Soviet Nonconformist Art

1917–1932

From the time of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 until 1932, the historical Russian avant-garde flourished and strove to appeal to the proletariat. However, in 1932 Stalin's government took control of the arts with the publication of "On the Reconstruction of Literary-Artistic Organizations"; a decree that put artists' unions under the control of the Communist Party. Two years later, Stalin instituted a policy that unified aesthetic and ideological objectives, which was called Socialist Realism, broadly defined as art that was, "socialist in content and realist in form." Moreover, the new policy defined four categories of unacceptable art: political art, religious art, erotic art, and "formalistic" art, which included abstraction, expressionism, and conceptual art. Beginning in 1936, avant-garde artists who were unable or unwilling to adapt to the new policy were forced out of their positions, and often either murdered or sent to the gulag, as part of Stalin's Great Purges.^[1] Vladimir Sterligov, a student of Kazimir Malevich, along with two of his own students, Alexander Baturin and Oleg Kartashov, as well as Vera Ermolaeva and her students Marusya Kazanskaya and Pavel Basmanov were arrested in December, 1934 and taken by train to Kazakhstan. Sterligov spent five years in prison outside Karaganda, while Ermolaeva disappeared forever. Sterligov's student, Alexander Baturin, spent a total of 32 years in prison.

End of World War II – 1953

In the wake of World War II, referred to in Russia as The Great Patriotic War, Party resolutions were passed in 1946 and 1948, by Andrei Zhdanov, chief of the Propaganda Administration formally denouncing Western cultural influences at the start of the Cold War. Art students such as Ülo Sooster, an Estonian who later became important to the Moscow nonconformist movement, were sent to Siberian prison camps.^[2] The nonconformist artist Boris Sveshnikov also spent time in a Soviet labor camp.^[3] Oleg Tselkov was expelled from art school for 'formalism' in 1955, which from the viewpoint of the Party might have constituted an act of treason.^[4]

1953 (the death of Stalin) – 1962

The death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, and Nikita Khrushchev's subsequent denunciation of his rule during his Secret Speech at the Twentieth Party Congress in 1956 created a "thaw"; a liberal atmosphere wherein artists had more freedom to create nonsanctioned work without fearing repercussions. Furthermore, Stalin's cult of personality was recognized as detrimental, and within weeks many paintings and busts bearing his likeness were removed from public places. Artists such as Aleksandr Gerasimov, who had made their careers painting idealized portraits of Stalin, were forced out of their official positions, as they had become embarrassing to the new leadership.^[5] However, despite increased tolerance, the parameters of Socialist Realism still hadn't changed, and therefore, artists still had to tread lightly.

1962 – mid-1970s

Ernst Neizvestny. The Prophet. Sculpture Park, Uttersberg, Sweden

The "thaw" era ended quickly, when in 1962, Khrushchev attended the public Manezh exhibition at which several nonconformist artists were exhibiting, including Ulo Sooster with his Eye in the Egg. Khrushchev got into a public and now-famous argument with Ernst Neizvestny, sculptor (ru) (1925-2016), regarding the function of art in society. However, this altercation had the unintended effect of fomenting unofficial art as a movement. Artists could no longer hold delusions that the state would recognize their art, yet the climate had become friendly and open enough that a coherent organization had formed. Additionally, punishments for unofficial artists became less severe; they were denied admittance to the union instead of being executed.

As a "movement" nonconformist art was stylistically diverse. However, in the post-thaw era its function and role in society became clear. As the eminent Russian curator, author and museum director Joseph Bakstein writes,

The duality of life in which the official perception of everyday reality is independent of the reality of the imagination leads to a situation where art plays a special role in society. In any culture, art is a special reality, but in the Soviet Union, art was doubly real precisely because it had no relation to reality. It was a higher reality.... The goal of nonconformism in art was to challenge the status of official artistic reality, to question it, to treat it with irony. Yet that was the one unacceptable thing. All of Soviet society rested on orthodoxy, and nonconformism was its enemy. That is why even the conditional and partial legalization of nonconformism in the mid-1970s was the beginning of the end of the Soviet regime.

^[6]

Late 1970s – 1991s

In the mid-1980s, Glasnost and Perestroika were the policies that led to the demise of the USSR in 1991. The nonconformist movement, deprived of a host body, suffered demise as well. However, two other factors sealed the fate of nonconformism. The first was the 1988 auction of modern and contemporary Russian art in Moscow by Sotheby's. The auction was only open to foreigners who could pay in British Pounds, which signified the economic fragility of the Soviet Union, the end of its xenophobia, and the beginning of the forces of capitalism that control the art market. The second factor was diaspora - many artists had already emigrated, beginning as early as the late-1970s and continuing throughout the 1980s.

Among Moscow Artists who emigrated at that time are:

• To Israel: 1972 Vladimir Grigorovich (b. 1939), and in 1974 moved to USA.

• To France: 1975 Lidia Masterkova (ru) (1927-2008); 1975 Valentin Vorobyov (b. 1938) to Paris; 1978 Oscar Rabin (ru) (b. 1928); 1978 Valentina Kropivnitskaya (ru) (1924-2008);

• To USA: 1977 Ernst Neizvestny, sculptor (ru) (1925-2016); 1977 Komar and Melamid moved first to Israel, and than in 1978 Vitaly Komar [[ ]] (b. 1943) and Alexander Melamid [[ ]] (b. 1945) moved to USA, where they live and work now; 1979 Leonid Sokov (ru) (1941-2018) to N.Y.; 1988 Ilya Kabakov (ru) (b. 1933) to N.Y.; 1989 Erik Bulatov (ru) (b. 1933) to N. Y., who in 1992 moved to Paris, France. Now he lives in both counties, Paris, France, and Moscow, Russia; 1990 Vladimir Yankilevsky (ru) (1938-2018) to New York, then in 1992 moved to Paris, France, where he died in January 4, 2018; 1990 Oleg Vassiliev (ru) (1931-2013) to N.Y, and later moved to Minnesota, where he resided and died in 2013.

• To Italy: 1976 Mikhail Koulakov (ru) (1933-2015).

Among Leningrad Artists (now St. Petersburg) who emigrated at that time are:

• To Israel: 1976 Evgeny Abezgauz (Eugene Abeshaus) (1939-2008); 1976 Tatiana Kornfeld (b. 1950); 1976 Yuri Kalendarev, sculptor (b. 1947), who in 1979 moved to Tuscany, Italy; 1977 Sima Ostrovsky (1938-1995); 1979 Anatoly Basin (ru) (b. 1936), who lived first in Paris, France, Vienna, Austria, before moving to Jerusalem, Israel, and in August 2017 moved to Rehovot, Israel. From 1994 he lives in both countries, Israel, and St. Petersburg, Russia; 1979 Alexander Okun (ru) (b. 1949); 1993 Alexander Gurevich (b. 1944);

• To USA: 1974 Alexander Ney (b. 1939), sculptor, to New York; 1975 Konstantyn K. Kuzminsky (ru), poet (1940-2015); 1976 Alek Rapoport (ru) (1933-1997) emigrated from Leningrad, and in 1977 moved to USA; 1976 Igor Sinyavin (1937-2000), who lived in Moscow from 1987, but died in N.Y., USA; 1977 Natalia Toreeva (b. 1941) to Chicago, Illinois; 1977 Yury Galetsky (b. 1944) to N.Y., and in 1987 returned back to Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Russia; 1978 Vadim Filimonov (ru) (b. 1947), who was forced to emigrate from USSR. In 1979 he moved to USA, and from 1985 lives and works in Germany; 1980 Evgeny Goryunov (1944-1994), who moved after 2 years to Europe, lived in Austria, Italy, and later in Paris, France, and in 1989 returned to Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Russia; 1989 Yuri Dyshlenko (ru) (1936-1995), who died from lung cancer in N.Y., USA;

• To France: 1971 Mikhail Chemiakin (ru) (b. 1943) was exiled from the Soviet Union to Paris, France, then moved in 1981 to New York, the United States, and in 2007 he returned to France, where he currently resides; 1977 Alexander Arefiev (ru) (1931-1978) to Paris, where he died soon in 1978; 1977 Yuri Zharkikh (ru) (b. 1938) emigrated to Germany, and in 1978 he moved to Paris, France, where he lives and works now; Valentin Afanasiev (ru), painter and musician (b. 1945).

• To Germany: 1978 Igor Sacharow-Ross (Sacharov-Ross, Zakharov-Ross) (b. 1947) was exiled from the Soviet Union to Germany, where he currently resides.

Lianozovo Group

One of the most rebellious groups to emerge from this period is called Lianozovo group or school (ru:Лианозовская школа), creative association of poets and artists, after the small village Lianozovo outside Moscow, where most of the artists lived and worked. The members of this group were: Evgenii Kropivnitsky [[ ]] (1893-1979), the artist and poet, and the father of two artists Valentina Kropivnitskaya (ru) (1924-2008) and Lev Kropivnitsky [[ ]] (1922-1994), Olga Potapova [[ ]] (1892-1971), Oscar Rabin (ru) (b. 1928), Lidia Masterkova (ru) (1927-2008), Vladimir Nemukhin [[ ]] (1925-2016), Nikolai Vechtomov [[ ]] (1923-2007) and the poets Vsevolod Nekrasov [[ ]] (1934-2009), Genrikh Sapgir [[ ]] (1928-1999), and Igor Kholin [[ ]] (1920-1999). This group was not related due to aesthetic concerns, but due to "their shared search for a new sociocultural identity." If one generalization may be made of this group's aesthetic preferences and general worldview it is that, "the aestheticization of misery is precisely what distinguishes the representatives of the de-classed communal intelligentsia of the thaw era from their predecessors (the Socialist Realists), who created a paradisiac image of history."^[9]

Many members of the Lianozovo group worked in an abstract style. The 1957 thaw resulted in the discovery of Western artistic practices and historical Russian avant-garde traditions by young Soviet artists. Artists began experimenting with abstraction, as it was the antithesis of Socialist Realism. However, the fallout from the Manezh exhibition, in 1962, caused restrictions to be enforced once again. The new restrictions could not however, curtail what the young artists had learned during the five-year interlude. Additionally, Victor Tupitsyn points out that the 1960s mark an era of "decommunalization" in the Soviet Union. Khrushchev worked to improve housing conditions, and a consequence of this was that artists began to get studios of their own, or shared spaces with like-minded colleagues.^[9] If one is to follow Virginia Woolf's thesis that A Room of One's Own is the primary necessary factor for the proliferation of creative work, then it is easy to see how nonconformist art began flourishing at this time in the USSR.

Officially, those in the Lianozovo group were members of the Moscow Union of Graphic Artists, working in the applied and graphic arts. As such, they were not permitted to hold painting exhibitions, as that fell under the domain of the Artists' Union. Consequently, apartment exhibitions and literary salons began at this time as a means of publicly exhibiting. However, the Lianozovo group in particular was often harassed by Soviet officials as they were vigilant in pursuing public exhibitions of their work. In an attempt to circumvent the law, the Lianozovo group proposed an open-air exhibition in 1974, inviting dozens of other nonconformist artists also to exhibit. The result was the demolition of the exhibition by bulldozers and water cannons, for which reason the exhibition is still known bow as the Bulldozer Exhibition (ru).

Sretensky Boulevard Group

Oleg Vasiliev, Before the Sunrise, 1964

A group of artists that had studios on and around Sretensky Boulevard, Moscow, became a loosely associated like-minded community in the late 1960s. The members of this group were: Ilya Kabakov (ru) (b. 1933), Ülo Sooster, Eduard Steinberg, Erik Bulatov (ru) (b. 1933), Oleg Vassiliev (ru) (1931-2013), Viktor Pivovarov, Vladimir Yankilevsky (ru) (1938-2018), and sculptor Ernst Neizvestny (ru) (1925-2016). The artists' studios were also used as venues to show and exchange ideas about unofficial art. Like their colleagues in the Lianozovo group, the majority of visual artists who were part of the Sretensky Boulevard Group were admitted to the Moscow Union of Graphic Artists. This allowed the artists to work officially as book illustrators and graphic designers, which provided them with studio space, materials, and time to work on their own projects. Although they shared the same type of official career, the Sretensky group is not stylistically homogeneous. The name merely denotes the community that they formed as a result of working in close proximity to each other.

Moscow Conceptualists

However, many of the artists on Sretensky Boulevard were part of the Moscow Conceptualist school. This movement arose in the 1970s to describe the identity of the contemporary Russian artist in opposition to the government. As Joseph Bakstein explains, "The creation of this nonconformist tradition was impelled by the fact that an outsider in the Soviet empire stood alone against a tremendous state machine, a great Leviathan that threatened to engulf him. To preserve one's identity in this situation, one had to create a separate value system, including a system of aesthetic values."^[6]

The aesthetic language of Moscow Conceptualism is self-conscious and often deals with the quotidian. Consequently, these artists incorporated their experiences of Soviet life into their art in a manner that was not overtly negative, but at varying times, nostalgic, disinterested, wry, and subtle. Erik Bulatov explains that conceptualist art is, "a rebellion of man against the everyday reality of life... a picture interests me as some kind of system... opening into the space of my everyday existence."^[10] By exposing the underlying mechanisms of Soviet society and interpersonal interaction, the artists created a very real artistic language to rival the "official" propagandist language of the government.

This group includes Ilya Kabakov (ru) (b. 1933), Erik Bulatov (ru) (b. 1933), Oleg Vassiliev (ru) (1931-2013), Komar and Melamid [[ ]], [[ ]], Ivan Chuikov [[ ]] (b. 1935) ^[11], Viktor Pivovarov, and also broadly encompasses the Sots artists and the Collective Actions group, which were both influential in the construction of Russian conceptualist art. The term Moscow Conceptualism is sometimes used interchangeably with post-modernism, and is sometimes erroneously meant to include all of the nonconformist artists of the "Soviet generation." This term applies both to specific artists who were born in the 1930s and 1940s, grew up under Stalinism and came of age in the 1960s, and to certain artists of the next generation that were born in the 1950s, like the core of the Collective Actions group (Andrei Monastyrsky, Nikita Alexeiev, Nikolai Panitkov, Georgy Kiesewalter, etc.). Both these groups took nonconformist art in a new direction in the 1970s.

1960s - 1970s

• Mikhail Chemiakin's Petersburg Non-conformist Group developed out of a 1964 exhibition at the Hermitage Museum, where Mikhail Chemiakin (ru) (b. 1943) worked as gallery assistant. The official name of the exhibition was Exhibition of the artist-workers of the economic part of the Hermitage: Towards the 200th anniversary of Hermitage and it included the work of Chemiakin, V. Kravchenko, V. Uflyand, V. Ovchinnikov and O. Liagatchev. Opening on March 30–31, it was closed by the authorities on April 1. The Hermitage director, Mikhail Artamonov, was removed from his post.

In 1967 the Petersburg Group Manifesto was written and signed by Chemiakin, O. Liagatchev, E. Yesaulenko and V. Ivanov. V. Ivanov and M. Chemiakin had previously developed the idea of Metaphysical Synthesism, which proposed creating a new form of icon painting through the study of religious art across the ages.^[13] The essay, Métaphysique Synthétisme included illustrations to the works of E.T.A. Hoffman and Crime and Punishment by Fyodor M. Dostoevsky.

A. Vasiliev and the miniature painter V. Makarenko joined the group later.

Four years after the founding of the group, in 1971, Chemiakin emigrated to France, and later in 1981 to the United States. In 2007 he returned to France, where he resides now.

Liagatchev, until his emigration to Paris in 1975, and Vasiliev continued to participate in exhibitions of non-conformist artists in Leningrad at the Gaza Palace of Culture (1974) and the Nevsky Palace of Culture (1975). Liagatchev's work in this period includes: Kafka, Intimeniy XX (1973) and Composition - Canon (1975). The group finally became defunct in 1979, ceasing to have joint exhibitions.

School of Sidlin ("Школа Сидлина")

Natalia G. Toreeva, The End of the USSR, computer graphics. 1992

Osip Sidlin (2/18/1909-9/23/1972) was educated at VKHUTEMAS (Higher State Artistic and Technical Institute, renamed later to Ilya Repin St. Petersburg State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture). He studied under Alexander Osmerkin (ru) (1892-1953), Alexander Savinov (ru) (1881-1942), Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin (ru) (1878-1939), and also was in contact with Kazimir Malevich (ru) (1878-1935).^[18]

Starting in the middle of the 1930s, Osip Sidlin was teaching art in Leningrad at such art schools as the Ilyich (Lenin) Palace of Culture, the First Five-Year Palace of Culture, and also at the Kapranov Palace of Culture till his sudden death of heart attack in 1972.^[19]

Among his students were the following artists: Anatoly Basin (ru) (b. 1936),^[20] Galina Basina (b. 1939), Vladimir Egorov (1918-?), Nina Fedotova (1925-?), Anatoly Golovastov (1930-2007), Evgeny Goryunov (1944-1994), ^[21] Igor V. Ivanov (1934-2017),^[22] Galina (Sizova) Ivanova (b. 1937), Boris Kupin (b. 1939), Alexander Mikhailovsky (1923-2005?), Yury Nashivochnikov (b. 1922),^[23] Sergey Sivertsev (b. 1934), Natalia Toreeva (b. 1941), ^[24] Margarita Trushina (b. 1941), Vasily Zhavoronkov (1918-2000), Vasily Yuzko (b. 1938),^[25] and other artists, and the poet Yuli Goldstein (1940-1986), who provided to the group the wider vision not only to the art, but also to the literature and poetry.

• In 1994, the exhibition the "Memory of teacher" took place in the State Museum of Urban Sculpture, St. Petersburg, Russia. ^[26] It was dedicated to the 85 years of birthday Anniversary of Osip Sidlin, the teacher of the "School of Sidlin". The art work of the following artists were exhibited: O. Sidlin, A. Basin, I. Ivanov, V. Egorov, N. Fedotova, A. Golovastov, E. Goryunov, A. Mikhailovsky, Y. Nashivochnikov, A. Shakirov, S. Sivertsev, N. Toreeva, G. Zhavoronkova, V. Yuzko.

Temple Wall School is continuation of the "School of Sidlin" movement. After the death of Osip Sidlin (1909-1972), the teacher of the "School of Sidlin" art group, his student, Yury Nashivochnikov (b. 1922), brought the young artists together and in 1992 organized the art school, called the "Temple Wall School".^[27] Among his students were the following artists: Vladimir Garde (b. 1973), Dmitry Markul (b. 1949), Svetlana Moskovskaya (b. 1956), Vladimir Ustinsky (1958), Alexander Viziryako (b. 1958), and other artists. The "Temple Wall School" continues the tradition of the "School of Sidlin", mostly on study the Byzantine and old Russian art, based on the two-dimensional wall fresco paintings and Russian icons. In 2015, the thesis the "School of Sidlin and Temple Wall School" was written by Svetlana Moskovskaya, Y. Nashivochnikov's student of the "Temple Wall School", and published in March, 2016 under the St. Petersburg State University, where she is discussing the continuation of the tradition of the artistic movement of 20th century to the 21st century, the next generation of the visual art movement.^[28]

• In 1996 and 2002, the exhibitions of "Temple Wall" took place in the State Museum of Urban Sculpture, St. Petersburg, Russia. ^[29]

The Sterligov Group ("Группа В. Стерлигова")

Vladimir Sterligov (ru) (1904-1973) was the student of Kazimir Malevich (ru) (1878-1935), Pavel Filonov, and all his life followed K. Malevich's principles of cubism and suprematism in this artistic tradition.^[30] His followers were: A. Baturin (1914-2003), Elena Gritsenko (b. 1947),^[31] A. Nosov (b. 1947), Mikhail Tserush (b. 1948), ^[32] G. Zubkov (b. 1940),^[33] and other artists, who expending the Sterligov's philosophy in their artistic view.^[34]

Pavel Kondratiev (1902-1985) was also the student of Kazimir Malevich (ru) (1878-1935), Pavel Filonov, Alexander Savinov at the Academy of Arts/Vkhutein, and collaborated with V. Sterligov and T. Glebova at that time and later. So, they both have the same kind of Niche in art, where their followers and pupils were in one group or another, but followed the same kind of principles in art. Pavel Kondratiev was also a follower of Pavel Filonov's "Masters of Analytical Art" (MAI) movement in Leningrad from 1927 to 1932.^[35]

The Arefiev Circle ("Круг Арефьева")

Alexander Arefiev (ru) (1931-1978) was a leader of the nonconformist group in Leningrad (St. Petersburg).^[36] He was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1977, and soon died in Paris in 1978.

The group included the following artists: A. Arefiev (Arekh),^[37] Valentin Gromov (ru) (b. 1930), ^[38] Richard (Rikhard) Vasmi (ru) (1929-1998), who is also known by his quote "The artist painted his own Sarcophagus all his life",^[39] Vladimir Shagin (ru) (1932-1999),^[40] Sholom Schwartz (ru) (1929-1995),^[41] Natalia Zhilina (1933-2005), who was close to this group,^[42] and the poet Roald Mandelstam (ru) (1932-1961), who provided to the group the inspiration for their art work. Their group was called as "The Order of Mendicant Painters" or "The Order of Unsold Painters", and they were recognized only after the starting of the new Nonconformists movement in Leningrad and their participation in the exhibitions at the Gaza Palace of Culture (1974) and the Nevsky Palace of Culture (1975).

The "Other" nonconformist artists (mid-1970s)

Alek Rapoport, "Apostles Peter and Paul", mixed media. 1995

Besides the artists participated as the schools, or groups, described above, these artists participated individually in the important time of the Soviet non-conformist art. They took the active part in the unofficial art, including their participation in the apartment exhibitions and in the unofficial art exhibitions, such as the famous non-conformist Gaza-Nevsky exhibitions in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in the mid-1970s.

• In 1990, the album "The Artists of the Gaza-Nevsky culture", compiled by E. Andreeva and published as a part of the "Contemporary Leningrad Avant-garde" series in St. Petersburg, Russia. Besides the artists included there from the "School of Sidlin", the "Sterligov Group", and "Arefiev Circle", the following artists were included in this album among other founders of the Gaza-Nevsky culture: Evgeny Abezgauz (Eugene Abeshaus) (1939-2008), Valentin Afanasiev (ru), painter and musician (b. 1945), Anatoly Belkin (ru) (b. 1953), Mikhail Chemiakin (ru) (b. 1943), Yury Dyshlenko (ru) (1936-1995), Vadim Filimonov (ru) (b. 1947), Yury Galetsky (b. 1944), Vladlen Gavrilchik (ru) (1929-2017), Tatiana Kerner (1941-1973), Vitaly Kubasov (b. 1937), Mikhail Koulakov (ru) (1933-2015), Nikolay Lubushkin (1936-1992), Alexander Manusov (1947-1990), Yury Medvedev (b. 1939), Vladimir Michailov (b. 1931), Alexander Morev (ru) (1934-1 979), Evgeny Mikhnov-Voitenko (ru) (1932-1988), Vladimir Nekrasov (b. 1939), Alexander Okun (ru) (b. 1949), Vladimir Ovchinnikov (b. 1941), ^[43] Yury Petrochenkov (b. 1942), Alek Rapoport (ru) (1933-1997), Yuly Rybakov (ru) (b. 1946), Evgeny Rukhin (ru) (1943-1976), Igor Sacharow-Ross (Sacharov-Ross, Zakharov-Ross) (b. 1947), Igor Sinyavin (1937-2000), Igor Tulpanov (b. 1939), Gennady Ustugov (b. 1937), and others.

Publications and late Exhibitions

• In 2001, "Школа Сидлина" ("School of Sidlin") book, published by Isaak Kushnir, as a part of the series of the books "Avant-garde on the Neva" about the Soviet Avant-garde Art, where the students of the School of Sidlin included, St. Petersburg, Russia. ISBN 5-901751-01-9, OCLC 845543694
• In 2005, "Герои Ленинградской культуры 1950-1980-е" ("Heroes of Leningrad culture 1950s-1980s") book, compiled by Larisa Skobkina (ru) (b. 1951), the curator of the Central Exhibition Hall "Manege", to reflect the unofficial art groups formed around the artists and teachers, such as V. Sterligov, P. Kondratiev, O. Sidlin, G. Dlugach, N. Akimov, S. Levin, and others. It includes also the artists who did not belong to any art groups, but still played the notable role in the nonconformist movement at that time, St. Petersburg, Russia (in Russian). OCLC 637824734

• In 2013, the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg organized the exhibition that reflects the famous art groups and schools at 1970s, including O. Sidlin, V. Sterligov, P. Kondratiev, A. Arefiev, and others.^[44]

• In 2013, "Petersburg 20 Years" exhibition (1993-2013), organized by "Manege", St. Petersburg, Russia, where the sculptures of the artists, the paintings of the "Arefiev Circle", the artwork of the "School of Sidlin" art group, and others were exhibited.^[45]

• In 2016-2017, the artwork of the artists, including the artists from the "School of Sidlin" (Y. Nashivochnikov, A. Basin, I. Ivanov, Natalia Toreeva), "Sterligov Group", "Arefiev Circle" (A. Arefiev, R. Vasmi, V. Gromov, V. Shagin, and Sh. Schwartz), and others, now in the "Tsarskoselskaya Collection" (ru) State Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.^[46]

• In 2018, the St. Petersburg State University organized the exhibition of the works of Leningrad nonconformist artists from 1970-1990, based on their collection. There were the works of the artists represented the different schools and groups. For example, V. Sterligov's group was represented by work of A. Baturin, the School of O. Sidlin was represented by works of A. Basin and Natalia Toreeva, etc. See the article about this exhibition, in Russian.^[47]

The 1980s

Timur Novikov (1958-2002) was one of the leaders of St. Petersburg art in the 1980s. In 1982 his theory of "Zero Object" acted as one of the foundations of Russian conceptual art.^[48] In the 1990s he founded Neo-Academism.

St. Petersburg artists Igor Polyakov and Alexander I. Rappoport (b. 1959) formed the underground art group the "Battle Elephants" in 1984.

Olga Kisseleva was one of the leaders of Russian New media art.

Another important St. Petersburg artist who emerged in the 1980s was Afrika (Sergei Bugaev).