Main article: Culture of Russia
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Art market
2025: Aivazovsky's painting was sold for 400 million rubles at Sotheby's auction in London
The canvas "Survivors," created by artist Ivan Aivazovsky, was sold in November 2025 at Sotheby's as part of the auction "Faberge, Imperial and Revolutionary Art." The deal amounted to £4.188m, which was a record price for the works of this author, according to the portal Artprice. Read more here.
2024
Sale of the painting "Galat Tower in the Moonlight" by Aivazovsky for ₽130 million
Ivan Aivazovsky's painting "Galat Tower in the Moonlight" was sold at the auction of the Moscow Auction House for ₽130 million, setting a record for the Russian art market. The completion of the transaction became known on December 18, 2024. Read more here
The market is formed around fairs in Moscow and other large cities
In 2024, the art market in Russia is based on fairs in Moscow and other major cities of the country.
In Moscow, the leader is Cosmoscow. As for newcomers, the first Siberian fair of contemporary art Scan Fair was held in Krasnoyarsk in the summer of 2024. According to the results of the VIP show alone, 30 works were sold for a total amount of 1.1 million rubles with an average price range of 5,000 to 500,000 rubles. The revenue of the second Nizhny Novgorod Kontur fair, held in May, amounted to more than 40 million rubles (about 400 works were found by their new owners). In June, the third St. Petersburg fair "1703" was visited by a record number of guests - 20,000 people. More than 400 works were sold there with a total value of 78 million rubles.
2025
2024
2023
2019
2010
Artists of the 2000s
- Mikhail Shvartsman,
- Vladimir Nemukhin,
- Vladimir Yakovlev,
- Igor Vulokh,
- Dmitry Krasnopevtsev,
- Timur Novikov,
- Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe,
- Francisco Infante,
- Igor Makarevich,
- Oleg Maslov,
- Olga Tobreluts,
- Leonid Purygin,
- Sergey Anufriev,
- Sergei Borisov,
- Oleg Tselkov,
- Sergey Shablavin,
- Nikolay Polissky,
- Evgeny Antufiev,
- Aidan Salakhova,
- Dmitry Tsvetkov,
- Alexander Zakharov,
- Vitaly Pushnitsky,
- Vita Bouivid,
- Andrey Bartenev,
- Irina Korina,
- Sergey Kishchenko,
- Timothy Radya,
- Misha Most,
- Aleksei Luka,
- Dmitry Aske.
- Velichko Vladimir Nikolaevich (b. 1956), watercolorist, Nizhny Novgorod.
1978
The work was performed in the Painting Workshop of the USSR Academy of Arts in Kazan (head - Kh. A. Yakupov)]]
1973
1971
1967
1961
1959
"University Embankment." 1959 canvas, oil. Odessa Art Museum.]]
1956
1953
1948: Georgy Kostaki begins to look for and buy painting and graphics of forgotten representatives of the Russian avant-garde
In the late 1940s, Georgy Kostaki, the son of a Greek immigrant who worked in embassies, began to look for and buy paintings and graphics of representatives of the Russian avant-garde Popova, Rodchenko, Malevich, Shagal, Kandinsky, Klyun, Klutsis, Drevin, Redko, Tatlin, Puni, Enderov, Matyushin, Chashnik, El Lisitsky and others, at that time completely unclaimed and forgotten artists.
Gradually, already in the 1950s and 1960s, artists, poets, musicians, Western critics and museum curators often gathered at Kostaki's house. Kostaki's guest book has the signatures of Glenn Gould, MoMA's first director Alfred Barr, Igor Stravinsky, Igor Markevich, Michelangelo Antonioni, David Rockefeller, Lev Landau, Mark Chagall and many others.
Kostaki wanted as many people as possible to see his collection. On other Saturday days, 60-70 people gathered in the apartment on Vernadsky.
1946
1944
1937
1935
1934
- Mikhail Ksenofontovich Sokolov - Russian graphic artist.
1932: Vanguard is declared formalism and art alien to socialist society
The development of avant-garde art was largely forcibly interrupted in the early 1930s. Since 1932, all manifestations of "levity" have been declared formalism and art alien to socialist society. The works of artists, today considered avant-garde artists (both domestic and foreign), by 1936 had disappeared for a long time from the expositions of museums in the USSR, art albums, and became inaccessible in the reading rooms of libraries. Direct participants in the Russian avant-garde were either accused of judicial formalism, or lived in isolation, without the right to teach and show their work to the public. Witnesses to the artistic life of the first quarter of the century, if they shared their memories, then exclusively in a whisper, behind closed doors and only with a very close circle.
1930
One of the strongest works of Sokolova-Skali, published in 1930, dedicated to the revolution, entitled 1905-1917, is addressed to the international audience (the idea of a world revolution has not yet been archived). Not a single word, only eight numbers, but what a conviction in them in their rightness, in a future victory even after a bitter defeat.
1929
1928
1925
1924
1923
1920: Dmitry Moor Posters
The first star of Soviet agitation was a self-taught from Novocherkassk Dmitry Orlov, who took the name of a romantic Shiller robber. Dmitry Moor is the author of such works as "Help" about the starving Volga region, "Wrangel is still alive" and, of course, the immortal self-portrait "Did you volunteer?" Paper, mascara, pen, immortality.
Moor's poster of 1920 "1st May is a celebration of labor. Long live the international unity of the proletariat! "Is not so spectacular (partly due to the blister paint - they printed what was), but he laid the foundation for hundreds, if not thousands of variations on the theme of May Day: the sun comes out from behind clouds, a red ribbon (such the Bolsheviks pinned on their chests) with a slogan, a call for a world revolution, representatives of different professions merged in a single impulse.
By the way, knowing printing well, Moor became an innovator in at least one of the technological processes. In Russia, then there was no black paint of good quality - the images turned out to be gray (this can be seen in the poster below). Moor came up with the idea of putting blue paint under black (in reality, gray) dies - and received a deep black tone.
In terms of the degree of impact on people, this was a completely different level compared to the White Guard propaganda - aesthetic, "professional," as if coming out of the decadent salons of the Silver Age. The total superiority of the Bolsheviks in bringing their ideas to the workers and peasants was an important factor in their final victory.
But Moor did not come out of "Stray Dog." One of the secrets of his success was that before the revolution he was a professional draftsman of movie posters. This is merciless highly competitive work: if the audience does not reach for the tape from your poster, someone else will do the next poster. Moor treasured his work and groped for a style that touched the hearts of the target audience - poor urban philistinism. A clear sharp drawing, work not on consciousness, but on emotion, on one poster - one thought.
Moora was very appreciated by Mayakovsky, a good draftsman himself - and after the revolution he began to work precisely in the style of the Novocherkassk genius. For more details see Vladimir Mayakovsky.
1919
1918
1917
1916
1915
1914
1911: Created "Art Bureau N.E. Dobychina"
The name of Nadezhda Evseevna Dobychina for a long time remained undeservedly forgotten. Meanwhile, she became the first gallery owner in the history of domestic art. And even if she had not done anything else in her life, for the grateful memory of her descendants, only the "Black Square" by Kazimir Malevich, presented in 1915 at the Last Futuristic Exhibition of Paintings "0.10" organized by her, would have been enough.
Created by her in 1911, the "Art Bureau of N.E. Dobychina" was engaged not only in exhibiting and selling works of art, but also in orders for the "artistic arrangement of the apartment environment," as well as in the creation of theatrical costumes and scenery. It was Dobychina who arranged personal exhibitions of Natalia Goncharova and Mark Chagall. I was going to bring the works of Pablo Picasso to St. Petersburg, introduce the general public to the art of Persia and Japanese engraving.
1910
Exhibition "Jack of Diamonds": primitivism as the first direction of the Russian avant-garde
In December 1910, Ilya Mashkov, together with Mikhail Larionov, Natalia Goncharova, Peter Konchalovsky and other artists, co-organized the exhibition "Jack of Diamonds," which approved primitivism as the first direction in the history of the Russian avant-garde.
The name of the exhibition was invented in spite of such sophisticated names of art associations as "World of Art" and "Blue Rose," it was associated with tattoos of prisoners, with the world of violators of the law. The Jacks did not recognize any aesthetic hierarchies and used popular pictures, malevolent trade signs, painted trays and other items that were ignored by adherents of the "fine arts" as role models. All these examples attracted young artists with an elevated, piercing sound of color, also characteristic of recent French painting.
At the first exhibition of the "Jack of Diamonds," portraits of Ilya Mashkov, which the artist himself called "scarecrows," attracted everyone's attention. Most of them are bright before exaltation, with large ornaments as a background, but the giant "Self-portrait and portrait of P.P. Konchalovsky" (1910) was knocked out of the general series. Unlike the rest of the bright "scarecrows," it was restrained, almost monochrome, and in composition and style defiantly referred to the painting of the early Paul Cézanne, so that the audience would not doubt the preferences of the heroes of the portrait, on the shelf with books Mashkov depicted the thick volume "Paul Cézanne" - a non-existent publication in Russian. And in his early still lifes, the artist is inspired by the paintings on the trays.
The very next year, 1911, a split was outlined among the exhibition participants, and after the scandalous departure of the "Larionists," which was framed as a public dispute at the Polytechnic Museum, the remaining artists, led by Mashkov and Konchalovsky, established the Bubny Jack association, which lasted until 1917.
The primitivism of early Mashkov should not be extended for the entire period of his stay in the "Jack of Diamonds," since already in the works of 1913-1914 the artist complicates the productions and expands the range of sources, referring to the heritage of the Italian Protorenessance. Thus, he wants to connect the earliest traditions of European painting and the latest searches, being sure that a picturesque vision exists regardless of time and cultural differences. This shows a modernist claim to universalism: the desire to pass through the entire experience of world art.
Benoit in his article forms the concept of "avant-garde"
In a 1910 article, Benoit first formulated the concept of "avant-garde," dividing all Russian art into avant-garde, center and rearguard. He ranked himself and the Miriskusniks in the center; the rearguard is the Union of Russian Artists, the Moscow School, Korovin and so on. But the avant-garde is young people: Mikhail Larionov, Georgy Yakulov, Pavel Kuznetsov[1].
- Larionov Mikhail Fedorovich (1881-1964), Tiraspol, Moscow, Paris.
The beginning of the twentieth century is the era when art turned to pure forms: a color spot and lines as the basis of a new reality. Artists sought to "see through the subject," using abstraction as a tool of distraction from specifics for the sake of expressing emotions and internal impulses. These forms, while still keeping traces of reality, obeyed the laws of free fantasy, like music detached from objectivity.
Vasily Kandinsky, who stood at the origins of abstraction, in 1910 created the first non-objective composition. He saw the task of art in expressing spiritual through color and form, comparing painting to music - "the most spiritual of the arts." In the work "On the Spiritual in Art," he wrote about the need for new forms limited by the first elements: "New riches lurk in them."
Mikhail Larionov developed radiism (1911-1912) by depicting the invisible: the intersection of rays emanating from objects. His work captured a spatial form emerging beyond the visible - an attempt to recreate an unknowable reality.
Mikhail Matyushin proposed the theory of extended viewing, emphasizing the role of intuition in perception. His ideas influenced the search for a synthesis of art and science.
A special place is occupied by Pavel Filonov, a single artist whose work went beyond the directions. His analytical method (1910-1920-e) connected the real and the irreal through detailed symbols. Filonov sought to synthesize art and nature, considering creativity the result of complex analyzes. His compositions are filled with a microcosm of forms and reveal the hidden structures of being, as if looking behind the shell of objects.
These experiments, from luchism to the analytical method, extended the boundaries of art, turning abstraction into a language of universal meanings. Abandoning the mimetic tradition was not a break with reality, but a search for its deep essence.
1907
1904
1903: Portrait of Felix Yusupov by Valentin Serov
1903 Paper, watercolor, whitewashed. 47 x 62 cm. Odessa Art Museum.]]
1901
Nikolai Konstantinovich Roerich from childhood was fond of history and archeology, participated in excavations of ancient mounds. Later, as an adult, he continued his scientific activities, which largely determined the theme of his works.
According to the artist, the historical picture should, as it were, carry the viewer in the past era, recreate the very spirit of the past times. Roerich was carried away not by the psychology of individual historical characters, not by the sharpness of a specific event, but by the era itself in its typical manifestations.
At an exhibition at the Academy of Arts in 1902, the painting was acquired by Nicholas II for the Tsarskoye Selo Palace.
1899
1891
1897: Alexander Golovin in Spain
The Spanish theme was one of the leading in the work of Alexander Golovin. He traveled extensively around the country, studying its nature, architecture and culture. Golovin designed many productions on the Spanish theme - both in musical and drama theater. The scenography for the opera "Carmen" (a 1908 production, the Imperial Mariinsky Theater) earned special attention from the public for its unusually harmonious combination of scenery and costumes with music and plot. For more details see Mariinsky Theatre.
The artist's letters addressed to his wife Maria Golovina (Kotova) deserve special attention. In them, he describes the battle of the bulls depicted on a postcard, the ancient gate and the Lion's Yard in Alhambra.
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These texts were created while traveling in Spain. The artist visited Madrid, Toledo, Barcelona, but was especially fond of Grenada, where he worked a lot in Alhambra, copying the paintings of the famous palace. The manuscripts entered the funds of the Bakhrushinsky Museum after his death, in the 1930s and 1960s.
Realists
- Bessonov Boris Vasilievich (1862-1934) - Russian artist, landscape painter.
- Repin Ilya Efimovich (1844-1930), Chuguev, Petersburg, Moscow, Kuokkale.
- Vereshchagin Vasily Vasilievich (1842-1904), Cherepovets, Petersburg, Munich, Paris, Moscow.
1888
1886
1884
1883
1881: Ilya Mashkov was born
Ilya Mashkov was born in 1881 into a family of farmers and small traders in the village of Mikhailovskaya (now the Uryupinsky district of the Volgograd region), far from art centers. From an early age he was forced to lead an independent life and work as a boy on errands in various merchant enterprises. From time to time he worked part-time writing trade signs, and, observing his penchant for art, a local art teacher advised him to go to Moscow and enter the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (MUZHVZ), which Mashkov did in 1900. His teachers were Leonid Pasternak, Valentin Serov and Konstantin Korovin. During his four years at MUZHVZ, the young artist became disillusioned with the methods of his teachers and interrupted his studies. His "three years without painting" (1904-1907) almost coincides with the period of the First Russian Revolution, when classes at the School were interrupted due to student unrest and street fighting in Moscow.
It remains a mystery how Mashkov, who constantly needed funds, managed in 1906 to enter a workshop with an area of 100 square meters in a new house on Myasnitskaya Street and organize a paid studio there, which became one of the centers of the future Bubnovy Jack association. It is possible that the reason for the change in the financial situation was the marriage to a girl from a wealthy family - Sofia Arentsvari.
Tuition fees at Mashkov's studio were among the highest in Moscow, although many of the visitors had no serious intention of making art and went there as an interest club. Until 1917, Mashkov used the workshop on a rental basis, and later, after the nationalization of apartment buildings, he worked in it until the end of his life.
After a trip to Europe in 1908 and impressed by the works of Henri Matisse, seen in the collection of Sergei Shchukin, Mashkov gradually began to introduce bright color accents into his compositions with nude models and still life motifs. For his hobby for Matisse, Ilya Mashkov was expelled from MUZHVZ twice, and he formally managed to finish his studies only after the February Revolution of 1917.
1880
1879
1878
1873
1870: The Wanderers
1866
1823
XVII century
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