Lot 95: VYALOV, KONSTANTIN

KONSTANTIN ALEXANDROVICH VYALOV (RUSSIAN 1900-1976), "Kolkhozniki", 1939, oil on canvas, 78.7 x 64.8 cm (31 x 25 1/2 in.), signed and dated in Cyrillic lower right, PROVENANCE: Phillips, London, November 27, 1989, Lot 94, Sotheby's, New York, April 28, 2006, Lot 736. A member of OST, Konstantin Vyalov studied at the Stroganov Institute, at VKHUTEMAS with Shterenberg, and with Kandinsky, Tatlin, and Lentulov. A major artist of the time, Vyalov exhibited his works internationally during the formative years of the 1920s and 1930s, including Paris (1925), Berlin (1928), Venice (1932), New York (1933), and London (1934). The present lot, from the end of the 1930s, is a stark and emotionally powerful depiction of the human side of the Soviet policies of collectivization.