# Oleg Vassiliev (painter)

Oleg Vassiliev (Russian: Олег Владимирович Васильев; November 4, 1931; Moscow – January 25, 2013) was a Russian painter associated with the Soviet Nonconformist Art style. Vassiliev emigrated to the United States, arriving in New York City in 1990 and later lived and worked in St. Paul, Minnesota.

## Education

Vassiliev graduated from V.I. Surikov State Art Institute, Moscow, in 1958. In the late 1950s he became influenced by the Russian avant-garde formalists, Vladimir Favorsky (1886–1964), Robert Falk (1886–1958), and Artur Fonvizin (1883–1973).

## Biography

From the 1950s through the 1980s, Vassiliev worked with friend and collaborator Erik Bulatov as a children's book illustrator. They developed a unique style of illustration that combined realist painting with graphic elements, such as text. This "official" source of income provided the means and materials for Vassiliev to take part in the Soviet Nonconformist Art movement, also known as "unofficial" or "dissident" art. Along with friends, Ilya Kabakov, Erik Bulatov and Viktor Pivovarov, Vassiliev belonged to a large group of Soviet artists that took advantage of the Nikita Khrushchev "thaw" in official policy that opened up the Soviet Union to Western culture in the years following Joseph Stalin's death in 1953.

## Style

During this period of time Vassiliev developed his mature style. In his art Vassiliev combines the traditions of Russian Realism (art movement) of the 19th century with the Russian avant-garde of the beginning of the 20th century. "Vassiliev's principal themes, which were born while he was in Russia and continue to the present day, are his memories of home and houses, roads, forests, fields, friends and family. Vassiliev always starts his creative process from a very personal memory, from his sacred space, the safeguarded inner center, and connects it with the visual image. Vassiliev masterfully incorporates elements from different times and spaces and arranges them throughout his paintings according to the logic and 'energetic' space of the painting."
"Leading Soviet graphic artist Vladimir Favorsky was a major influence on Vassiliev's work. Favorsky emphasised the constructive qualities of image-making, understanding painting as a rhythmic organisation of space swirling about time. Such abstract aesthetic thought was alien to mainstream Soviet Realism and demonstrates the liberties afforded graphic designers during this period. With a preoccupation for the structural qualities of a composition, these aesthetics also find their origin in Russian Constructivism of the 1920s.
"...Vassiliev's recurring preoccupation with light and shade in his oeuvre also points to a psychological dimension, with light symbolising consciousness and dark, the subconscious. Elements of German Romanticism influence his thought. He searches for answers in an unfathomable world, posing questions without obvious answers and leaving the viewer feeling nonplussed, a hallmark of Postmodernist art...."

## Public collections

* Art Museum, Murmansk, Russia
* Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado, USA
* Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland
* The Ludwig Forum for International Art, Aachen, Germany
* Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA
* The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY, USA (Children's Book Illustrations)
* Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA
* The New Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
* Norsk-Russisk Kunstsenter Galleri, Kirkenes, Norway
* The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia
* Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden, Germany
* The State Center of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
* The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
* The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
* The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
* University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington, Kentucky
* Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands (Children's Book Illustrations)
* Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA (The Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection of Soviet Nonconformist Art)
* Art4.ru, Moscow, Russia
* The Costakis Collection, Athens, Greece
* Kolodzei Art Foundation, Highland Park, New Jersey, USA

## Exhibition history
### Solo exhibitions

* 2017 "Metro Series & Selected Works on Paper from the Kolodzei Art Foundation", Harriman Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY
* 2014 - 2015 Oleg Vassiliev: Space and Light, Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ (cat.)
* 2013 "Oleg Vassiliev: Paintings 1967-2012", Faggionato Fine Arts, London (cat.)
* 2011 - 2012 The Art of Oleg Vassiliev: Paintings and Drawings, The Museum of Russian Art, Minneapolis, MN (cat.)
* 2008 - 2009 Oleg Vassiliev: Recent Work, Faggionato Fine Arts, London (cat.)
* 2007 Oleg Vassiliev: Drawings, Forum Gallery, New York, NY (cat.)
* 2004 Memory Speaks (Themes and Variations), retrospective, The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, traveled to The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg (cat.)
* 2000 Recent Works, Galerie Andy Jllien, Zurich
* 2000 The Past Isn't Dead, It Isn't Even Past, University Art Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth (cat.)
* 1999 Works 1987-1995, Blomquist, Oslo, Norway (cat.)
* 1999 On Black Paper, Wake Forest University Fine Arts Gallery, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, traveled to Denison University Art Gallery, Granville, Ohio (cat.)
* 1997 Oleg Vassiliev, Phoenix Gallery, Moscow
* 1996 Litografier til Tsjekhovs novelle ‘Husel med Arken’, Oljemalerier Galleri Cassandra, Drobak, Norway (cat.)
* 1995 Windows of Memory, Sloane Gallery, Denver
* 1995 Conceptual Posters by Oleg Vassiliev, Art Museum of the University of Kentucky,Lexington
* 1993 Recent Works, Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York
* 1991 Oleg Vassiliev, Galeria Fernando Duran, Madrid (cat.)
* 1968 Oleg Vassiliev, Bluebird Café, Moscow

### Group exhibitions

* 2021 The Ironic Curtain: Art from the Soviet Underground, July 3 - September 12, 2021, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC, USA
* 2017 Red Horizon: Contemporary Art and Photography in the USSR and Russia, 1960-2010, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH, USA (cat)
* 2016 Exhibit Russia: The New International Decade, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia.
* 2015-2016 200 Keystrokes per Minute: Typewrited and the 20th-Century Consciousness, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia
* 2015 Po dorogam skazki : knizhnai︠a︡ grafika Ėrika Bulatova, Olega Vasilʹeva, Ilʹi Kabakova, Viktora Pivovarova iz chastnykh kollekt︠s︡iĭ i sobranii︠a︡ GMII im. A.S. Pushkina. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia. (Children's book illustrations only)
* 2014 The Blinding Light of History: Genia Chef, Illya Kabakov, and Oleg Vassiliev: Russian paintings and drawings from the collection of Wayne F. Yakes, MD., University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM
* 2013 Concerning the Spiritual in Art, 1965-2011, The Museum of Russian Art, Minneapolis, MN
* 2013 Frieze Masters – Faggionato Booth, London Art Fair, UK
* 2013 Dreams for Those Who Are Awake: The 5th Thematic Exhibition of the Moscow Museum of Art, Moscow, Russia
* 2012-2013 Breaking the Ice: Moscow Art 1960s-80s, Saatchi Gallery, London (cat.)
* 2012 848: The Collection of Georges Matcheret and Nadia Wolkonsky, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. (cat)
* 2010 Glasnost': Soviet Non-Conformist Art from the 1980s, Haunch of Venison, London (cat.)
* 2010 Shattered Utopia: Russian Art of the Soviet and Post Soviet periods from the Wayne F. Yakes, M.D. Collection. Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art, Fort Collins, CO (cat.)
* 2006 Soviet Alternative Art (1956-1988), From the Costakis Collections, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece
* 2005 Russia! Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (cat.)
* 2005 Collage in Russia XX Century, The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg (cat.)
* 2004 Berlin-Moscow/Moscow-Berlin, Kunst 1950-2000, The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin (cat.)
* 2004 REMEMBRANCE: Russian Post-Modern Nostalgia, Yeshiva University Museum, New York (cat.)
* 2004 Global Village: The 1960s, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada (cat.)
* 2003 Finding Freedom: 40 Years of Soviet and Russian Art, Selections from the Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art, The Bergen Museum of Art and Science, Paramus, New Jersey
* 2002 Moskauer Avantgarde: Grisha Bruskin, Erik Bulatov, Ilya Kabakov, Dmitri Prigov, Oleg Vassiliev, Andy Jllien Gallery, Zurich
* 2002 Malevich, Cinema and Beyond, Centro Cultural de Belem, Lisbon (cat.)
* 2002 National Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow
* 2001 Realities and Utopias, Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, New Jersey (cat.)
* 2001 Cold War/Hot Culture; American and Russian Nonconformist Art, Barrick Museum, University of Las Vegas, Nevada
* 2000 Seeing Isn't Believing: Russian Art Since Glasnost, The Lamont Gallery, Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire (cat.)
* 2000 Art of XXth Century Permanent Exhibition. The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
* 1999 Forbidden Art: The Postwar Russian Avant-Garde, organized by International Art and Artists, Washington, DC, traveled to: Miami University Art Museum, Oxford, Ohio; The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg; The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California; McMullen Museum, Boston College, Massachusetts; Bruce Museum of Art and Science, Greenwich, Connecticut (cat.)
* 1999 It's the Real Thing…Soviet and Post-Soviet Sots Art and American Pop Art, Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (cat.)
* 1998 The Russian Thaw, Tabakman Gallery, New York
* 1998 Selections from the Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection of Nonconformist Art of the Soviet Union, Museum of Fine Art, St. Petersburg, Florida
* 1996 Art Russia, Radar, Rome (cat.)
* 1995 Flug, Entfernung, Verschwinden, Konzeptuelle Kunst aus Moskau, Sadgalerie im Sophenhot, Kiel Haus am Waldesee, Berlin (cat.)
* 1995 From Gulag to Glasnost: Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union, The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey (cat.)
* 1995 The Damaged Utopia, Kraftmessen, Munich (cat.)
* 1995 Russian Images 1966-1995, Morlan Gallery, Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky
* 1995 Group Show, Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York
* 1995 A Mosca…A Mosca, Museum Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany (cat.)
* 1994 Works on Paper, Kolodzei Collection of Contemporary Russian Art, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
* 1994 No! and the Conformists. Faces of Soviet Art 1950-1980, Dunikowski Museum Palac, Krolikarni, Poland and The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg (cat.)
* 1994 Zeitgenossen, Kunstmuseum, Bern
* 1994 Stalin's Choice: Soviet Socialist Realism 1932-1956, P.S.1, Long Island City, New York
* 1993 Monuments: Transformation for the Future, Central House of Artists, Moscow
* 1993 Temporary Address for Contemporary Russian Art, Post Museum, Paris
* 1993 Old Symbols, New Icons in Russian Contemporary Art, Stuart Levy Gallery, New York
* 1993 M’AIDEZ/MAYDAY, Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York
* 1993 Tre Kunstneres syn pa Tjekov, Norsk-Russisk Kunst Senter, Kirkenes, Norway
* 1993 After Perestroika: Kitchenmaids or Stateswomen, Centre International d’Art Contemporain de Montreal, Canada (cat.)
* 1993 Monumental Propaganda, exhibition organized by Komar & Melamid and Independent Curators Incorporated, New York, traveled to: Courtyard Gallery, World Financial Center, New York; The Institute of Contemporary Art, Moscow; AI Gallery, Institute of History, Tallinn, Estonia; Moderna Galerija Ljubljana, Slovenia; Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan; The Muckenthaler Art Center, Fullerton, California; The Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri; Helsinki City Art Museum, Finland; Uppsala Konstmuseum; Helsinki; Kennisaw State University, Georgia (cat.)
* 1992 Lianozovo-Moscow: Vsevelod Nekrasov's Russian Art Collection, Bohum Museum, Bohum, Germany
* 1992 Three Points of View, Center of Contemporary Art, Moscow (cat.)
* 1992 A Mosca…A Mosca, Villa Campolieto, Herculaneaum, Italy and Museum of Modern Art, Bologna (cat.)
* 1992 Erik Bulatov and Oleg Vassiliev, Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York (cat.)
* 1991 Artistos Rusos Contemporaneos, Auditorio de Galicia, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
* 1991 Erik Bulatov/Oleg Vassiliev, Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York
* 1991 Group Exhibition, The State Literature Museum, Moscow
* 1991 Back to Square One, Berman-E.N. Gallery, New York (cat.)
* 1991 The Other Art: Moscow 1956-1976, The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow and The Russian Museum, Leningrad (cat.)
* 1991 Soviet Contemporary Art: From Thaw to Perestroika, Setagaya Museum, Tokyo
* 1990 Logic of Paradox, Palace of Youth, Moscow
* 1990 Alternative Art of the 60s, Soviet Foundation of Culture, Moscow
* 1990 Contemporary Soviet Art: Adaptation and Negation of Socialist Realism, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut (cat.)
* 1990 Foire International d’Art Contemporain (FIAC 90), Paris
* 1989 Erik Bulatov/Oleg Vassiliev, Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York
* 1989 From the Revolution to Perestroika, Soviet Art of the Ludwig Collection, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Switzerland, traveled to Palau de la Virreina-Ajuntment de Barcelona, Spain, and Musee d’Art Moderne de St. Etienne, France (cat.)
* 1989 Photo in Painting, First Gallery, Moscow
* 1989 Behind the Ironic Curtain, Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York
* 1989 100 Artists from the Kolodzei Collection, The State Museum of Fine Arts, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, USSR
* 1988 Ich Lebe, Ich Sene, Kunstmuseum, Bern (cat.)
* 1988 No Problem, Exhibition Hall Begovaya Ulitza, Moscow
* 1987 Direct from Moscow, Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York
* 1987 Soviet Art, Marconi Galleria, Milan and Rome
* 1987 The Artist and His Time, Exhibition Space, Kashirskoye Shosse, Moscow
* 1982 Photography and Painting, Conference and Exhibition at the Center of Aesthetics, Moscow
* 1982 New Tendencies of Soviet Unofficial Art 1956-1981, Villedien Culture Center, Elancourt, France
* 1981 25 Years of Soviet Unofficial Art 1956-1981, The C.A.S.E. Museum of Unofficial Soviet Art, Jersey City
* 1977 La Nuova arte sovietica: una prospettiva non ufficiale (New Soviet Art: a Non-official Prospective), Venice Biennale