TSELKOV Oleg - Oil on canvas, 1995

TSELKOV Oleg (1934-2021)
Head with a fork
Oil on canvas
Signed lower right. Named, signed and dated "1995" on the back.
60 x 120 cm.
Provenance: private collection, Luxembourg

Expert: Ekaterina Nikolaeva-Tendil
Expert in Russian Art
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Born in Moscow in 1935, Oleg Tselkov was one of the most connoisseur Russian non-conformist painters of the 1960s (Eric Bulatov, Oscar Rabin, Oleg Koulik and others). He began exhibiting his work in Europe in the 1970s. In 1977, under pressure from Soviet authorities, Tselkov was forced to leave the USSR for good and settle in France. He never saw his departure from the USSR as a tragedy, but rather as an opportunity to open up to international art. His style, formed under the influence of the avant-gardists (K.Malevitch, V.Kandinsky, P.Kontchalovski), became quite clear as early as the 1970s. Without wishing to use his art as a means of fighting the USSR, he quickly turned to international artists such as Francis Bacon and Alberto Giacometti, who greatly influenced him. At the heart of Oleg Tselkov's art is a recurring figure, represented in the form of a white mask. He worked with this character and his mask-faces throughout his life. The folkloric, traditional yet striking colors - "Colors should kill, hit hard between the eyes", said Tselkov - made his paintings easily recognizable. By the 1990s, when the paintings presented here were created, Oleg Tselkov was already playing an important role in contemporary art in Europe and was much sought-after by many international collectors.