Boris Birger, 1923-2001

Boris Birger’s studies at the Surikov Institute of the Moscow Academy of Arts was interrupted by military service, but he was able to continue after the war and graduated in 1951. From 1953 his works were exhibited widely. In 1962 his work Mother with Child was directly criticised by Khruschev, which resulted in his expulsion from the Moscow Union of Artists. Neither this nor his reinstatement four years later had any bearing on his attitude: as a true artist he lived by his own rules. In 1990 he emigrated from Russia to Germany where he continued working until his death in Bonn in the summer of 2001.