Vladimir Nemukhin

Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner

Norma Roberts, ed., The Quest for Self-Expression: Painting in Moscow and Leningrad, 1965-1990, Columbus, Ohio: Columbus Museum of Art, 1990
Alla Rosenfeld and Norton T. Dodge, eds., From Gulag to Glasnost: Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union, New York and London: Thames and Hudson and the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, 1995
"Vladimir Nemukhin," in Renee Baigell and Matthew Baigell, Soviet Dissident Artists: Interviews After Perestroika, New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1995, pp. 53-59

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This piece, which is part collage and part painting, seems to be in beautiful and unrestored condition. The paint layer may be slightly dirty. In the center of the right side there is a light-colored scratch and another situated just above it; these may be small damages, although it is hard to tell. Other than this, all of the applied wood in the lower portion and all the other elements of the piece seem to be in good condition.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Perhaps because he had had little formal training before briefly attending the Surikov Art Institute in Moscow in 1957, Vladimir Nemukhin was not inhibited by the dictates of the state-prescribed style of Socialist Realism. After seeing contemporary American works exhibited in the late 1950s as a result of the cultural liberalization of Nikita Khrushchev's "Thaw," Nemukhin began experimenting with Abstract Expressionist applications of pigment and open-ended formal arrangements.

Playing cards figure prominently in Nemukhin's oeuvre. From the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s Nemukhin created many works in various media—oil paintings, watercolors, mixed-media collages—featuring painted depictions of playing cards or incorporating actual ones. Nemukhin appreciates the playing card for its banality and, at the same time, its associations with mystery, chance, and fate—a stark contrast to the Soviet government's emphasis on planning and predetermined social processes. Among the important influences on Nemukhin are Paul Cézanne, the Cubists, and two American artists whose work also embraces the role of chance and the commonplace: Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns.

Part of the first generation of the nonconformist movement, Nemukhin entered the studio of Petr Sokolov, a former student of Kazimir Malevich, and Pavel Kuznetsov, in 1942. The politically-minded Nemukhin—whose unorthodox views got him expelled from the Surikov Art Institute—was a member of the Lianozovo group, which advocated freedom of expression. He took part in notable nonconformist exhibitions, including the 1967 show at the Druzhba Workers' Club, which was shut down by the KGB and the Moscow Party Committee. Nemukhin was both a participant and played a key role in the infamous "Bulldozer Exhibition" of 1974, serving as negotiator between the artists and the authorities.