Modernist Avant-Gard Figurative Abstract, Large-Scale Primary Colors Pastel by Henry Elinson

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Stunning modernist avant-garde figurative abstract pastel in deep royal blue, with red and yellow accents by Henry Elinson (Californian/Russian 1935-2010), … Read more Stunning modernist avant-garde figurative abstract pastel in deep royal blue, with red and yellow accents by Henry Elinson (Californian/Russian 1935-2010), 1996. Signed and dated "H. Elinson '96" lower right. Presented in silver toned metal frame under plexiglass. Image size: 38"H x 50"W. Frame size: 39.5"H x 51"W. A copy of the text from his retrospective is included. Gallery Label on verso.

Elinson was born in 1935 in St. Petersburg, Russia. He studied philosophy and pedagogy, worked for many years as a speech therapist with handicapped children, but by the 1960s had become consumed with art. He became a key member of the first unofficial, nonconformist art circles and avant-garde exhibitions of the Soviet underground and was questioned and blacklisted by the KGB. No longer able to exhibit his work, he immigrated to USA in 1973. He worked at Yale University and taught Russian for many years at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. All the while, he worked relentlessly as an artist, pursuing his unique, uncompromising vision. Henry Elinson is considered an important figure in the Russian Avant-Garde movement.

Elinson's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including Banakh Gallery (with Mikhail Chemiakin), Nakhamkin, Paul Anglim and other galleries and museums in New York, San Francisco, Washington, Paris Milan, Berlin, London, St. Petersburg, and Tokyo. He was awarded a Gold Medal in Art Achievement by the city of Milan, and his work in held in various public and private collections including Museum of Fine Art, San Francisco, University Art Museum, Berkeley, Yale University Gallery, Monterey Museum of Nonconformist Art (St. Petersburg). His work has received reviews by Naum Gabo and other prominent critics and artists in national and international publications including Artforum, Artweek and Washington Post. See less