Lot 314: Andrei Grositsky , Russian b.1934 Bull, 1990 oil on board

signed, titled, and inscribed in Cyrillic and dated 1990 (on the reverse) oil on board

measurements 51 1/2 by 27 1/2 in. alternate measurements 130 by 70 cm

Andrey Grositsky: The Magic of Objects, Moscow: The RusArta Gallery, 2002
Yevgeny Barabanov and Sergei Popov, Andrei Grositsky, Moscow: The State Tretyakov Gallery and Pop/Off/Art gallery, 2007

Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner in 2005

Andrey Grositsky graduated from the Surikov Art Institute in Moscow in 1959, and became a member of the Moscow Artists' Union in 1968. However, he soon began taking part in various apartment exhibitions of unofficial art. Like many Russian artists of his generation, he was influenced by Cézanne, the work of the artists who belonged to the Jack of Diamonds, and Pop Art. Grositsky turned to the depiction of commonplace objects that in his works took on a new, fantastic dimension.

Grositsky taught art at the People's University from 1962 to 1994, working in close collaboration with such major nonconformist artists as Ivan Chuikov and Mikhail Roginsky. In 1986, the noted film director Milos Forman acquired Grositsky's work Window from the exhibition Artist and Modernity, held at the Kashirka gallery in Moscow.