Bronze
10 ¼ x 9 ¾ x 5 inches
Ernst Neizvestny was born in Sverdlovsk in 1925. He fought in the army during the Second World War and was severely wounded. When the war was over, Neizvestny entered the Latvian Academy of Art and completed his artistic education at the Surikov Institute of Art in Moscow.
His art has always been a symbol of resistance and a manifestation of spiritual and social freedom. His sculpture, whether large-scale memorials or small, interior compositions, celebrate the independence and grandeur of the human spirit, blending social, spiritual, and cultural issues with the artist’s personal perception of history and civilization. His work continues the ideological trends of the first Russian avant-garde and pays homage to the tradition of Pavel Filonov, Alexander Archipenko, and O. Tsadkin.
Neizvestny’s dispute with Khrushchev over the issue of artistic freedom at the exhibition celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the Moscow Union of Artists became a historical event long noted in Russia. The conflict eliminated all possibility for Neizvestny to play a part in official culture, but history is famous for its paradoxes. After Khrushchev’s death, his family, granting Khrushchev’s own request, asked the sculptor to create a monument for Khrushchev’s tomb at the Novodeviche Cemetery in Moscow. The monument came to symbolize the triumph of artistic freedom in the city, so powerful that the cemetery was closed to the public to prevent it from stirring potential antigovernment demonstrations.
Exhausted by constant persecution by the government, Neizvestny emigrated to the United States in 1976. He lives and works in New York City yet remains, as always, actively involved in the cultural events of Russia.