Igor Tulpanov

The 1962 Moscow publication Art in Bondage: Criticism of the New Movements in Contemporary Bourgeois Art describes Surrealism as follows: "Surrealism is an enemy of democracy and great artistic traditions. Surrealism cultivates madness, sickening hallucinations... It strives to break down a man with a healthy psyche and to make him sick... Surrealism is the enemy of life, reason and happiness." Despite--or perhaps because of--the Soviet authorities' highly negative views of this European-based movement, various nonconformist artists including Tulpanov embraced Surrealism, using it as a vehicle to introduce erotic or fantastic imagery long forbidden and eradicated from official Soviet art.

Between 1959 and 1964 Tulpanov studied under the noted artist Nikolai Akimov in the department of stage design at the Leningrad Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography. It was Akimov who instilled in Tiulpanov a great sense of freedom to experiment with modernist styles. Until 1963, Tiulpanov created stage designs for theaters in Moscow and Leningrad, producing paintings and drawings with surrealist overtones in his spare time.