An exhibition of Oleg Vasilyev, a leader of the unofficial Soviet art of the 1960s-1970s, entitled Memory Speaking, opened in the Marble Hall of the Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, on January 27. The event is organized by the Tretyakov Gallery and the Kolodzei Art Foundation (US). The exhibition features Vasilyev's works from museum and private collections, reports the website of the Kultura state-run television and radio broadcasting company.

Oleg Vasilyev was born in Moscow in 1931 and graduated from the graphic department of the Surikov Institute. Since 1990 he lives and works in the United States.

He examined the problem of 'the picture's world', its surface and borders, internal energetic currents and transfiguration of objects and space on canvas on the basis of the Favorsky system. The main themes of Vasilyev's work emerged at that time - memories of his home, roads, forests, fields, friends and family.

In 1965 Oleg Vasilyev created The House on the Anzer. He considers this picture to be the beginning of his creative work.

The artist avoided open conflict with the Soviet system.

When he moved to New York his pictures found new admirers and collectors.

In his work Oleg Vasilyev often turns to literary quotations and allusions from classical to modern literature, from Homer to Anton Chekhov and William Faulkner.

Memory Speaking is a retrospective exposition showing the pictures created since the late 1940s till the present day, a kind of an intellectual journey across all the stages of Oleg Vasilyev's creative life.

The Palace Edition publishers will issue an eponymous book. It will contain the artist's projects and works in chronological order, as well as articles and essays by Oleg Vasilyev, Ilya Kabakov and Erik Bulatov.

News source: www.en.rian.ru
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