VAGRICH BAKHCHANYAN | Flowers

signed in Cyrillic and dated '1969' l.m.collage on paperBakhchanyan grew up in Kharkiv in Ukraine until the mid-1960s, when he moved to Moscow where he produced caricatures for 'Literaturnaya gazeta'. In 1974 he emigrated to New York City. 'Through collages, artist’s books, and other mixed media objects - which the artist minimally altered from their everyday appearance - he revealed the fine line that can separate normality from madness, banality from absurdity, platitude from blasphemy. Through experimentation and the development of inventive artistic strategies, Bakhchanyan broadened the range of expressive possibilities for other nonconformist artists. Many of his puns became an intrinsic part of Soviet dissident culture.' (Julia Tulovskaya in 'Vagrich Bakhchanyan: Accidental Absurdity', the 2016 exhibition at the Zimmerli Art Museum).

Collection of Mikhail Grobman, Jerusalem

St Petersburg, The State Russian Museum; Moscow, The State Tretyakov Gallery; Frankfurt am Main, Städel et al., 'Nonkonformisty: vtoroy russkiy avangard 1955-1988', 1996-1997, illustrated on p.82 of the catalogue

There are pinholes to both top corners and creasing and wear to all four corners. There are creases and a tear to the upper layer towards the center. Handling marks are visible to all edges, most noticeably finger prints to the left edge. The sheet has discolored unevenly and there is a layer of surface dirt. Writing along the bottom edge appears to have been removed by the artist. The work is hinged to the mount in several places in the corners and along the edges. Held in a simple wooden frame behind plexiglass. Unexamined out of frame.
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