Nikolai Filatov

NIKOLAI FILATOV (Russia, 1951).
"Le ruisselet", 1985.
Oil on canvas.
Presents informative labels "Galerie de France" and "André Cheneu &Fils".
Signed, dated and located (Paris) on the back.
Measurements: 150 x 150 cm; 151,5 x 151,5 cm (frame).
Nikolai Filatov was trained at the State Institute of Applied and Decorative Art in that city, and later at the Moscow State Academy of Arts and Industry. Since 1984 he has been a member of the Moscow branch of the Union of Artists. That same year, together with Andrei Roiter and German Vinogordov, he founded in a former kindergarten the Kindergarten collective, one of the most unique spaces of Moscow's subway art, active until 1986. There, creative freedom, diversity of languages and exchange between independent artists were promoted, consolidating itself as a reference point of Russian avant-gardism.
Filatov, as ideologist of the movement, defended an open and tolerant practice, without trying to impose a unique direction for the avant-garde. His monumental painting, linked to neo-expressionism, is distinguished by its expressiveness and the presence of constructivist elements. In his works converge symbols of Russian cosmism, futurism and communism, configuring a unified vision of avant-garde culture.
He has had solo exhibitions in Moscow, Kiev and New York, and has participated in group exhibitions in institutions of great international prestige, such as the State Tretyakov Museum, the Russian State Museum, Documenta-Halle in Kassel or the Gallery of Modern Art in Bologna. His works are part of important collections, among them the Ludwig Museum in Cologne and the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum in the United States.