Anatoly Zverev

He did not have a solo show in Russia until shortly before his death in 1986 and his work was exhibited in small, underground galleries. Throughout his career he was harassed and persecuted by the Soviet authorities especially as his international success grew.

Thousands and thousands gathered at his funeral in 1986 to pay their last respects. After his death there was a major retrospective exhibition for several months in the major art museum of Moscow. The exhibition had to be extended as people were queuing up to get inside around the clock.

A Zverev self-portrait was featured in the March 28, 1960 issue of LIFE beside a portrait of Vladimir Lenin by the Soviet artist Vladimir Serov (1910-1968) to contrast the underground with the official art of Russia. When Nikita Khrushchev learned about the publication he was outraged and forbade all contacts with Western visitors and closed down all semi-legal exhibitions. Zverev was the main target of his outrage, forcing him into hiding. From time to time he disappeared and the rumours of his death began to spread about Moscow. Each time the rumours were not justified. "They have stumbled on me again" he used to say. He never complained and made jokes: "I am not a communist, I am a harmonist."

Since 1957, Zverev participated in over eighty group exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world. His work are in many prominent collections in Russia, Europe and United States.

Anatoly (Anatoli) Timofeevich Zverev Russian: Анатолий Тимофеевич Зверев (November 3, 1931 Moscow –December 9, 1986 Moscow) was a Russian artist, a member of the non-conformist movement and a founder of Russian Expressionism in the 1960s. He spent all of his life in Moscow.