Rebel Spirits, Part II

Lot 4

Alexander Kharitonov
Surrealist composition, 1960

Alexander Kharitonov was partially self-taught and, despite not having a complete professional education, passed several stages in his artistic development. His works are a fantastic kaleidoscope of lubok (Russian popular print), Russian icons, symbolism, abstraction, and metaphysics.

This composition, created in 1960, refers to the so-called metaphysical period of the 1950s and 1960s, when Kharitonov depicted fantasy scenes with underlying philosophical messages. Despite all the mysticism in his pieces, the artist was never particularly interested in such topics outside of his art—as such, his paintings balanced on the brink of reality and grotesque, seeming unearthly, but not quite surreal. He avoided drastic plot contrasts with a dramatic confrontation of despair and hope, while remaining enigmatic. Kharitonov believed that “it is necessary to paint everything ordinary and make it extraordinary”. 

Lot 45

Viacheslav Vasilevich Kalinin
Storyteller in Moscow, 1972

The phantasmagorical and original language of Vyacheslav Kalinin has become one of the most recognisable among the group of non-conformist artists. Despite the uniqueness of his artistic style, the master's work undoubtedly embodies the common principles of unofficial artists: the ability to go beyond the ordinary and reinterpret reality through painting. The theatricality, sarcasm, and grotesque style of Kalinin can be defined as “carnivalism”. The leitmotifs of the carnival are abundance and utopianism, which are characteristic of many of Kalinin's paintings. Through the carnival, he rejected commonly accepted norms and created his own “ideal” society.

In Storyteller in Moscow, Kalinin created an allegory that transcends time and place, a half-dream in which the viewer cannot distinguish reality from imagination. The warped perspective and segmented sections make the piece appear to move like a wave, creating a sense of instability and fluctuation. The atmosphere of the painting is filled with a sense of mystery and surrealism, inviting the viewer to enter the fantastical world of Kalinin's unique artistic vision. 

Lot 58

Vladimir Igorevich Yakovlev
Cat

Partially blind and lacking a formal artistic education, Yakovlev exhibited exceptional artistic talent, and yet, from 1984, he was confined to Soviet psychiatric hospitals, where he endured the harshest of conditions. Paradoxically, it was the loss of his sight and the constant isolation in psychiatric institutions that enabled him to develop a firm grasp of the intangible and a clear vision of the harmony of life, untrammelled by the cruel reality of his own existence. 

Executed in a highly expressive manner, Cat is a spectacular example of Yakovlev's artistry and visual language. The deliberate spontaneity of the highlighted by muted tones, rapid large brush strokes, and reduction of form, evokes the notions of anxiety and loneliness, which are reflective of the artist's experiences. Yakovlev's favourite tools of expression—deformation, the flattening of form, the expansiveness of colour, and experimentation with focal points and perspective—are all used to present the artworks as highly emotive harmonic structures. Figurativism aside, Yakovlev's works, often created solely from memory, are not designed to render realistic properties of the subjects; rather, they are presented as symbols, metaphysical representations which reveal the ephemeral essence of a human being and nature itself. 

Lot 65

Vasily Sitnikov
Cart ride, 1984

One of his notable works, Cart ride, showcases a technique that Vasily Sitnikov invented while making academic studies of surrealistic eroticism, which can be seen in the figures in the painting. For both the figures and the environment, he employs an elaborate graphic shading method, paired with a gentle blue colour palette that envelops the canvas, creating an airy ripple effect reminiscent of mist, fog, or a gentle haze, akin to a dream. This painting could symbolise his unpredictable journey as an artist, being pulled along in a cart by life to his destination after a long and bumpy ride. In the end, despite the difficulties, he seems content, as though it is all a dream. 

Lot 66

Oscar Yakovlevich Rabin
Refrigerator “Vivaldi”, 2002

Oscar Rabin, one of the pillars of Soviet non-conformism, holds a special place among the painters of the 1960s and 1970s. It was his studio in Lianozovo, Moscow, that became the focal point for artists of the unofficial art movement. His images are not sublime but “down-to-earth”, grotesque, sometimes cynical, and almost always distorted and deformed. Hence the dark, earthy colour palette, the complex texture, and the thick black lines with which the artist outlines buildings and objects. The roughness of the execution is emphasized by the texture, as Rabin added sand, wax, or dry pigments to his paint. Rabin's paintings always remained “barrack-like”. The style he found during his time in the barracks of Lianozovo is evident in his works from his Paris period as well. The metaphysics of his works are built from images of the lowly and mundane—barracks, dilapidated houses, trash—all these underbellies of Socialist Realism are symbols of deep emotional experiences and a depiction of the realities of the Soviet period.