DescriptionHENRY ELINSON (Listed Artist California/Russia 1935-2010). Modernist AVANT-GARDE Nude Figural Graphic Ink Pastel, Ca. 1987 . (framed size: 30" x 24") signed lower right. Provenance: Gallery Paule Anglim, 14 Geary St, San Francisco, CA. Price was approximately $5000.00 at gallery. Also as a comparison, a painting by Elinson, a 50" x 38" titled Mother and Child with a Run Sun, 1994, with an estimate of $5000 to $7000 that was on Shapiro Auctions, New York 4/17/2008.--- Biography --Henry Elinson by Martha Casanave,1980The present retrospective of art works by Henry Elinson, a native of St. Petersburg, Russia, and a former member of nonconformist art circles of the Soviet underground, includes pastels and works on paper created in the three decades since his immigration to the USA in 1973. The artist generally avoids categorization of his own style, following as he says Duke Ellington, who characterized music only as ?good” or ?bad”. Nevertheless, art works by Pavel Filonov, Amadeo Modigliani, Francis Bacon, post-swing jazz, and poetry by Joseph Brodsky have played an influential role in his life and his art. According to Naum Gabo, Elinson, perhaps more than many other Soviet ?migr? artists, has acquired his own vision and a most characteristic individual style. His work is instantly recognizable, even if unsigned or poorly reproduced, and his dedication to his artistic vision is unwavering. Here is what Elinson says about his own art:?I don?t use forms or colors as symbols, only as elements of composition? I produce paintings, not philosophical tracts? I want the viewer to be free to discover whatever he likes. I believe in spontaneity. ”?My heart is filled with visions, dreams, and hallucinations” Indeed, Elinson?s drawings, far from being solely formal exercises, are populated by images from his inner world, rather than the empirical reality. One exception is the work illustrating poems by Joseph Brodsky and Henry Lyman. According to W. S. Hurst (1), Elinson?s work is an orchestration of figurative and abstract forms ? a very difficult and treacherous endeavor. The weightlessness of the floating lines and shapes in his drawings and pastels leads one into the unconscious world of dreams, where people, animals, and story lines draw together in unexpected ways. Despite a remarkable stylistic uniformity of Elinson?s compositions, the relationships between elements in different drawings are in constant flux. Figurative shapes and abstract shapes combine; geometric shapes and organic shapes balance. The intertwining figures, volumetric and rounded, are a frequent element ? one shape is visible through another, both translucent, existing outside gravity, and exquisitely drawn. Often, there is a fantasy on the theme of a female torso. Whereas torsos known from antiquity are the surviving fragments of the vanished whole, Elinson?s torsos according to V. Kreid (2) are finished objects. They, unlike classical torsos, lack the subject that is independent of the artist and instead possess the author?s subjectivity. Elinson?s works also seem to portray the struggle between masculine and feminine elements. According to A. Rannit (3), the geometrical forms, combined with female torsos, lift sex out of its established contexts to a search for pure form. The images have a strangely primitive quality, their vacant-eyed totemic figures are either engaged in rituals or separating from each other. Leaping horses and dogs, according to D. Brookman (3), exist in uneasy relationships with the world they inhabit, and there is an eerie quality of magic, mystical detachment. Elinson?s art has been described by J. Bowlt (4) as a series of negations; it is neither autobiographical, nor philosophical, not even distinctly Russian. But what it is not reveals what it is: compositions that make us take a moment, contemplate, and look into our own inner worlds with the sense elusive recognition and uneasy wonder. WORKS CITED(1) Hurst, W. Sheldon, ?Orchestrating Forms: An Introduction to Cyrillic Cabala II: Pastels by Henry Elinson”. ACC, NY, 2002.(2) Kreid, V., ?Henry Elinson”. Museum of Nonconformist Art, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2000.(3) Rannit, A., ?Eight Drawings: Henry Elinson” in New Directions in Prose and Poetry, edited by J. Laughlin. New York: A New Directions Book, 1976.(4) Brookman, D., ?Exploring Gestural Posibilities”, Artweek, v. 18:44, 1987.(5) Bowlt, J.E., ?Henry Elinson, Gallery Paule Anglim”, Artforum, 1981BIOGRAPHY1935 Born in Leningrad, USSR (now St. Petersburg, Russia)1954 Studied three years at Leningrad Pedagogical Institute1960 Studied three years at Moscow Pedagogical Institute1960-73 Considered part of Novoye Levo (New Left) group of painters in Leningrad1960-67 Worked at school for mentally handicapped children1962 Participated in underground exhibition in Leningrad (disrupted by police action).1967-73 Worked as speech therapist in psychiatric clinic in Leningrad.1969 Exhibition in Leningrad with three architects.1973 Emigrated from USSR to NYC; left most of his art works, taking only the few for which he could pay the departure tax.1974 Moved to Yale University in New Haven, CT.1976 Took position at Defense Language Institute in Monterey Peninsula, CA.1993 Retired, continues to exhibit his art and write short stories and novels in Russian. WORKS IN PERMANENT COLLECTIONS: Museum of Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, CA University Art Museum, Berkeley, CA Bochum Museum, Germany State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia Zimmerly Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ Duke University Museum of Art, Durham, NC The Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, MA Collection of Contemporary Art, Central Exhibition Hall, St. Petersburg, Russia Museum of St. Petersburg History, St. Petersburg, Russia Museum of Nonconformist Art, St. Petersburg, Russia State Hermitage, St. Petersburg, RussiaEXHIBITIONS2001-02 Abstract Art in Russia in the Twentieth Century, Russian Museum, St. Petersburg. 2000 Museum of Non Conformist Art, St. Petersburg, Russia 1998 Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA 1998 The Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, MA 1996 Duke University Museum of Art, Durham, NC Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA 1995 Morlan Gallery, Transylvania University, Lexington, KY1994 Santa Cruz Art Museum, The Art Is ? Santa Cruz, CA1993 Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA1992 Dostoyevsky Museum, Art of Depression St. Petersburg, Russia1991 Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA1989 University Union Gallery, California Polytechnic Institute, San Luis Obispo, CA1987 Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA1987 Richard Art Center, Bay Area Drawing, Richmond, CA1987 Clara Hatton Gallery, Sixteen Bay Area Artists1987 Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO1985 Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA1981 Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, Beyond the Looking Glass ? Other Art of Russia1980 Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA1980 Nakhamkin Gallery, NYC 1979 Museum of Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA1978 Nelson Gallery University of California, Davis, CA1978 Nakhamkin Gallery, NYC Galerie Hardy, Paris, France Musee du Vieux Chateau de Laval, France Musee des Beaux-Arts de Tours, FranceMusee des Beaux-Arts de Chartres, France Kunstamt Charlottenburg, Germany Gallerie Junger Kunstler, Germany Ernest-Lemmer Institute, Germany Saarland Museum, Moderna Gallerie Saarbrucken, Germany Pratt Inst., New Art from the Soviet Union, NYC Museum of Tokyo, Non-official Soviet Contemporary Art, Japan1977 Monterey Peninsula Museum of Art, Monterey, CA International Exhibition to Aid Political Prisoners Katya Granoff Galerie, Paris, France International Exhibition to Aid Political Prisoners Parkway Focus Gallery, London, Eng. International Exhibition of Graphique, West Berlin, Germany New Art from the Soviet Union, Washington, DC Rowe House Gallery, Washington, DCBanah Gallery with Mikhail Chemiakin and others, NYC1976 Palais des Congres, Contemporary Russian Art, Paris, France New Art from the Soviet Union, St. Louis, MO1975 Circolo Della Galleria, Milan, Italy Galleria II Punto, Genova, Italy1974 Light & Motion Transmutation Art Galleries, NYC Thor Gallery, Louisville, KY Brooklyn College Student Center, Brooklyn, NY New York University, NYC

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