ArtSale.info Auction »

The point of summarizing the results is to use them to make predictions for the future. And if we compare the forecasts we made in March 2022 with the actual results of the past year, we have to admit that none of our forecasts of that time came true.

Before us is one of the most significant works by Nemukhin ever sold at world auctions. And even more so in Russia. Undoubted masterpiece. Expert Valery Silaev considers it among the best of those that he had to attribute. By the way, long ago in 2006, a similar work of the same time, size and theme was sold at Sotheby's for $ 240,000 and set an auction record for the artist's work, which has not been beaten up to this day.

The appearance of such work in the Russian auction market is not news, but an event! An oil by Rabin, more than a meter in size, created in 1965, and moreover, from the exhibition at London Grosvenor Gallery. For connoisseurs of Rabin's art these three facts are eloquent confirmation of the highest level of the presented work.

The museum-scale canvas and rollicking painting with a Russian spirit is exactly the format that Shulzhenko's collectors especially appreciate. Others, however, hate him for this very reason, accusing him almost of Russophobia. Like an actor who plays a negative character, Shulzhenko is pestered for the heroes of his paintings — drunks and their rowdy girlfriends. However, for the artist, drunkards and marginals are not part of his surroundings, but an object of study.

Yuri Kuper came to sfumato, a painterly technique of depicting air invented by Leonardo, while in exile, where he left in 1972. In the Soviet Union, he was more of a follower of surrealism. But one day his photographer friend John Stuart told him, “Look, you're a fine artist, but you're doing some nonsense. Why don't you just paint reality? Those objects around you”. And from about this point we can count the era of the new Kuper.

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.

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.

Once again, we talk about the art market and prices. About how they respond to the changes taking place in the country. About how the once very conservative art market has learned to be responsive and instantly adapt to the rapidly changing business conditions. About the fact that, despite all the external obstacles, the demand and supply in the top segment not only remain, but show considerable growth.

Vulokh of the highest order. One-of-a-kind. Exceptional quality. 1972! The author kept the intrigue by calling the painting as abstract as possible — “Details”. But connoisseurs know that Vulokh's works are almost never purely “abstract”. Streaks of lines and scratched “strokes” usually contain coded landscapes or seasons. Here, too, the viewer may discern rather a pebble beach or a field of flowers, or even an alien view.

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.