Zverev / Mikhnov-Voytenko. Second × Eternity

AZ Museum has opened the exhibition "Zverev / Mikhnov-Voitenko: A Second Multiplied by Eternity" — a museum project in collaboration with pop/off/art gallery, dedicated to Moscow artist Anatoly Zverev and Evgeny Mikhnov-Voitenko, an artist from Leningrad.

The exhibition features over 100 works by Anatoly Zverev and Evgeny Mikhnov-Voitenko from the collections of AZ Museum, the Russian Museum, Aslan Chekhoev's New Museum, and private collections in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The two heroes of the exhibition — Anatoly Zverev and Evgeny Mikhnov-Voitenko — are vivid figures of the unofficial cultural life of the two capitals — Moscow and Leningrad. Though unknown to each other, Zverev and Mikhnov lived vibrant lives, leaving a crucial mark on the history of Soviet unofficial art.

The creative paths of these outcasts from official culture and the circumstances of their lives were indeed similar, but they were also united by visual experiments of the Thaw period and freedom of artistic gesture. The brightest period of Mikhnov's and Zverev's work was the 1956–60s — it was during this time that both artists formed their artistic language, though they never stopped transforming it thereafter — Mikhnov continued to develop the language of abstraction, while Zverev experimented on the edge of the figurative and the expressive, working mostly in the genre of spontaneous portraiture.

One of the exhibition's goals is to present early works by Anatoly Zverev and the legacy of his Leningrad colleague Evgeny Mikhnov-Voitenko through his most important works, many of which have never been shown in Moscow.

Natalia Opaleva, Director General of AZ Museum:
"At the exhibition 'A Second Multiplied by Eternity,' we invite viewers to continue this fascinating exercise of comparing similarities and differences. To agree or disagree with the curators' opinions, to reflect on the fates of artists during the Thaw, and most importantly — to enjoy the remarkable works from the earliest creative period of Anatoly Zverev and Evgeny Mikhnov-Voitenko."

Natalya Volkova, Chief Curator of AZ Museum:
"Today at AZ Museum, two artists have met. Living at the same time, in the same country, in two cities not far from each other, living difficult, restless, but fervent lives.
Two geniuses of two capitals.
Two impossible, fierce, provocative artists.
Two myths.
Two worlds.
Standing side by side in art history."

Their explorations in art took different paths, but they were united by one thing: a fantastic freedom of expression, will, and power of artistic statement, untethered to the unhappy reality that surrounded them, the image of a free artist so atypical of the Soviet era. Zverev was characterized by desperate buffoonery and bitter clowning. Mikhnov donned the mask of hermitage and quixotic lofty madness. Both rejected the real world and retreated into the world of art. There are no records of them meeting in person, but even if they never did, they have now met — in the space of the new exhibition at AZ Museum.

The exhibition is accompanied by a program of special events: guided tours, a concert program, a film lecture series, and children's educational programs.

Project creators:
Director General of AZ Museum — Natalia Opaleva
Curators — Sergei Popov, Serafima Kostrova, Natalya Volkova
Production Designer — Gennady Sinev
Graphic Design — Dmitry Mordvintsev
Project Coordinator, Chief Curator — Natalya Volkova
Literary Editor — Olga Bogomolova

Information partners: