Anatoly Zverev (1931-1986), Russian
Oil on masonite (22" x 17")
Abstract Portrait of a Woman
SOLD

Anatoly Zverev (1931-1986)

Zverev was born in Moscow. His grandfather was an icon painter. His father was a war invalid and died when he  was still  a little boy. His mother, a cleaner and manual labourer, brought up the family of three children on her own. Throughout Zverev's childhood the family endured extreme poverty. For example, he was sent to school wearing unmatching shoes. In order to bring more money into the family he took a job at a recreation park, painting fences and boards. It was there that he started to paint images from fairy tales.

An art-lover called Rumnev noticed his work and introduced him to the famous art collector George Costakis. Costakis later said that Anatoly was "one of the most talented artists in Soviet Russia... a unique phenomenon". Costakis brought his work to the attention of the West.
A Zverev self-portrait was featured in Life magazine,beside a portrait of Vladimir Lenin by the Soviet artist Vladimir Serov (1910-1968) to contrast the underground with the official art of Russia. When Nikita Khrushchev learned about the publication he was outraged and forbade all contacts with Western visitors and closed down all semi-legal exhibitions. Zverev was the main target of his outrage, forcing him into hiding. From time to time he disappeared and the rumours of his death began to spread about Moscow. Each time the rumours were not justified. "They have stumbled on me again" he used to say. He never complained and made jokes: "I am not a communist, I am a harmonist."

As a result of his persecution at the hands of the authorities, he surrounded himself with a small group of friends who would be able to support him. He lived a hand-to-mouth existence, never knowing where he would spend the next night, he spent all his life in Moscow. He was indifferent to material values and always wore shabby clothing.

Zverev's work was admired by Pablo Picasso, and he exhibited around the world. Igor Markevitch, the French-Ukrainian conductor, said of him, "His place is in the Pantheon," and the Russian painter Robert Falk said, "Artists of that calibre are born only in 100 years." However, he did not have a solo show in Russia until shortly before his death in 1986 .

Source: Wikipedia