Anatoly Zverev Bottles, 1975
The Pollock of Russia
Featuring in the collections of the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and MoMA in New York, the painter is considered as one of Russia’s most important artists of the 1960s. Compared to Pollock, he is considered as the other founder of Abstract Expressionism. Picasso is said to have considered Zverev as the “best Russian master.” Cast out from society, homeless and an alcoholic, with mental instability led him to a psychiatric hospital, Zverev possessed all the fantastical traits of a tortured artist.
Anatoly Zverev Portrait of a young woman, 1985. Photography of Anatoly Zverev
A fine setting
“An extraordinary control of the brush, a sort of unfinishedness; the secret of Zverev’s portraits captivated me in an unexplainable way more than ten years ago,” the museum’s director told Russia Beyond the Headlines. “The study of his surprising biography and the knowledge of individuals in his milieu only fuelled my interest further.”
The 1500 artworks on display are part of the Gueorgui Kostaki collection, from which his daughter, Alika Kostaki, wishes to make a donation.
The museum is housed within an elegant three-storey building, with a boutique and roof-top café.
AZ Museum Opening from Sasha Ponomarev on Vimeo.
