Anatoly Zverev (Russian, 1931-1986) Original watercolor gouache mixed media painting on paper. Still life with Bottles and Fruits, ca.1980. Signed and dated multiple times. In Excellent condition and very nicely framed. Gorgeous!Measures 41 x 60 cm / 28" x 22" inches including frame). His works have been sold by all major world-famous auction houses including Sotheby's and Christie's. This work is 100% Authentic and was bought at Shapiro Auction's New York 7 years ago. Please contact us with any questions. In-house shipping by UPS or FedEx.///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////About Anatoly Zverev --Anatoly Timofeevich Zverev was a member of the non-conformist movement and a founder of Russian Expressionism in the 1960s. He was born in Moscow. In 1954, he entered the Moscow Regional Art College, from which he was expelled due to his unconventional conduct. He independently developed as an artist and first came into contact with original works of Western abstract art at the 1957 Global Youth and Students Festival in Moscow an international event that marked the beginning of Khruschev's thaw in the Soviet Union. Zverev's work was based on deep philosophical convictions, particularly the idea that everything is in constant change. His intention was to render direct sensations, and he worked at great speed in a temperamental, even tempestuous style, which may be termed figurative Tachism. His oils, watercolors and gouache portraits, animal paintings, and still lives always retain an underlying naturalism, which was transformed through impulsive and playful brushwork until it verges on the abstract. Almost from the very beginning of his career, Zverev received moral and financial support from well-known Moscow art collector George Costakis. Costakis, later said that Anatoly was one of the most talented artists in Soviet Russia, a unique phenomenon”. Costakis brought his work to the attention of the West, (the first exhibition abroad was at Galerie Motte, Geneva, in 1965). Zverev's work was admired by Picasso, and he exhibited around the world. The Russian painter Robert Falk said Artists of that caliber are born only in 100 years”. However, he did not have a solo show in Russia until shortly before his death in 1986 and his work was exhibited in small, underground galleries. Throughout his career, he was harassed and persecuted by the Soviet authorities especially as his international success grew. The Great Picasso used to send his best wishes to the best Russian graphic artist” with every visitor from Moscow./////////////////////// He surrounded himself with a small group of friends who would be able to support him. He lived a hand-to-mouth existence, never knowing where he would spend the next night. He was indifferent to material values and always wore shabby clothes. A few days before his sudden death (in December 1986) he wrote on a slip of paper: Art should be free. Though it is very hard. Because human life is not free.” Thousands and thousands gathered at his funeral in 1986 to pay their last respects. After his death, there was a major retrospective exhibition for several months in the major art museum of Moscow. The exhibition had to be extended as people were queuing up to get inside around the clock. Anatoly Zverev's works can be found in The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow), the State Russian Museum, The State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), the Museum of Contemporary Art (Moscow), Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University (USA) and many public and private collections in Russia, USA and Europe. In 1992, the Zverev Center was founded. The museum is called in honor of Anatoly Zverev.

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