The variety of languages in the very particular situation that took form in Russia between the mid-1950s and the end of the 1980s. Rejection of the conventions of official art and openness to the art of the Occident.
[Persecuted Art in the U.S.S.R. 1955-1988 / Non-conformists from the Bar-Gera Collection] Curated by Giorgio Cortenova and made possible by the cooperation of an exceptional collector couple, the Bar-Geras, the exhibition in Verona documented the particular art situation that took form in Russia between the mid-1950s and the end of the 1980s. In a context still dominated by the academies of the regime, the most open and courageous artists constructed their own path and their own identity, in opposition to the conventions of official art, coming to grips with the experiences of the early 20th-century avantgardes and those of recent artistic research in the West.
The catalogue illustrates the variety of languages of about fifty artists, seeking a common denominator in their unstoppable desire for freedom, both in terms of forms and of themes, from the dictates of official thought.
Verona, 2000