Oleg Vassiliev (; November 4, 1931; Moscow – January 25, 2013) was a Russian painter associated with the Soviet Nonconformist Art style. Vassiliev emigrated to the United States, arriving in New York City in 1990 and later lived and worked in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Education
Vassiliev graduated from V.I. Surikov State Art Institute, Moscow, in 1958. In the late 1950s he became influenced by the Russian avant-garde formalists, Vladimir Favorsky (1886–1964), Robert Falk (1886–1958), and Artur Fonvizin (1883–1973).
Biography
From the 1950s through the 1980s, Vassiliev worked with friend and collaborator Erik Bulatov as a children's book illustrator. They developed a unique style of illustration that combined realist painting with graphic elements, such as text. This "official" source of income provided the means and materials for Vassiliev to take part in the Soviet Nonconformist Art movement, also known as "unofficial" or "dissident" art. Along with friends, Ilya Kabakov, Erik Bulatov and Viktor Pivovarov, Vassiliev belonged to a large group of Soviet artists that took advantage of the Nikita Khrushchev "thaw" in official policy that opened up the Soviet Union to Western culture in the years following Joseph Stalin's death in 1953.
Style
During this period of time Vassiliev developed his mature style. In his art Vassiliev combines the traditions of Russian Realism (art movement) of the 19th century with the Russian avant-garde of the beginning of the 20th century. "Vassiliev's principal themes, which were born while he was in Russia and continue to the present day, are his memories of home and houses, roads, forests, fields, friends and family. Vassiliev always starts his creative process from a very personal memory, from his sacred space, the safeguarded inner center, and connects it with the visual image. Vassiliev masterfully incorporates elements from different times and spaces and arranges them throughout his paintings according to the logic and 'energetic' space of the painting."
"Leading Soviet graphic artist Vladimir Favorsky was a major influence on Vassiliev's work. Favorsky emphasised the constructive qualities of image-making, understanding painting as a rhythmic organisation of space swirling about time. Such abstract aesthetic thought was alien to mainstream Soviet Realism and demonstrates the liberties afforded graphic designers during this period. With a preoccupation for the structural qualities of a composition, these aesthetics also find their origin in Russian Constructivism of the 1920s.
"...Vassiliev's recurring preoccupation with light and shade in his oeuvre also points to a psychological dimension, with light symbolising consciousness and dark, the subconscious. Elements of German Romanticism influence his thought. He searches for answers in an unfathomable world, posing questions without obvious answers and leaving the viewer feeling nonplussed, a hallmark of Postmodernist art...."
Public collections
Art Museum, Murmansk, Russia
Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado, USA
Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland
The Ludwig Forum for International Art, Aachen, Germany
Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY, USA (Children's Book Illustrations) Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA The New Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia Norsk-Russisk Kunstsenter Galleri, Kirkenes, Norway The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden, Germany The State Center of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington, Kentucky Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands (Children's Book Illustrations) Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA (The Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection of Soviet Nonconformist Art) Art4.ru, Moscow, Russia The Costakis Collection, Athens, Greece Kolodzei Art Foundation, Highland Park, New Jersey, USA