“I first met Alexander Isaakovich Rusakov in 1952 when his son, Yuri (my future husband and – as was I at the time – a recent graduate from the Art History Faculty at the Academy of Arts) took me to the house on the Petrograd side of St Petersburg (then Leningrad) where his family had lived for many years. I was somewhat apprehensive of this visit, all the more so because Yuri had told me that his father – a marvellous painter, of whom I knew nothing – was, like all ‘alternative artists’, summarily ignored by our history and the Academy. Yet here for the first time I became acquainted with the marvellous examples of his art, his townscapes, yachts on the Neva, streets and courtyards. >> Read more
“I first met Alexander Isaakovich Rusakov in 1952 when his son, Yuri (my future husband and – as was I at the time – a recent graduate from the Art History Faculty at the Academy of Arts) took me to the house on the Petrograd side of St Petersburg (then Leningrad) where his family had lived for many years. I was somewhat apprehensive of this visit, all the more so because Yuri had told me that his father – a marvellous painter, of whom I knew nothing – was, like all ‘alternative artists’, summarily ignored by our history and the Academy. Yet here for the first time I became acquainted with the marvellous examples of his art, his townscapes, yachts on the Neva, streets and courtyards. Sadly, I was only acquainted with this wonderful painter for a short period, until September 1952, when he died suddenly. Rusakov had, perhaps, a stronger link with the great masters of European painting of the previous generation (Cézanne, Matisse, Marke) than did the other members of the Circle of Artists Group.” — Alla Rusakova, May 30, 2006, from the James Butterwick exhibition catalogue, ‘Russian Art 1920s-1930s’, 2007.