Non-Conformist Art Before and After the Fall of the USSR

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Non-Conformist art was produced by both self-taught and professionally trained artists who chose to experiment with all the diversity of styles and techniques known in the West ' abstraction, conceptual art, pop-art and performance art. The works, executed in the privacy of the artists' homes and studios, were known only to a small circle of friends and colleagues and a few foreign art connoisseurs and collectors. Non-Conformist artists were the true followers of the Russian Avant-Garde and continued their search for artistic freedom and innovation.

Recent sales of Soviet Non-Conformist art at Sotheby's auction house shows that this work is appreciated at its true value. This forthcoming show at the Chambers Gallery presents a selection of works by Russian and Ukrainian artists, famous for their alternative way of painting and printmaking during Soviet times and after the fall of the USSR in 1991. From the innovative figurative works of the Odessa Group of underground artists like V. Strelnikov, V. Khrushch and V. Maryniuk to the almost abstract works of the famous Moscow artist of the 1980s Evgeni Dybski, the exhibition shows a wide range of paintings and prints by Non-Conformist artists. Some of these artists were forced to leave their country and continued working as dissident artists in the West, like V. Sazonov and V. Strelnikov. Others continued to work within the USSR and were recognised by the state in the 1990s as the founders of an alternative art movement, like A. Savadov. Their works are now represented in the State Museums of Art and in private collections in the former USSR and in the West.