Vasily Sitnikov

"GOOD AND SILENT, I LIVE WITHOUT NEIGHBORS. 

I DON’T LEAVE MY HOUSE FOR WEEKS. 

I PAINT FUNNY ART. NO ONE CAN COMPLAIN ABOUT ME. 

I AM THE HAPPIEST PERSON IN THE WORLD. 

FROM MORNING TILL NIGHT I SING SONGS WITH JOY AND EVEN DANCE

I AM DRUNK WITHOUT WINE: JUST FROM HAPPINESS! 

I HAVE NEVER LIVED THAT GOOD AND HAPPY AS I DO NOW!! 

I AM SATISFIED BEYOND MEASURE!"        

(from a letter which the artist wrote and addressed to the "Ministry of Health. To the boss over all the psychiatric treatment facilities and to the boss of this boss!") 

Vasily Sitnikov was one of the most striking representatives of post-war unofficial art, and a legend of the Moscow underground. In 1941, the artist was arrested, but declared insane and sent for compulsory treatment at the Kazan psychiatric prison. Starting in the 1950s Sitnikov participated in unofficial art exhibitions in Russia. In 1956 the Museum of Modern Art in New York acquired some of the artist’s works, and from the 1960s he took part in exhibitions in the USA, Switzerland, Italy, France and Belgium. In 1975 Vasily Sitnikov moved to Austria, then to the United States. The artist had assembled a big collection of icons and before moving from Russia gifted it to The Central Andrey Rublev Museum of Ancient Russian Culture and Art. 

Sitnikov’s works are in the New Museum in Saint Petersburg and in museum and private collections in Europe and the US.