Anatoly Zverev

Summary of Anatoly Zverev

Anatoly Zverev was the most innovative Russian artist of the second half of the 20^th century. He fully lived up to his renown as the Soviet art world's most uncompromising maverick. Battling against the malign forces of state control, Zverev remained unwavering in his dedication to his art. Indeed, the artist created many thousands of works across painting, drawing, and graphic art; an even more remarkable tally given that his life ended prematurely through acute alcoholism. Zverev won many admirers in the West (not least Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau) for his expressive spontaneity, and his inspired (and resourceful) appropriation of household materials. But in his native Russia, Zverev only received his proper dues as an avant-garde trailblazer in the wake of his death.

Accomplishments

• Zverev's work was driven by the conviction that a truly avant-garde art should convey the sensations of the artist in the most immediate manner . His intuitive and expressive approach to painting drew close comparisons with the French Tachisme movement and, at the same time, invited favorable parallels with the Action paintings of Jackson Pollock.
• As an official "enemy of the state", Zverev was denied access to art materials available to official Soviet artists. Undeterred, his ability to improvise - working with everyday provisions such as ketchup, cream cheese, and even shoe polish - earned him the admiration of many working within the Second Russian avant-garde.
• Zverev was a virtuoso of expressive drawing and spontaneous improvisation, but rarely veered into full abstraction. Yet while one can usually discern his subject matter, Zverev's art still embodied a full engagement with the materiality of paint and the very act of painting. By these means he was able to convey his inner demons and exercise his artistic right to personal expression.
• While Zverev's reputation gained traction in Europe and the US, in the Soviet Union he remained an underground artist in daily fear of state harassment and/or arrest. Yet in spite of these impediments to his creativity, he remained steadfast in his principles and grew his early audience of diplomats, intellectuals and authors, through impromptu exhibitions at secret locations.

The Life of Anatoly Zverev

Russian art specialist Vladimir Bogdanov writes, "A virtuoso capable of creating a masterpiece in a matter of minutes. An outstanding improviser [and a] brilliant representative of the underground art, forever persecuted by the monstrous Soviet laws".

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Important Art by Anatoly Zverev

Artwork Images

c.1950

Self-Portrait in a Hat

This early self-portrait was painted while Zverev was just 19 years old. It gave early notice of a riotous and disorderly style that would be appreciated in the West, but which would repeatedly land its artist in hot water with the Soviet authorities. Characterized by vigorous and impulsive brushwork, and a vivid color palette, this painting features a loosely rendered face made obscure by abstract shapes and irregular splashes of color. The predominance of blues and yellows, meanwhile, creates a remarkable visual contrast. The painting is also an early indicator of Zverev's ability to blend figuration and abstraction, allowing the viewer to discern the artist's image amidst his hectic interplay of colors and shapes.

This work helped define Zverev within the Soviet Nonconformist movement. Indeed, Zverev is cited as a key player in a movement that sought a clean and decisive break from the strictures of Socialist Realism; his work placing personal expression over ideological dogma. In this respect, one can already see how he would become referred to in the future as the "Russian Jackson Pollock". However, the AZ Museum writes, "Zverev's enormous number of self-portraits represents a long and very personal conversation between the artist and those that interested him" (namely van Gogh). The choice of a hat as a central element in the painting adds an intriguing layer of interpretation, given that hats can carry connotations of class status. However, in this work the hat hints at the status of an "outsider", in Zverev's case, an artist navigating the challenging political landscape of Soviet art and his attempts to assert his right to artistic self-expression.

Gouache on paper - AZ Museum, Moscow

Artwork Images

1955

Cottage in a Landscape

Zverev produced many landscapes and animal portraits throughout his career. His excursions into both genres are seen by many as a little at odds with a confirmed bohemian city dweller whose art generally corresponded with a day-to-day life of anarchic rebellion. But these works are in fact a legacy of the artist's childhood. Zverev's affection for animals was honed at Sokolniki Park and the Moscow Zoo where a teenage Zverev was employed as a decorator. As Russian art specialist Vladimir Bogdanov writes, "He spent many days at the zoo, admiring the grace of our smaller brothers, catching interesting moments. It is no coincidence that his paintings of animals came out very inspired, with character". His affection for rural Russia, meanwhile, dates back to 1941, when, following the invasion by the Nazis, a ten-year-old Zverev and his family were evacuated (from Moscow) to central Russia.

In his autobiography, Zverev remembered this period first and foremost as a time of personal loss. He recalled, "[my father] caught cold and got his feet badly frostbitten. He didn't survive long and died in his forty third year of a sad life. [...] It was so very sad". However (and that tragedy notwithstanding) Zverev acknowledged that he had had an ambivalent relationship with the Russian landscape. There were "Some things about it [rural life] I did like, and other things I did not", he wrote. It is true that some of his landscapes, such as Landscape (also 1955), depict nature as a force of angry tension and unease. But, as the AZ Museum writes, "[Zverev] particularly loved depicting nature during calm periods before or after a storm". In fact, works such as Cottage in a Landscape might be seen, especially so in the context of a career that had brought a new momentum to the Soviet avant-garde, as harbingers of the many pieces he produced during a quieter 17 year period when the actress Oksana Akseyeva "took care of the artist". Akseyeva (the former wife of Russian poet Nikolay Aseev), who was 40 years Zverev's senior, exerted a gentle influence on an artist for whom many works became "all about the light, but a light that is not decorative".

Oil on card - Private collection

Artwork Images

1958

Still-life

This painting showcases the artist's experimental style during a period of great creative exploration. The composition features two transparent bottles and a scattering of apples, rendered here through expressive gestures, and a frivolous combination of colors. By the mid-1950s, Zverev had established his style of expressive drawing and spontaneous improvisation. Nevertheless, Zverev rarely produced works of pure abstractions. Although one can clearly discern the theme of this work, Zverev sometimes painted without even looking at the paper, and by using such implements as his finger, a cigarette butt, and even a crust of bread, to apply his paint.

Zverev's approach is characterized by fluidity and spontaneity, reflecting his deep engagement with the materiality of paint and the act of painting itself. The background transitions from dark, earthy tones to lighter, more vibrant hues, creates a sense of depth and movement within the picture frame.

It was Zverev's characteristic use of thick impasto brushstrokes, and a near chaotic color palette, that distinguishes him amongst many of his contemporaries. This period was marked by Zverev's experimentation with form and technique, often inviting comparisons with the Abstract Expressionists in the United States. While the formal qualities reflect the artist's search for personal expression, the juxtaposition of transparent bottles and solid apples may symbolize the interplay between fragility and density, echoing, perhaps, the delicate position of a pioneer of the Soviet avant-garde "facing off" with the solid inflexibility of a State system that did all it could to silence him.

Mixed media on paper - Private collection

Artwork Images

1959

Suprematist Composition

Suprematist Composition features bold geometric shapes and lines connected through an interplay of curved and angular forms. Zverev employs a palette of dark and muted tones, with red lines that provide the composition's structural elements. The use of overlapping shapes and the interaction of solid and negative spaces create a sense of depth and movement, leading the viewer's eye across the canvas. The red lines, in particular, bring an abstract dynamism to the painting.

As its title confirms, this work acknowledges Zverev's lineage to the Russian avant-garde of the early 20^th century. Suprematism was a radical abstract art pioneered by the infamous Kazimir Malevich. Suprematism favored basic geometric shapes - squares, circles, crosses - painted in a limited range of colors, as a means of reducing art to nothing more than a "supremacy of feeling" (as opposed to pictorial art that was always about "meaning"). During the late 1950s, Zverev (who did not generally veer towards pure abstraction) took time to explore more abstract and experimental forms. According to the Russian art specialist, Vladimir Bogdanov, "the sudden appearance of the Suprematist cycle [...] in the late 1950s occurred after [Zverev] saw works by Olga Rozanova and Lyubov Popova in the apartment of George Costakis. Being greatly impressed by what he saw, he created a series of geometric abstractions of his own. It was a very short and vivid experimental period, which began suddenly and ended suddenly. Since the end of the 1950s, Zverev never returned to this subject".

Gouache on paper - AZ Museum, Moscow

Artwork Images

1968

Portrait of Oksana Akseyeva

This portrait is a delicate and evocative work that captures the subtle nuances of its subject, the actress Oksana Akseyeva. It employs a soft, almost ethereal palette dominated by warm browns and muted yellows. Zverev's use of watercolor and light brushstrokes creates a gentle, flowing effect, imbuing the portrait with a sense of intimacy and vulnerability. The facial features of Akseyeva are rendered with a blend of precision and abstraction, highlighting her eyes and thoughtful expression. The background is kept vague, focusing the viewer's attention on the subject's face and the emotions it conveys. The interplay of light and shadow coupled with the delicate rendering of facial features, gives the portrait a sense of depth and intimacy. The painting gives full vent to the artist's emotional range, his tender appreciation of female beauty, and, in particular here - his deep feelings for a dear friend and confidante.

Akseyeva played a significant role in Zverev's life, serving as both a muse and a close companion for close to 20 years. A poet and intellectual, she was well connected in the literary and artistic circles of her time, having known prominent figures such as Vladimir Mayakovsky and Boris Pasternak. She inspired many of his portraits (in which she always appears as young and beautiful, despite being 40 years his senior) where he sought to capture her timeless intellectual and emotional presence. Speaking of his female portraits, the AZ Museum writes, "In the endless succession of female heads, he attentively seizes the unique features of each model - the perspective, the half-sunk eyes, the misty gaze, and the tenderness of the play of pastel tones. Each portrait is a deep and lyrical spiritual revelation. Taken together, they create a single eternal image of the 'fair lady'".

Watercolor on paper - AZ Museum, Moscow

Artwork Images

1971

Don Quixote and the Mill

The eponymous hero of Miguel de Cervantes's two-volume novel, Don Quixote (1605 and 1615), is one of the greatest figures in Western literature. Zverev very much likened his own situation to that of Cervantes, an author who, despite his genius, profited little from his art, lived much of his life in dire financial straits, and gained widespread notoriety for acts of public and domestic discord.

Cervantes' character Don Quixote is an aging knight-errant who, with his head filled with stories of romance and chivalric escapades, wanders the land in search of such adventures for himself. He continues on his quests (with his more pragmatic companion/squire, Sancho Panza) despite suffering a series of humiliations and defeats. This painting depicts de Quixote's first duel in which he mistakes a field of windmills for giants. Don Quixote attempts to fight them before convincing himself that a magician must have turned the giants into windmills.

This work exemplifies Zverev's creative momentum and his general mood of artistic abandon. Yet despite this, his gestural brushwork and seemingly disorganized color palette draws the viewer into the complexity of the image. Don Quixote and his trusty (half-starved) steed, Rocinante, are rendered in frenetically broad strokes that sees them in something resembling a struggle, or even a dance. The hues of deep blue, earthy brown, and greens and pinks (with smudges of red), achieve a stunning contrast when set against the swirling arms of the sloping windmill/giant that is distinguished against a sky-blue backdrop. Zverev creates a rambunctious intensity as Don Quixote tries to battle his imaginary foe. The chaotic energy and momentum of this image (and, indeed, others like it) can sometimes distract from Zverev's impressive technical skill which is fully on show in this signature work.

Oil, scratching on hardboard - Private collection

Artwork Images

1983

Portrait of the poet Arseny Sedugin

This portrait is a striking work that captures the essence of its subject through bold, expressionistic brushstrokes. The painting is dominated by rich, earthy tones, with the sitter outlined in contrasting lines that highlight his form against the dark background. The subject of the work, Arseny Sedugin, is a Russian art collector and patron who formed a close personal connection with Zverev. Sedugin faith in Zverev's talent provided the painter with both moral and financial support. Indeed, the two men sometimes even collaborated on artworks. The composition features Sedugin seated at a table, with one hand raised to his face and a contemplative expression, suggesting deep thought. The swirling patterns around his head and the luminous "floating" orb (possibly a moon) in the upper left corner bring a surreal quality to the portrait.

The portrait is representative of the mature phase of Zverev's artistic career, where he dived deeper into expressionism and abstract forms. By the mid-1960s, Zverev was considered a leading figure within the Soviet Nonconformist movement. Yet many commentators, and, indeed, the artist himself, felt the quality of his art had suffered with this newfound recognition, and that, in the words of Bogdanov, "there were fewer masterpieces by the end of his life". He adds, "I still believe that the 'watershed' of 1966 (after that year Zverev began to paint worse, for the public's consumption) is nothing more than a hoax invented by people who were offended by the artist. And it was also repeated by Zverev himself as a kind of bravado: 'I used to draw for myself, but now I have turned into a 'people's artist'". Bogdanov, however, saw no discernible decline in quality in his later works: "I find no justification for such a sharp division into 'before' and 'after'", he wrote.

Oil on wood - AZ Museum, Moscow

Biography of Anatoly Zverev

Childhood

Anatoly Timofeevich Zverev was born to working-class parents on November 3, 1931, in a modest wooden house on the outskirts of Moscow. He was the seventh of nine children, although only he and two sisters (one elder (Zina); one younger (Verochka)) survived. From a young age Zverev struggled with feelings of loneliness and anxiety. Frail and prone to prolonged bouts of illness, he found relief in his love for drawing. Zverev's grandfather had been an icon painter, and despite their limited means, his parents stretched their budget to buy their son colored pencils. Of his early interest in art, Zverev recalled "I often asked father to draw something for me and he would do it eagerly although he wasn't very good at it in spite of great lyricism in his character. Out of pure wish to please me he drew one and the same head of a mythical old man turned sideways".

The Soviet Union was invaded by the Nazis in the summer of 1941 with the result that the Zverev family was evacuated from Moscow to central Russia. While he would enjoy certain aspects of a peaceful rural life, this would be a traumatic time for the Zverev. His father, already disabled after his involvement in the Russian Civil War (1918-21), died through complications brought on by the freezing temperatures, while Zverev himself caught nyctalopia (night-blindness) as a result of the untreated lime and chalk ceiling coverings in their country-house.

Early Training and Work

Once back in Moscow, Zverev's mother, a cleaner and casual worker, struggled to support her children on meagre means (many accounts of this period cite the times when Zverev was sent to school wearing mismatched shoes). Speaking of his early education, Zverev wrote, "Somehow, I managed to struggle through seven years of school and get [an] 'incomplete secondary school education' certificate - a good reason to feel proud in those years, even to show off among my peers".

While at school, Zverev visited art studios in Sokolniki and Izmailovo, where he first learned of early avant-garde art. After graduating from school, he found a position as a decorator at Sokolniki Park, where his responsibilities included painting children's play areas. This job did, however, afford him access to a wide variety of artistic materials. Zverev was able to hone his skills in workshops and studios at Sokolniki Park and the Moscow Zoo where he drew many of pictures of the animals. Zverev frequently visited public art spaces such as the Tretyakov Gallery and the Pushkin Museum. He cited Leonardo da Vinci as "my mentor", and was in awe of other European masters such as Rembrandt, Velázquez and Van Gogh, and Russian painters including Alexei Savrasov and Mikhail Vrubel.

In 1954, Zverev secured a place at the 1905 Moscow Regional Art School (named after the 1905 revolution) where he was mentored by Nikolay Sinitsyn (a former student of the famed painter and engraver, Ostroumova-Lebedeva). However, Zverev was expelled in his first year because of frequent confrontations with his teachers, and complaints about his vagrant-like appearance. His landscapes, still lifes, and portraits fused avant-garde influences, but did not adhere to the principles of any particular movement. Instead, the so-called "Zverev style" was characterized by expressive gestural movements, and through the artist's fondness for spontaneity and improvisation. In the studio, Zverev would frequently mix watercolors and gouache on a saucer, with a bowl of water, containing floating brushes, as his auxiliary tool. He worked at an incredible pace, and experimented with applying paint with rags, knives, and even shaving brushes (Zverev was eventually fired from the Recreational Park job because the park Director objected to him using a mop as a makeshift paintbrush).

As a "Non-Conformist" artist (defined as one who rejected the dictates of Socialist Realism) Zverev was barred from the Union of Artists. This meant he was denied access to materials such as domestic and imported canvases, paints, brushes, paper, and so on. Nor was he able to exhibit or legally sell his work. Indeed, Zverev lived under the constant threat of arrest for "parasitism" (creating art outside the Union was not recognized as a legitimate profession). Thus, Zverev's works were often executed on poor quality paper, cardboard, wood and other scrap material. Zverev learned to work with unconventional painting materials, such as herb juices, beets, cereals, cream cheese, ketchup, or shoe polish. His friend, and fellow artist, Dmitry Plavinsky once commented, "He threw himself at the paper with a half-litre jar, spilling dirty water all over the paper, the floor and the chairs; he flung jars of gouache at the puddle, and spread the colorful nightmare all around with a rag and sometimes even a shoe; he slapped the paper with the shaving brush, scratched lines in it with the knife and, before your eyes, would appear an aromatic bouquet of lilacs, or the face of an old woman looking through the window".

Zverev's talent was recognized by the actor and film institute professor, Alexander Rumnev. Through Rumnev's endorsement, he gained a foothold in Moscow's underground art scene. But, as Historian Ekaterina Dyogot writes, "The underground nature of art in the 1950s and '60s reflected the absence of neutral exhibition spaces and outside viewers. Art's environment was not the 'white' gallery but 'dark' communal apartment, where art could not be distinguished from life and the public was reduced to a small circle of the artist's close acquaintances". Dyogot adds that while "The buyer (often a foreign diplomat secretly visiting an artist's home) acquired not [a work of original art] so much as tangible evidence of suffering; its value was ethical rather than financial".

Mature Period

During the Khrushchev Thaw (a term given to a period of "de-Stalinization" lasting roughly from the mid 1950s to mid 1960s) Russians enjoyed greater (if not complete) cultural freedoms. Under the "Thaw", Zverev became a central figure in a more visible avant-garde art scene that saw his art linked to the post-WWII Tachisme movement (originating in France, Tachisme was a spontaneous, approach to painting that drew parallels with the more muscular Abstract Expressionist movement in America).

1957 was a defining year for Zverev. He was awarded the grand prize at the Festival of Youth and Students in the Soviet Union. Zverev was presented with the award by David Alfaro Siqueiros, a prominent Mexican Muralism and Social Realist artist. It was Siqueiros who referred to Zverev as a Russian Jackson Pollock (it was a moniker that stuck). He also made the acquaintance of a wealthy patron named George Costakis who discovered Zverev's work through closed Moscow apartment exhibitions. Academic and journalist (and friend to Zverev), Ann Messerer writes that despite his new circle of friends, "Zverev was not easy to get to know. His language was metaphorical, his manners were sometimes provocative. [...] But what did betray the artist were his paintings. [...] Mental agility, depth, philosophical conceptualism reveals his true nature as a thinker and a serious observer".

Zverev also won the patronage of a collector named Alexander Gleser. It was Gleser who arranged for exhibitions of Zverev's work year-on-year in France, West Germany, Austria, Switzerland and North America. Recognition on foreign markets was not mirrored at home, however, and this likely exacerbated his already erratic behaviour. Nevertheless, late in 1957 Zverev married Lyudmila Nazarova, with whom he had two children, Mischa and Verochka. However, Zverev's growing eccentricities, such as performing poetic improvisations, shouting in public spaces, and the occasional naked displays, were not conducive to family life, and the marriage was short-lived (Zverev had limited contact with his children henceforward). Zverev went on to form a lasting (but platonic) relationship with the poet, and former actress, Oksana Akseyeva. The subject of many of his portraits (and referred to by many historians as his muse), she was well connected in literary and artistic circles and introduced the artist to influential cultural figures including the poet and playwright, Vladimir Mayakovsky, and the novelist and composer, Boris Pasternak.

Late Period

In 1960 the famous American magazine, LIFE, carried an article entitled "The Art of Russia that Nobody Has Seen". It featured a Zverev self-portrait next to an image of Lenin addressing crowds by the official Soviet artist, Vladimir Serov. The aim of the feature was to illustrate the contrasting contemporary cultures of the Soviet Union and it brough Zverev his first taste of global recognition. But, as Messerer writes, "When Khrushchev learned about the publication he was outraged [and] closed down all semi-legal exhibitions. And of course, Zverev was the main target of his outrage. [His] life became intolerable, he had to hide, struggling for a piece of bread. From time to time he disappeared and the rumours of his death began to spread about Moscow".

In 1965, Zverev's fortunes enjoyed an upturn when Igor Markevich, a French-Swiss conductor, organized a significant exhibition of Zverev's works at the Paris Motte Gallery (and for which he wrote an introductory essay). According to legend, Markevich confined Zverev to his hotel room for several days to create new canvases for the exhibition. His works were acquired by major museums, and even drew praise from Pablo Picasso who called him "the best Russian draftsman". Messerer writes, "On one hand, the Director of the Museum of Modern Arts in America bought his paintings, on the other hand, [he endured] harassment, abuse and prosecution from Soviet officials and especially security organs. His first Fairy Tale paintings in the Recreational Park led him to world prominence, while his real everyday life was more of a horror story".

Despite his strong overseas profile, Zverev never traveled abroad. He remained an underground figure in Russia, lacking an official workplace, union membership, or state commissions. Zverev often spent nights on the streets in an era when all Soviet citizens were expected to be properly integrated. It was a lifestyle that demanded significant resilience and courage. Once, in the mid-1970s, he stood in a crowded metro car and boldly shouted, "Now choose--either Lenin or me!". Such an outbursts might easily result in imprisonment. Zverev also openly criticized the authorities, calling socialism a "mess and deception" leading to multiple visits from local police who threatened to send him for compulsory treatment in a psychiatric hospital.

According to the artist's own account, he was quick to squander earnings from foreign sales, often hosting spontaneous gatherings. He moved between friends' apartments, leaving them with his drawings as tokens of gratitude. His acquaintances noted that in exchange for good company and a bottle of vodka, he gladly painted portraits (even for drinking companions he had only just met). Costakis invited Zverev to Lianozovo, a district in northern Moscow that had been a hub for Soviet Nonconformist artists since the 1950s. Zverev felt a strong creative connection with these artists even if he did not directly participate in their organized events and performances. Zverev's work during this period also reflected a desire to explore more personal and playful subjects. Historian Valery Silaev suggests, for instance, that signature paintings such as Portrait of Lena (1962), "brought him the fame of one of the most brilliant bohemian portrait painters [through their] bold combinations of colors, their sonorous, assertive color [and their] powerful confident lines".

The Russian art specialist Vladimir Bogdanov writes that "The sword of 'parasitism' hung over Zverev [...] at least until the mid-1970s" when the City Committee of Graphic Arts gave him a place on its committee. However, Zverev was still treated with suspicion by the state authorities, with most of his patrons being foreigners, diplomats and ambassadors who "smuggled him into embassies for sessions".

However, Bogdanov takes issue with the popular image of Zverev as a harmless drunken vagabond. He argues, in fact, that Zverev was fully engaged in a conscious act of "protection from persecution" (by the Soviet authorities). Bogdanov writes, "Those who knew the artist personally advise against taking what you read in the memoirs at face value [and] much in Zverev's [lifestyle] should be regarded as a performance, a happening. And a smokescreen. [...] The tramp's coats were better and more expensive than those of most Soviet [men]. And some of his customers were so generous that he left them with bundles of bills in his pockets. Zverev could afford to take cabs 'to the bakery' and other places". Indeed, Zverev even held secret savings accounts amounting to tens of thousands of rubles. Bogdanov writes, "In a word, the beggar artist did not just have money, he was wallowing in money. [Yet] paradoxically, one of our major artists of the second half of the 20^th century was considered not an artist by Soviet law, but a parasitic slacker".

According to rough estimates, Zverev had created around 30,000 works by the time of his death. However, during his lifetime, there were only two major exhibitions in the USSR featuring his work: one in 1975 in the Beekeeping Pavilion at VDNKh (Vystavka Dostizheniy Narodnogo Khozyaystva or Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy) and a solo exhibition in 1984 at the Gorky House of Graphs. Towards the end of his career, Zverev fell into a state of severe alcohol addiction, culminating in his tragic death, aged 55, from a brain haemorrhage (thought to have been induced by alcohol withdrawal syndrome) on December 9, 1986. His funeral drew the elite of Moscow society, and to this day, friends and admirers continue to mark his death annually at his grave in the city's Dolgoprudny Cemetery.

The Legacy of Anatoly Zverev

Today, Zverev's painting represents the indominable spirit and resilience of artistic endeavour. Zverev's anarchic and expressive style exemplified the Soviet Nonconformist art and his country's so-called "second avant-garde" (after Constructivism). His contemporaries, including Vladimir Nemukhin, Dmitry Plavinsky, and Oscar Rabin, took inspiration from Zverev's innovative techniques, and his fearless anti-authoritarianism. Overseas, Zverev's art paralleled, both historically and ideologically, American Abstract Expressionism (to the extent that Zverev was dubbed "the Russian Jackson Pollock"). In Europe, Zverev's informal and gestural style resonated with the lyrical abstraction, and the surrealist technique of automatism, as practiced by the Art Informal movement.

The renowned art collector George Costakis referred to Zverev as "the Russian van Gogh", while painter Robert Falk remarked that "each touch of his brush is priceless". Yet a vast body of Zverev's work was overlooked by the exhibition halls, museums, and art galleries of Moscow. In fact, none of his works were displayed in Russian public collections until 2013 when the Museum of Contemporary Art AZ - named after the artist - was established in Moscow. Its Zverev permanent collection (founded on donations from art patrons Natalia Opaleva and Aliki Costakis) is complemented by the Zverev Art Prize. With an award of five million rubles (approximately $67,000). The prize's slogan, "Art is free, but Life is in Chains" encapsulates Zverev's troubled life and his uneasy artistic journey.

Influences and Connections

Influences on Artist

Influenced by Artist

Artists

• Leonardo da Vinci
• Vincent van Gogh
• Mikhail Vrubel
• Alexei Savrasov
• Nikolay Sinitsyn

Friends & Personal Connections

• George Costakis
• Vladimir Nemukhin
• Lydia Masterkova
• Oleg Tselkov
• Dmitry Plavinsky

Movements & Ideas

• Avant-Garde Art
• Nonconformist Art
• Russian Expressionism

Artists

• Erik Bulatov
• Natalia Nesterova
• Vladimir Nemukhin
• Dmitry Plavinsky
• Oscar Rabin

Friends & Personal Connections

• George Costakis
• Vladimir Nemukhin
• Lydia Masterkova
• Oleg Tselkov
• Dmitry Plavinsky

Movements & Ideas

• Avant-Garde Art
• Nonconformist Art

Open Influences

Close Influences

Useful Resources on Anatoly Zverev