ZOYA LERMAN (1934-2014) Girl reading [Lessia Polianskya]

signed with monogram in Cyrillic ‘ZL’ (lower left), titled in Cyrillic ‘Lessia Polianskaya’ (lower right); ownership stamp of Igor Dichenko collection (on the reverse) pastel on paper 38.5 x 41.5 cm PROVENANCE: Collection of Igor Dichenko (Ihor Dychenko) (1946–2015), Soviet and Ukrainian collector, art historian, and painter; one of the ideologists of the Ukrainian avant-garde, Kyiv. Private collection, Europe. Zoya Lerman was a Ukrainian painter, graphic artist and teacher, born in Kyiv. She graduated from the Kyiv Art Institute in 1959, where she studied under Serhii Hryhoriev, Viktor Kostiantynovskyi and Hryhorii Melikhov. A member of the Artists’ Union of Ukraine from 1960, she became an important representative of the second wave of Ukrainian avant-garde and underground art. Her lyrical and poetic works are characterised by graceful lines, refined forms and expressive colour. Her work is held in museum and private collections in Ukraine and internationally.