Artist of the week. 2020. Igor Vulokh
ARTinvestment.RU   08 июня 2020

History, pricing and marketing indicators of the artist-шестидесятника and one of the classics of Russian abstractionism and minimalism Igor Alexandrovich Vulokh

Before becoming an artist,
I was a researcher.
Igor Vulokh

Years of life: 1938-2012

Direction: in , abstraction

type of art: painting, drawing

Life and work

"Nonconformist Soviet times — is not so much ideological as aesthetic" (Michael Bode, art historian), Igor Alexandrovich Vulokh was born in Kazan on 3 January 1938. Interest in art was accompanied by the future artist from a very early age, although the creativity of the circumstances of the first years of the life of Igor Vulokh is not possessed.

In 1941 his father Alexander he was called to the front, the year was lost and in the same year, four-year-old Igor Vulokh got to the orphanage as a orphan. Mother miraculously managed to track him down several years after the war.

a significant event in the life of the future painter was meeting with his first teacher — lecturer at Kazan art Institute Viktor Podgorski. A connoisseur of Japanese and Chinese art 1920-х years Professor of the Shanghai Academy of fine arts, master of monumental painting Podgursky probably acquainted Vulokh with the principles of minimalism, characteristic of traditional Asian painting, as well as with a particular way of working with artistic space and of composition, which he later reworked for their own artistic expression.

it is No exaggeration to say that the walls of the Kazan art Institute where Igor Vulokh learned from 1953 to 1958, he came already well-established artist.

the Next logical step for the young artist, was a trip to Moscow.

In 1957, Igor Vulokh sent his landscape "Winter" at the all-Union art exhibition, held at the Arena. Where the picture unexpectedly received high praise, including from the recognized classics of art — painter Konstantin Yuon and sculptor Sergey Konenkov. Encouraged by this success, in 1958, Igor Vulokh applied for admission to the major artistic University in the country — Surikov Institute. And failed to contest. Perhaps he just did not hit the quota for visiting students, but there is a version according to which the admissions Committee simply decided not to take under its wing the already established masters, to retrain which would be difficult. And why.

is Not enrolled in the Surikov, he in the same year 1958, under the patronage of George of Nyssa, became a student of the art faculty of VGIK, under the command of Fyodor Bogorodsky. However, studies at VGIK did not last long: to relearn was really difficult, not too close was Vulokh curriculum. In the end, not after the second year, in 1959-м he left the walls of the institution.

1960-е years — very important events in the life of the artist. Suffice it to say that in 1961 he held his first solo exhibition of Vulokh in the halls of artists Union in Ermolaevsky lane.

In the same 1961 Igor Vulokh participated in the first and only exhibition of his life "other art"— so-called "free art exhibition" in the House of culture in Tarusa. Helped in organization of Konstantin Paustovsky, and among the participants was Edward Steinberg, Valentin Vorobiev and Vladimir Kanevsky. The exhibition closed with the scandal.

And in the same 1961-м he met the poet Gennady Aigi, which was the beginning of a long creative Union and largely influenced the further development of the artist. Over the years of working together, he became the author of abstract illustrations for 10 books of poetry Aigi, and in 1989-м published a book "Friend of these years", with poems dedicated to the artist. Thanks to this long-term work and communicate with poets, he has gone beyond a fairly closed circle of artists. Among his friends were writers and philosophers of world importance. Thus, an important episode in the works of Vulokh was a series of illustrations to the poetry of the Swedish Nobel prize winner 2011 of the Tumas Transtremer. In 2012, in explanation of these figures created a series of collectible porcelain Vulokh.

in Addition to close ties with the world of literature and art, studies at VGIK gave Vulokh and the possibility of acting in a movie. In 1966-1968 he worked at film Studio. Bitter and in 1966 he starred in the role of officer Remizov in R. and J. Grigorievich of "the Heart of a friend".

1968-й year — milestone in the creative biography of the artist: he started to create his first series of "white works", which he consistently refused to color. Then the spiritual quest brought Vulokh to the Spiritual Academy at the Trinity-Сергиевой Laurel, where he worked for several years assistant in the Department of Western religions.

in 1971 Igor Vulokh entered the ranks of the Union of artists and dedicated themselves to the development of their own artistic language, the characteristics of which he did not retreat since his first works, creating a distinctive, like no other, concise and yet — expressive and emotional world of their own creativity.

the Imagery of Vulokh, despite the tradition already established in many texts dedicated to his work, it is difficult to reduce to such concepts as abstraction and minimalism. It is much deeper. In his works, far from figurativism, he usually lends a polished look to not a particular item or scene, but rather, that sensation which they cause. Not the physical embodiment of what-либо, its reflection. But the reflection is always unmistakably recognisable by the audience. This subtle play on the nuances of expression and makes his art so memorable and unique.

it is Not surprising that the later years of his life Igor Vulokh held the status of a recognized and respected artist in the circle of admirers which were a number of famous collectors, and numerous exhibitions were held in prestigious venues around the world.

About the reason of his popularity the artist himself said so: "I became famous in part a misunderstanding. For me, the recognition was largely unexpected. I still don't know why that made me famous. So — misunderstanding."

on November 27, 2012 Igor Vulokh died in Moscow.

the First personal exhibition of Igor Vulokh was held in 1961 in Moscow, in Exhibition hall of Moscow Union of artists. From 1981 he started to exhibit abroad: in the USA, Germany, Denmark, Poland, Germany, Italy, Finland. Participated in a landmark Moscow fairs and exhibitions 1990-х years: the international fair of arts "ARTMIF 91" (1990), ""Other art" Moscow. 1956-76" (the State Tretyakov gallery, 1991), "Postmodernism and national traditions" (the State Tretyakov gallery, 1993). In 2000-х was actively promoted, Nadja Brykina Gallery (Zurich), where he had several solo and group exhibitions. Two major Moscow the personal exhibition of Igor Vulokh were held in the cultural Foundation "Ekaterina" (2015) and the Moscow Museum of modern art (2013).

Vulokh's Works are in the collections of the State Tretyakov gallery (Moscow), State Russian Museum (Saint-Петербург), Moscow Museum of modern art ART4, the Museum of modern art (Silkeborg, Denmark) and in private collections in Europe and USA.

Financial indicators

In the three most expensive of Igor Vulokh's works included a painting sold in 2006-2007 at foreign auctions: $18 000 — third highest result — on the new-йоркском Sotheby's showed a "still life" (1970), two other sales were made by the London auction house MacDougall's: "Morning" (1963) and "the River" (1969) has found buyers for $24 897 $784 28 respectively. Note that the success of the sale of the work "Morning" was a good provenance: painting was formerly in the collection of Alexander Glezer, one of the organizers of the "Bulldozer exhibition" in Moscow (1974), and has also exhibited in new-йоркской Grant Gallery in 2005.

According to the database ARTinvestment.RU, at the time of publication of the artist's work 56 times was withdrawn at auction, including painting — 35 works, graphics — 4, mixed media —2 work. The average price of sold works — $5.8 thousand Total capitalization to the public market — $144.8 million thousand Has a balance of sold and unsold works 25 to 31 (45 % of all trading completed the sale).

table 1. Sale during the auction

table 2. Sales by country the auction

Results of re-sales of Igor Vulokh is not significant. In the public market there has been only two (the bulk occurring in the private dealer market), which is notallow at least as-нибудь to rely on statistics. All subsequent transactions have occurred in the course of one year, which may indicate speculative operations. In addition, for works of non-conformists typical and recommended long-term holding period that was not seasoned buyers.

we Use the calculation of another indicator — exceeded the estimate upon successful sales. The average estimate of all sold works was exceeded by 120 % — in other words, the sellers received an average amount of 1.2 times more than the initial estimation of the auction house. The upper limit of the estimate is fixed at 29 % of sales and has a positive trend over time. According to the index Artist's ARTIMX the average cost of the artist's work from 2018 to 2019 has grown by 28 %.

On the current 333-м AI Auction landscape "Winter" (1971-1989).

Maria Kuznetsova, AI
Denis Belkevich, AI

Sources: artinvestment.ru, vulokh.ru, iskusstvo-info.ru