Anatoly Zverev (Russian, 1931-1986)

Anatoly Zverev (also Anatolij Zverev, Russian: Анатолий Тимофеевич Зверев) was a Russian artist associated with Soviet Non-Conformism, the Second Russian Avant-garde and Underground Art. Called by Picasso ‘the best Russian painter’ and considered ‘the most original artist to come out of Russian in the 20th century’ by contemporary critics, Anatoly Zverev was a bit of an enigma. He retained his individualism and although he was close with many other Soviet Non-conformists, in his art he remained alone and did not join in some of their most significant actions like the Manege Affair in 1962 and the ‘Bulldozer Exhibition’ in 1974. In the mid-1960s, Zverev met Vladimir Nemukhin, Dmitry Plavinsky and George Costakis, who invited him to join the circle of unofficial artists who gathered around Oscar Rabin in Lianozovo. While Zverev never left the Soviet Union, his works were published in ‘Life’ magazine in 1960 with the headline: ‘The Art of Russia… …That Nobody Sees’, and in 1965 his works were shown at Galerie Motte in Paris. Zverev’s popularity and reputation takes off in Europe and the US, with MOMA purchasing some of his works, but in the Soviet Union, he remained an Underground artist constantly afraid of arrest. While in the West his works could be shown at salons, exhibitions and fairs, in the Soviet Union they were limited to self-organised, secret exhibitions held in flats.