VLADIMIR YAKOVLEV (1934-1998) Portrait of a man

signed in Cyrillic and dated 'V. Yakov. 23/III/86' (lower right) pastel, pencil on paper 29 x 20 cm executed in 1986 A member of the Moscow nonconformist movement, Vladimir Yakovlev was born in Balahna in 1934 into a family of artists—his grandfather Mikhail Yakovlev (1880-1942) was a prominent Russian painter and one of the founders of Russian Impressionism. In the 1950s, he worked as a retoucher at the Iskusstvo publishing house and studied In the workshop of artist Vasily Sitnikov. From 1945 onwards, he periodically underwent treatment in psychiatric hospitals. Following the exhibitions of Western art in Moscow, Yakovlev moved away from abstraction to create his own expressive style. In the 1960s, he painted portraits, landscapes, and ‘flowers’ in an expressive, primitive style. The present composition White Flowers is among his most iconic subjects of this period, defined by their restrained palette, and especially use of white, which gives the works luminosity. The first exhibitions, together with E. Steinberg, were held at the F. Dostoevsky Museum (1963) and at the Moscow Union of Artists (1968). A solo exhibition was held in Copenhagen, at the Museum of Modern Art (1976). He participated in the Venice Biennale (1977). G. Kostaki assembled Yakovlev’s collection, exchanging paints for works. Since 1986, Vladimir Yakovlev has been a permanent resident of a psychoneurological boarding school, continuing to work until the end.