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Yakov Chernikhov: The Soviet Experiment on Artsy

We are delighted to launch a new online exclusive show on Artsy – Yakov Chernikhov. The Soviet Experiment. The show will run from 28 October to 28 November 2020.

Yakov Chernikhov (1889-1951), the ‘architect- composer’, believed that art could free the most limited of minds – we hope that this exhibition gives visitors the opportunity to appreciate the breadth of talent of this artist. Please follow the link to view the show.

Whilst Chernikhov was a trained architect, he is largely a theoretician and the majority of this exhibition, nineteen works, come from the Aristografiya series, showing a more theoretical side. Chernikhov had his own system of teaching which he described as Eksprimatika (‘the best form of graphic expression’) and consisted of working out new principles of drawing based on symmetry, the rhythm and relationship between component parts, constructions and colours. These vignettes, icons for their time, highlight a brief period of artistic flowering in Soviet Russia in the 1920’s before the onset of repression.