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In a country that went from the splendours of the religious icon to the excesses of the political icon almost without transition, the avant-gardes of the early 20th century were not alone in challenging the supremacy of Soviet realism.

In isolation, in indifference even, “obscure personalities, foreign to professional artistic circles” - as Dubuffet would later describe the raw creators - naturally freed themselves from censorship and cultural clichés. Whether alienated, asocial or enlightened, as everywhere else in the world, these creators wrote and continue to write, without knowing it, a crucial page in the history of art.

Alexandre Lobanov - whose extremely rare work was hailed in 2007 by a retrospective at the Collection de l’art brut in Lausanne and to whom the Museum of Everything in London has just devoted a room - rubs shoulders with Nicolaï Almazov, Mikhaël Kaliakine, Vasilij Romanenkov and Yuri Titov.

Artist
Alexandre Lobanov
Alexandre Lobanov - © christian berst — art brut

At the age of seven, Alexandre Lobanov became deaf and mute, the result of meningitis. Rebellious and often aggressive, his family decided to admit him into a psychiatric hospital at the age of twenty-three. His first ten years at the facility were marked by extreme displays of hate and agitation. At the approximate age of thirty-three, Lobanov gradually began to draw, and his behavior evolved. The formerly turbulent and irritable man became calmer and even sociable. Drawing both distracted and soothed him, helping to stabilize his overall psychological state. From the moment he begins to draw, all of Lobanov’s activity is focused on those moments when he is alone in front of a blank sheet[…]

Catalog
Back in the USSR II figures of russian art brut
Back in the USSR II : figures of russian art brut 2 - © christian berst — art brut

Prefaces : Ksenia Bogemskaya, Vladimir Gavrilov
Foreword : Christian Berst

Catalog published to mark the exhibition Back in the USSR II : figures de l’art brut russe, from january 22nd to march 5th, 2010.

Out of stock.

Press review
De HLM en USSR
Animula Vagula. January 20, 2010.
Retour en USSR (Figures de l'art brut russe II)
Eric Dussert, L'alamblog. January 15, 2010.
back in the U.S.S.R.

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