Artist of the week. Neizvestny
ARTinvestment.RU   09 апреля 2010

ARTinvestment.RU congratulates Ernst Iosifovicha the 85 th anniversary, talks about the creation of the famous sixties and publishes recommendations for collectors and investors

Today, April 9, 2010 the famous Russian sculptor Ernst Neizvestny marks 85 years. We congratulate Ernst Iosifovicha happy birthday!

Talking about this wizard-шестидесятнике, it is impossible not to mention the event, thanks to which he, despite his name became known even far from the art circles. This, of course, the famous exhibition at the Manezh in 1962, where the artist entered into a dispute with the Soviet viewer number 1" — then Prime Minister-министром Nikita Khrushchev. According to eyewitnesses, the head of state, already pretty tuned into the negativity of my surroundings — including Mikhail Suslov, who wanted to settle scores with one of its nomenclature rivals — a kite swooped down on "abstractitem", in particular on the Unknown, confronting him and other artists whose work is for the sake of intrigue put on the second floor, the flow of incompetent assessments and simply battle. And then — ideological Commission of the consequences. Even later, Khrushchev regretted said then in the Arena, and later the Unknown has created a headstone on his grave, but the echoes of the Arena could be heard almost throughout the further "unofficial" history of Soviet art. After this show even that creative nonconformity that was far from politics and social issues, gained an aura of dissidence. For the glory of the new avant-garde had to pay a high price — access to the spectator for many years was practically closed. If, as he said Unknown, writer-диссиденту you can write "on the table", what to do sculptor, especially someone like him who has everything Grand, everything is "big", all require considerable resources?.. Tired of fixing every step of the bureaucracy, in 1976, the artist, who has passed fifty, decided to leave the Soviet Union — in Europe, Switzerland, and later, in search of space for his beloved monument to America.

However, some of their big ideas, he was able to carry out before departure. Among them — 150-метровый decorative relief in Artek, the monument "Flower of Lotus" for the Aswan dam (by the way, one of the world's largest sculptures), and a funerary monument to Khrushchev — sculpted head and the contour, one half of which is black, the other white, which symbolizes the ambiguity of the figure of the Soviet Premier. In 1956-м Unknown began work on a key project — giant sculptural composition "Tree of life", a kind of "hymn to humanity", which finds expression "dualist[e] contro[e] of man and nature, man and the second nature of man himself." Crohn's fantastic tree covered in seven möbius strip, like the human heart. The artist planned to erect a huge structure, which the user can enter a real maze, but is that all versions of the sculpture, saw the light, and nowhere close to such magnitude. This, of course, robs them impressive: the height of Moscow's "Tree", planted in 2004 in the business center "Moscow-Сити", is 7 meters.

the Art of Ernst Neizvestny distinguishes emotion and power. He demonstriruet the human figure in the spirit of cubism, inspiring her stormy expression: heroes Unknown if trying to break out of the body. Often it seems that body in his work (as in sculpture and in painting and drawing) composed of individual parts, which is associated with robots or cyborgs (very in the spirit of 1960-х). This aesthetic gives new life to used painter classic images — Orpheus, centaur, prophet, etc. — in full accordance with the philosophy of the Unknown, which makes the works on eternal themes and believes in scientific-технический progress. The monumentality and pathos, combined with the dynamism made of Unknown popular author of urban sculpture: on account of his amazing "Mask of sorrow" in Magadan in memory of the victims of Stalinist repression, and the monument of the Stalin's deportation of the Kalmyk people in Elista.

While the first three places in the list of the most expensive auction of works of the Unknown oddly enough, take a picture. Sculptures by famous muralist at art-рынке appear two times less than the paintings. Price record belongs to the same picture — the song "Head", sold on 29 November 2007 for 42,5 thousand pounds (auction Christie's). Estimate cloth is 8-12 thousand. At the same auction painting "Man in chains" brought 36,5 thousand in the same preliminary assessment.

editor's Comment:

Connoisseurs of the artist's work will surely agree that the element of the Unknown — sculpture and graphics. And his later painting, even decorative (even excessively), let the right on topics obviously deprived let not all, but a considerable part of the primitive energy of the author, the emotional violence, power, expression, famous sculptor. In this light, investors should take a closer look not only a gigantic five-foot canvas with a bright "aniline" palette (which are in abundance appeared in the late 1980-х — early 1990-х and actively offered for auction), how many mid-size sculpture, and very expressive chart 1960-80-х years. Because the graphics, as they say, — is the soul of the artist.

At international auctions the prices powerful good figures large in the range of 8-10 thousand dollars. Late paintings traded in the range of 25-40 thousand dollars, and if the estimate is close to 50 thousand, then the chances of finding a buyer is already declining. Large, with a height of 50-80 cm, with characteristic sculpture (torsos, centaurs, etc.), referring to the 1960-м years, can cost 20-50 thousand dollars. The price varies greatly depending on the decoration and the power works: not the most convincing instances of other things being equal, can cost several times cheaper. In turn, the investing is worth recommending compact, with a height of 20-30 cm, sculptures (especially of the Unknown has been the crucifixion), which is much more accessible, not less expressive and the comfort of owning have distinct advantages over massive things. In General, according to ARTinvestment.RU the work of Ernst Neizvestny is undervalued today. The current price levels is obviously inconsistent not only with the artist's place in the history of post-war non-art, but the objective artistic value of his work. As strange as it sounds, but the new Russian audience seems to be an artist to open again — through significant exhibitions, retrospectives and publications. Anniversary — a good reason to.

ARTinvestment.RU congratulates today is not only an outstanding sculptor, but also a hero-фронтовика Ernst Unknown happy Victory Day.

the Material was prepared Yulia Maksimova, AI
Comments — Vladimir Bogdanov, AI

Sources: enstudio.com, directorinfo.ru, artinvestment.ru