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"The first SOVCOM-2006 auction will be much influenced by drastic style". Dmitry Butckevich, Nezavisimaya Gazeta №15 dated January 27, 2006

On February 4th the SOVCOM Art Gallery will hold its first auction of this year and the 10th auction in general. It will be the second time when bids take place in the own recently finished Gallery premises located at ulitsa Shchepkina. This time the number of exposed 119 lots will be a bit bigger than usual.
On February 4th the SOVCOM Art Gallery will hold its first auction of this year and the 10th auction in general. It will be the second time when bids take place in the own recently finished Gallery premises located at ulitsa Shchepkina. This time the number of exposed 119 lots will be a bit bigger than usual. These paintings are exceptionally art and graphic works of Soviet period masters, – it seems, that the Gallery has refused to include in its catalogues the works created by artists of Russian, "pre-soviet" academism, as it had been before. At the same time the trend to expose "porcelain and photos of famous masters" has been chosen by the Gallery as the near-term line of its development. A provenance (origin) provided for each lot in the SOVCOM’s catalogue deserves special attention as its clear merit. The pictures are usually come from a "private collection", "from heirs", or "from the SOVCOM Art Gallery collection". The quality of the selection these works to collection turned out to be quite considerable: literally, this is the Soviet Art history of the 60th and the 70th years. A splendid selection of works by first-rate representatives of the so-called "drastic style" especially arrests one’s attention. Following the SOVCOM tradition, the bids will start with exposition of works by a famous graphic painter of the 60th Leonid Soyfertis. His five magazine illustrations-caricatures are estimated at the range from $800 to $1100 US. Some works provided in the first part of the catalogue and created by Soviet art classicists, who started their creation activity even in first years after the Revolution, do also deserve attention. Among them are an abkhasian landscape by Nickolay Terpsikhorov (60x96, $6,500 - 7.000 US), the Nickolay Tyrsy’s bouquet (65 x 54; 1931; $17.000 – 19.000 US), "The Dog-rose" by Porphiry Krylov from the "Kukryniksy” (34 x 24; $2.200-2.500 US), “Portrait of the wife” by Sergey Gerasimov (25x31; late 1930th, $4.200 – 4.500 US) and the most expensive lot of the auction – a large canvas "Harvesting" by Nadezhda Udaltsova (100 x 85, late 1930th). This lot was estimated at $53.000 - 55.000 US). The traditional Soviet art by Dmitry Nalbandyan, traditional for Moscow auctions, will also be present at the exposition “View of Vatican" – created by the famous portraitist of all the USSR leaders (40 x 70, 1963), ithe work published with good provenance reference, prior estimated at $20.000 – 22.000 US. Middle part of the catalogue is devoted to masters of “rigid style”. Ivan Sorokin "Spring in Tarus” (50 x 70; 1967; $5.500 – 6.000 US). Vladimir Stozharov “Autumn" (17 x 32) - is an early creation (1946) of the painter, whose works are rarely sold) - $6.000 – 6.500 US. Viktor Popkov’s “Billiards” (paper, soft-tip pen; 29 x 40), - the artists, whose works have been so much went up with a leap after the largest sales in the last-year auction in London, where even a simple picture drawn by a soft-tip pen had been estimated at $15.000 – 16.000 US. Nickolay Andreev "The winter window" (60 x50), - this is the painting of the artist's late period (1990), nevertheless the painter’s works considered expensive, that is why the estimation totals $ 7.000 - 8.000 US. Dmitry Zhilinsky's "At the Bent" (30 x 66, 1984), which has been estimated rather high for a tempera painting at $5.500 – 6.000 US, nevertheless such a high price is resulted from rarity of the author's works in the market. Efrem Zverkov "Ice drift at the Mezen". (36 x 50; 1975), estimated not so high for so typical painting of this master: $5.000 – 5.500 US. Tkachevs brothers with a very late work dated 2003 “The Nestling Box" (50 x 40; $4.500 - $4.800 US). A three-picture-selection by Andrey Tutunov, including “The Smith” by Petr Ossovsky (47 x 47; 7.000 – 8.000 US) – quite an early painting dated 1973. Then Eduard Bragovsky, whose works appear seldom in the market, with his repeatedly exposed “The Early Spring” (78 x 100), estimated at $10.000 – 12.000 US. Gely Korzhev mostly absent in free sales with a sketch to famous work “The Painter” from the STG collection. The work originates from a private collection, the painter himself does not deal with the sale, that's why the cardboard work of 1978, 44 x 37 cm in size, was considerably estimated at $10.000 – 12.000 US. And finally, a manifested top-lot of all bids is the canvas by Viktor Ivanov named “Greko Cafй" (56 x 61). This author’s version of the picture dated 1974, which in the late 70-th was considered as one of the “drastic style” or “romantic realism” symbols, as it was referred in those years. The picture depicts five "pillars" of the trend: Korzhev, Ossovsky, Zverkov, Zhilinsky and Ivanov himself, plunged in thought about the art destiny, sitting at one of the tables of the famous "Greko" cafe in Rome, visited by all the celebrities of the world art. The estimate of the character painting is $28.000 – 30.000 US.

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