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.

«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”.

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.

Kalinin is an artist of the Lianozovo group, Nemukhin's neighbor in Priluki. Today he is a living legend of unofficial art, an original and recognizable artist, whose works are hunted by collectors. And in the 1960s, the authorities considered him a parasitic element, trying to get rid of him. Kalinin was expelled from the Abramtsevo school in 1961. His first exhibition at the Kurchatov Institute was closed almost immediately. In 1975, Kalinin was lucky to participate in the exhibition of unofficial artists in the pavilion “Beekeeping” at VDNKh. At the time of the “city committee” of graphic artists on Malaya Gruzinskaya he exhibited as part of the “seven” — a group of artists-innovators, which included Nemukhin, Krasnopevtsev, Vechtomov, Plavinsky, Kharitonov.

Alexander Kharitonov was aptly nicknamed “the preacher of good”. Not without a hint of a religious fondness. And so it is. Not only in narrative, but at the level of aesthetics Kharitonov drew on religious styles, especially Byzantine mosaics. He was also inspired by beadwork on church vestments. So his “pointillism” is not the divisionism of Paul Signac, but mosaics, beads and pearls in painting techniques.

At first glance, it is clear that this is a work of a student of Aivazovsky. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Grigory Kapustin worked for several years in the studio of the outstanding marine painter in Feodosia, even made free copies of his works. Kapustin's paintings in tsarist Russia were printed on postcards in huge circulation. The artist was widely known and successful. Today his works are kept in many regional museums, including Peterhof, as well as in Russian and foreign private collections.

Weisberg formulated his credo simply: “I study the palette”. And when asked about his place in contemporary art, he answered that “all I have in common with my contemporaries is a wall”. The main thing for him was his own world. Color was his religion. And his temple was a room in a communal apartment on the Arbat, painted all white and turned into a studio. Where only the closest associates were admitted.

Shulzhenko's paintings have a phenomenal effect in practice — they completely capture the attention of any viewer, even those who are not his fans. A visitor can enter a room where ten masterpieces are hanging, but in a minute the main argument will be about Shulzhenko's work. And so it is this time. In front of us is “Three Napoleons”. A picture-parable. Three ages of a man. Three stages of destiny of the tyrant.

What unites Belenok's “panic realism” and Gintovt's “pre-dawn”? Of course, that very heavy oppressive atmosphere, the nature of which was scary to formulate. A premonition of a universal catastrophe. And a very valuable accurate hit in its own time. And it is no coincidence that this premonition of the apocalypse, the atmosphere of an impending catastrophe, is becoming one of the core themes in art these days.

Spectacular, more than a meter, bright canvas. And a bold plot. Piano keys, flutes, immodest performers, stars and a crescent moon. Music and primal instincts are among the main themes in the work of Alexander Sitnikov. As well as mysticism, myths, historical legends. And in this work, everything is not easy. The star and the crescent moon are associated with Muslim symbols. But in fact, this imagery has been known since the time of the Sumerian civilization, where the month is the sign of the god Sina, and the star is the sign of the goddess Ishtar. But that is not all. Noticed the hammer and sickle in the center? One way or another — in any case, the interpretation of “Dolls” will be an exciting experience for the new owner.