Soviet Nonconformist Art - The Odessa Group

The Odessa Group

By the mid 1970s, in Odessa, a core group of nonconformist artists was formed whose most active members were: Vladimir Strelnikov, Alexander Anufriev, Valentin Khrushch, Victor Mariniuk, Lyudmila Yastreb, Stanislav Sytchev, Lev Mezhberg, Evgeni Rakhmanin, Ruslan Makoev, Andrei Antoniuk and others. These artists continued to show their art privately in spite of the constant harassment from the authorities and the oppression and hatred coming from the majority of the officially recognised artists. They had close connections with the Moscow centres of the underground art movement and were participating in the apartment exhibitions of nonconformist art in Moscow and in Leningrad. They also invited their Russian colleagues to visit Odessa and to take part in their apartment exhibitions there.

The following artists took an active part in the unofficial, so called "apartment exhibitions" in the 1970s in Odessa. Some of them participated in the "apartment exhibitions" in Moscow as well. Valentin Altanietz (1936–1995) Andrey Antoniuk, Alexander Anufriev, Valery Basanietz, Alexei Bokatov, Igor Bozhko, Nadia Haiduk, Valentin Khrushch (1943–2005), Michail Kowalski, Ruslan Makoev, Victor Mariniuk, Volodymyr Naumez, Nikolay Novikov, Victor Pavlov, Valery Parfenenko, Evgeni Rakhmanin, Viktor Risovich, Sergei Savchenko, Vitaly Sazonov, Valentin Shapavlenko, Yuri Shurevich (1937–1997), Oleg Sokolov, Nikolai Stepanov, (sculptor) (1937–2003), Alexander Stovbur, Vladimir Strelnikov, Stanislav Sytchov (1937–2003), Vladimir Tziupko, Alexander Voloshinov, Ludmilla Yastreb (1945–1980), Anna Zilberman (1935 - 2000).