Sveshnikov quickly lost his health and was driven to the brink of madness by starvation and disease. But he survived by a miracle thanks to the help of his friends, and his drawing sessions helped him keep his sanity. The works of the 1980s are considered by many connoisseurs to be the pinnacle of Sveshnikov's art. His phantasmagorias were becoming more and more complex in terms of subject, and painting was reaching the highest degree of elaboration.

Vyacheslav Kalinin , an artist of the 1960s, created his own very recognizable style, which has been called “carnivalism” — from the word carnival. Very aptly. Kalinin's characters are almost always fun. The regulars in his paintings are broken ladies, drunkards, and cheerful artist friends. His works are very moody, phantasmagoric, with elements of cubist deconstruction. And “A beer bar in Serpukhov” — a model example of the genre. A large, powerful painting. Published. The main theme. A jewel in the collection.