- 485
Oleg Tselkov
Estimate
70,000 - 90,000 USD
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Description
- Oleg Tselkov
- Portrait with Grapes, Pear, Plum and Dragonfly, 1973
- signed twice and titled in Cyrillic and dated 1973 (on the reverse); labeled Oleg Tselkov Portrait with grapes, pear + plum 1973 Coll. de Gruben (on the reverse)
oil on panel
- 44 3/4 by 30 1/4 in.
- 113.7 by 76.8 cm
Provenance
Collection of the Artist, Moscow
Gruben Collection (acquired directly from the artist in the 1970s)
Literature
Ernst Neizvestny/Oscar Rabine/Oleg Tselkov, Paris: Le Monde de l'Art, 1992
Alexander Kamensky, Oleg Tselkov, Moscow: Third Wave, 1992
"Oleg Tselkov," in Renee Baigell and Matthew Baigell, Soviet Dissident Artists: Interviews after Perestroika, New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1995, pp. 162-170
Alexander Kamensky, Oleg Tselkov, Moscow: Third Wave, 1992
"Oleg Tselkov," in Renee Baigell and Matthew Baigell, Soviet Dissident Artists: Interviews after Perestroika, New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1995, pp. 162-170
Catalogue Note
Oleg Tselkov's art is populated by a disturbing body of grotesque, surrealistic creatures. Often pictured in masses, these grotesque figures--with low brows; small, sometimes empty eye sockets; bald heads; and missing teeth--appear diametrically opposed to the utopian vision of the Soviet New Person envisioned by the government. While their mask-like quality suggests the depersonalization of Soviet life, Tselkov resists such an interpretation, insisting that his work is a commentary on the human condition, not on Soviet society: "I never tried to make any specifically social comment, in the way Rabin does, for instance. I tried to make my social attitudes 'universal,' to create works that would have the same impact everywhere, whether in my own country, in America, or somewhere like Guinea."