Aleksander Volkov, Russian, Soviet era, 1886 to 1957, oil painting on canvas mounted on board depicting a figurative rural composition. Signed lower left. Framed. Aleksander Nikolaevic Volkov is now regarded as one of the most prominent and acclaimed Russian artists of the early 20th century. Volkov has been reinstated as a leading Russian artist and today his works form part of permanent displays at such prestigious museums as the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, the State Russian Museum in St Petersburg and the Karakalpak Museum of Arts in Nukus. One of a kind artwork.
Aleksander Volkov, Russian, Soviet era, 1886 to 1957, oil painting on canvas depicting a rural scene. Signed lower right. Framed. Aleksander Nikolaevic Volkov is now regarded as one of the most prominent and acclaimed Russian artists of the early 20th century. Volkov has been reinstated as a leading Russian artist and today his works form part of permanent displays at such prestigious museums as the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, the State Russian Museum in St Petersburg and the Karakalpak Museum of Arts in Nukus. One of a kind artwork.
Aleksandr Nikolaev. VOLKOV (1886-1957), Attribué à Composition abstraite Gouache et aquarelle sur papier, signé en cyrillique en bas à droite 26 x 22,5 cm
inscribed in pencil 'three nudes/15-16 year/work of Volkov A.N./№ 212’(on the reverse) pencil on paper 15.6 x 24.5 cm executed circa 1915-16inscribed in pencil 'three nudes/15-16 year/work of Volkov A.N./№ 212’(on the reverse) pencil on paper 15.6 x 24.5 cm executed circa 1915-16
Alexander Nikolaevich Volkov (Russian, 1886-1957) 'Tomato Harvest' ['Сбор помидоров'] signed in Cyrillic (lower right); further signed and dated '1944' (verso) oil on canvas 66 x 66cm (26 x 26in). For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Alexander Volkov (Russian 1886-1957) Avant-Garde Figures, collage, ink, gouache on Russian newsprint, signed in Cyrillic “A. Volkov”, glazed, image size 14 x 11 1/4 inches
*VOLKOV, ALEKSANDR (1886-1957) Uzbek Children in a Yurt, signed, further with a study of a classical bust on the reverse. Oil on canvas, 33.5 by 52.5 cm (image size). Executed c. 1928–1929. Provenance: Collection of Iosif Ezrakh, Leningrad. With James Butterwick gallery, London. Private collection, UK. Exhibited: A Time to Gather... Russian Art from Foreign Private Collections, The State Russian Museum, St Petersburg, 14 February–12 May 2008. Literature: Paintings from Private Collections, 18th to 20th Century, Leningrad/St Petersburg, St Petersburg, Aurora Art Publishers, 1993, p. 203, No. 262, illustrated. Exhibition catalogue, A Time to Gather... Russian Art from Foreign Private Collections,St Petersburg, Palace Editions, 2007, p. 243, pl. 177, illustrated. Aleksandr Volkov is one of the brilliant representatives of the Eastern avant-garde. His Uzbek images became part of art history for their bold application of the principles of Cubism, Futurism and Suprematism to traditional ethnic genre scenes. Uzbek Children in a Yurt represents a new phase in the artist’s career, namely, his experiments in figurative art. Volkov’s works from this period are celebrated for their saturated colour and their idiosyncratic stylistic interpretation, which combines the principles of folk primitivism with eastern religious motifs, such as Sufism.
Alexandre Volkov (Russian 1886 - 1957) . Abstract gouache on Russian Newsprint, signed in Cyrillic, Russian stamp on reverse. Sight Size: 8 x 10.5 inches. In Volkov's artistic biography, 1944 was a period of intensive work and fruitful communication with important artists, in particular with Alexander Tyshler, who withdrew to Tashkent with the Jewish theatre of Solomon Mikhoels; Volkov was also in touch with Alexander Labas and Mikhail Chemyakin, a student of Serov and Korovin. Volkov wielded considerable authority during this period: he was elected Chairman of the Picture Department and board member of the Union of Artists of Uzbekistan; he taught at the School of Arts and was also awarded the medal 'For Heroism in Work'. It was during this 'thaw' in the political atmosphere that Volkov gained more recognition for his achievements and yet, shortly after the war which heralded an end to the thaw, Volkov was forced to step down from his high positions and his post at the school and was confined to isolation for more than a decade.
Alexandre Volkov (Russian 1886 - 1957) . Abstract gouache on Russian Newsprint, signed in Cyrillic, Russian stamp on reverse. Sight Size: 8 x 10.5 inches. In Volkov's artistic biography, 1944 was a period of intensive work and fruitful communication with important artists, in particular with Alexander Tyshler, who withdrew to Tashkent with the Jewish theatre of Solomon Mikhoels; Volkov was also in touch with Alexander Labas and Mikhail Chemyakin, a student of Serov and Korovin. Volkov wielded considerable authority during this period: he was elected Chairman of the Picture Department and board member of the Union of Artists of Uzbekistan; he taught at the School of Arts and was also awarded the medal 'For Heroism in Work'. It was during this 'thaw' in the political atmosphere that Volkov gained more recognition for his achievements and yet, shortly after the war which heralded an end to the thaw, Volkov was forced to step down from his high positions and his post at the school and was confined to isolation for more than a decade.
* VOLKOV, ALEKSANDR (1886-1957) Uzbek Children in a Yurt , signed, further with a study of a classical bust on the reverse. Oil on canvas, 33.5 by 52.5 cm (image size). Executed c. 1928-1929. Provenance: Collection of Iosif Ezrakh, Leningrad. Private collection, UK. Exhibited: A Time to Gather... Russian Art from Foreign Private Collections, The State Russian Museum, St Petersburg, 14 February-12 May 2008. Literature:Paintings from Private Collections, 18th to 20th Century, Leningrad/St Petersburg, St Petersburg, Aurora, 1993, p. 203, No. 262, illustrated. Exhibition catalogue, A Time to Gather... Russian Art from Foreign Private Collections, St Petersburg, Palace Editions, 2007, p. 243, pl. 177, illustrated. Aleksandr Volkov is one of the most outstanding representatives of the "Eastern avant-garde". His Uzbek images have entered art history for their bold application of Cubism, Futurism and Suprematism to traditional ethnic genre scenes. Uzbek Children in a Yurt represents a new phase in the artist's development - the exploration of figurative art. Volkov's works from this period are celebrated for their saturated colour, and their stylistic interpretation which combines the traditions of folk primitivism with eastern religious motifs, such as Sufism.
Alexander Volkov (1886-1957) Moonlit mausoleums signed in Cyrillic 'A. Volkov' (lower right) oil and tempera on canvas 23 5/8 x 35 5/8 in. (59 x 89 cm.) Painted in 1915 On the reverse: study of a standing female nude
* VOLKOV, ALEKSANDR (1886-1957) Uzbek Children in a Yurt , signed, with a composition on the reverse. Oil on canvas, 33.5 by 52.5 cm (image size). Executed c. 1928-1929. Provenance: Collection of I.M. Ezrakh, St Petersburg. Private collection, Europe. Exhibited: A Time to Gather... Russian Art from Foreign Private Collections , The Russian Museum, St Petersburg, 14 February-12 May 2008. Literature: Paintings from Private Collections, 18th to 20th Century , St Petersburg, Aurora, 1993, p. 203, illustrated. Exhibition catalogue, A Time to Gather... Russian Art from Foreign Private Collections , St Petersburg, Palace Editions, 2007, p. 243, pl. 177, illustrated. Aleksandr Volkov is one of the most outstanding representatives of the "Eastern avant-garde". His Uzbek images have entered the history of art as bold applications of Cubism, Futurism and Suprematism, with their geometrisation and compartmentalisation of space, to the traditional ethnic types, generic scenes and customs of the East. Uzbek Children in a Yurt , painted circa 1928-1929, belongs to a new phase in the artist's creative life associated with his exploration of figurative art. Volkov's works from this period are celebrated for their saturated colour, deep and luminescent use of paint, but also for his personal interpretation based on the combination of traditional styles and folk primitivism with eastern religious motifs, such as Sufism. In Uzbek Children in a Yurt the artist tackles his favourite subject of music, which he had developed in his well-known masterpiece Listening to Music . Here, the artist portrays a group of young Uzbek girls gathered in a circle, practicing their dutars. By portraying the characters in close-up, Volkov separates them from everyday life and shows their concentration on enjoying the music. A complex composition is masterfully arranged by the artist: the protagonists are depicted as a single unified group, positioned around the centre, as if seized by the same melody. The background with the girls' silhouettes forms a distinct decorative compositional structure. The painting, with its rhythm based upon centripetal movement, has a clear conceptual focus: the shining red spherical body of the dutar. Volkov incorporates circles, disks or segments of infinitely varied sizes, colours, positions and angles; they materialize as the base of the yurt, the tambourine, skullcaps, children's heads, eyebrows, the spheres of girls' supple breasts or the reddish glow of their cheeks. Each young participant of the round dance is primarily interesting not for her individuality but rather for her contribution to the overall composition. The seemingly accidental arrangement of the elements of the composition in fact reveals a true unity, confinement of common space, as well as of smaller individual spaces, masses and volumes. Contrasting planes of green robes and dark tones of faces and hands, soft when pushed to the background, on the foreground acquire applique-like thickness. The movement of these flows of colour is polyphonic yet conceptually uniform: from malachite greens, to umbers and ochres, to bright red in the centre of the composition. The fluidity of form and colour underscores the neutral background, with virtually indistinguishable gradations of colour. This painting is also a summation of Volkov's artistic quest during the 1920s - a period when his talent truly blossomed. The late 1920s were defined by the birth of the artist's younger son, Valery. Around this time, Volkov created several genre scenes, as well as portraits depicting young protagonists in their everyday life ( Children. Brother and Sister , 1925-1930, and Boy by the Window , 1928). However, in the present work Volkov is consciously avoiding the plethora of oriental sounds and colours, which are featured more prominently in his earlier works, such as Kazakh Girl (1926). The protagonists' tunics and tubeteikas (traditional Uzbek headcaps), imbued with shadows and coloured highlights, are austere and devoid of a great deal of colour. The conceptual and colour focuses are provided by the shining faces of the girls, flushed with concentration from playing the dutar, and the dutar itself, its pear-shaped, mulberry-wood body transformed into an immaterial conglomeration of luminous colour. Moreover, the painting offered here for auction is not merely a genre scene set in a yurt, but rather a metaphorical depiction of the theme of music awakening the human soul. In the 1920s the artist was seized by an interest in folk culture and a sense of affinity with his national heritage. He was captivated by the sounds of the bazaars and provincial streets ( Bazaar , 1928; Marijuana Smoker , 1929; Resting , 1926). Ritual and music are at the heart of Central Asian and Islamic culture in all aspects of everyday life, and it is thus music that is the quintessence of his best works of that period. The fusion of local colour of his native Uzbekistan and experiments in new figurative art that were prevalent in the second half of the 1920s, as well as gentleness and spirituality of the subject matter, render Uzbek Children in a Yurt one of the artist's most significant works of this period.
VOLKOV, ALEKSANDR 1886-1957 Listening to the Bedana , signed. Oil on canvas, laid on board, 97.5 by 97.5 cm. Executed in the 1920s. Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist's family by the Ministry of Culture of the USSR, probably in the 1960s. Acquired from the above by an American dealer. Private collection, USA. Authenticity of the work has been confirmed by the artist's family. Exhibited: Russian Exhibition. Contemporary Paintings, Drawings and Sculptures Directly from the U.S.S.R. , Saks Galleries, Colorado, November 1975. Literature: Exhibition catalogue, Russian Exhibition. Contemporary Paintings, Drawings and Sculptures Directly from the U.S.S.R. , Saks Galleries, Colorado, November 1975, illustrated. Aleksandr Volkov was one of the most brilliant representatives of the "Eastern avant-garde". His Uzbek imagery entered art history for the bold addition it made to traditional Orientalism, approached with the geometrisation and division of space found in Cubism, Futurism and Suprematism. Listening to the Bedana , painted in the 1920s, belongs to a new stage in this artist's career in which he experimented with figurative representation. Volkov summed up this period of his life in his diary: "The road to Realism. Themes of mountain villages. Fergana. Chaikhanas". The complexity of these experiments, which soon led him away from the mainstream of Soviet art, resulted in the artist being accused of wandering the "labyrinth of formalism", which had already been noted in his cycle of "musical" compositions of the 1920s. In terms of subject-matter Listening to the Bedana is a direct continuation of the artist's celebrated masterpiece Listening to Music , but at the same time there is much in it that relates to the composition of his equally well-known Chaikhana paintings. Here the artist again tackles his two favourite motifs in the same picture, those of oriental tea-drinking and music-making. By portraying them in close-up, Volkov demonstrates his characters' detachment from everyday life and their concentration on enjoying the music. Despite the simplicity and prosaic nature of the subject matter, this is not a genre scene set in a chaikhana but rather an epic work. We are witnessing not simply tea-drinking, but a silent, meaningful conversation between three worldly men: this work, which is extraordinary for its emotional expressiveness, is thereby raised to the level of a metaphorical depiction of the theme of music awakening the human soul. In the 1920s the artist was seized by an interest in folk culture and a sense of affinity with his national heritage. He was captivated by the sounds of the bazaars and provincial streets and it is thus music that is the quintessence of his best works of that period. In this scene Volkov is consciously avoiding the plethora of oriental sounds and colours which characterise his more primitivist version of Listening to the Bedana , Singers-Uzbeks and Chaikhana . Listening to a Song . The protagonists' robes and skull-caps, imbued with shadows and coloured highlights, are austere and without a great deal of colour. The conceptual and colour focuses are provided by the bedana in its white cage hanging against the background wall in the upper right; the shining face of the central figure, lost in the song of the quail and the sound of the dutar; and the dutar itself, its pearshaped, mulberry-wood body transformed into an immaterial conglomeration of luminous colour. One role of the chaikhana is to bring peace, to offer rest and the time for reflection. For this reason everything in this picture remains faithful to everyday life and is accurate in terms of volume, space and what is depicted. A sense of music is conveyed with extraordinary precision by the simplest, most economical of means. We have the impression that Volkov's work is pictorially reproducing the accidental musical ensemble created by the singing bird and the dutar accompanying him, the rhythm of which is based on monody and monophony and has the same hypnotic effect as the song of the quail which is valued in Central Asia for its loud, monotonous, continuous cry. There are no details, no decorations. The only three people in the world have been united by the music. One is playing the dutar, another raises a tea-bowl to his mouth and the third, clothed all in white, is sunk in the contemplative meditation of Sufism. The dark background of a wall, from which melons stand proud against the background with the bedana (the same word in Uzbek signifies both the quail and the cage which holds him), emphasises the precision of the men's silhouettes and the extreme dynamism of the vibrant colours used for their faces. The artist concentrates all his attention on the economically rendered, powerful masses of the human figures. These are human monoliths. The forms of their bodies are simply-rendered and sculptural, "fluid" and yet full of energy, like a coiled spring. At the same time all the protagonists have some kind of superior strength, especially evident in the treatment of the hands, reminding us of the forms of Picasso's Neo-Classical period. It is no coincidence that the art historian Aleksei Sidorov noted as early as the 1920s that "in many of Volkov's pieces there is more of Paris than of Tashkent, more of Matisse and Picasso than of the oriental rug". Fusing together the local colour of his native Uzbekistan with experiments in the new figurativeness art that was prevalent in the second half of the 1920s, Volkov proved to be in tune with the international hunger for this new objectivity, endowing Listening to the Bedana with a supra-national significance.
VOLKOV, ALEKSANDR 1886-1957 Wedding signed and dated 1927, also inscribed with an authentication from the artist's son on the reverse Oil on board, 76 by 95 cm. Provenance: Collection of the artist's family. Gift of the family to a close friend. Acquired directly from the above. Authenticity has been confirmed by the artist's family. Exhibited: A. Volkov. Oils and Works on Paper, The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, March 2007. Volkov's masterpiece Wedding, presented here for auction waspainted in 1927, it belongs to a new phase in the artist's creativelife associated with his exploration of figurative art. The complexities of this exploration, in which he soon diverged from the mainstream of Soviet art, led to accusations that the artist had lost hisway in the "debris of formalism", and are reflected in the complexhistory of Wedding. At least two versions of this subject are known, both dating from1927. The larger of the two is in the Tretyakov gallery and depictsa bridegroom and the men accompanying him. The second version of the Wedding, presented here for auction, has been kept inthe artist's family for many years. It can provisionally be called"female", as the composition is structured in a way so that all threemale figures have their backs turned or half-turned to the viewer,while the four central figures of young women face the viewer.We are unlikely now to learn how both these compositions relateto one another and what provoked Volkov's radical gesture, leaving only the upper part of the male procession to the history ofart. But the unity of artistic conception of both paintings, structured around the image of a musician, suggests that they represent, if not fragments of a single monumental image conceived byVolkov, then at least a single compositional cycle. The artist's work on Wedding was inspired by his interest in nation-al culture and sense of affinity with the life of his country and itsnational heritage. Volkov was charmed by the sounds of the market squares, the processions, the old and new holidays and it ismusic. Therefore, that forms the focus of both Wedding compositions. In the "male" version, the composition is structured aroundthe mouth of the traditional Uzbek shawm (surnay) played by amusician dressed in red. In the "female" version - music andmerriment are symbolised by the jingling Uzbek tambourineslightly to the left. All the details of social life are depicted accurately, with a precise sense of scale and space. The sense of musicis conveyed with great sensitivity by the simplest, most economicalmeans, creating the impression that Volkov's pictures reproducepictorially the distinctive rhythm of traditional Uzbek monodyand solo song, often with a hypnotic effect. The movement of figures in a circle "to the sonorous chorus ofamber faces" (from Volkov's own poetry) and the closed circle ofthe compositional structure form the counterpoint of the paintingpresented here for auction. The surrounding, the circle, and theparts of the circle vary ceaselessly in scale and colour, shifting,turning and shortening, each time embodied in another subject:the spherical heads with their skull-caps, the arched brows, therounded knees and large hands of the seated figures, the curve ofthe arc in the notional background. The picture, seemingly casually framed and full of spontaneous movement, achieves a rare unityand elegance, a sense of completion and enclosure, drawing thetotal space, the many small spaces, bodies and dimensions togeth-er. All details are consciously structured and linked to one another.The tambourine, brought close to the face of the man on the leftin a natural, spontaneous movement, "echoes" the half-moon ofthe yellow cap on the figure to the right. The dancing circle ofhands raised at different levels is depicted with great skill. Unityand strength of composition is also achieved by the smoothness ofthe enclosed forms, both by the general structure and by the dominance of circularity in the shapes, but most of all, of course, bycolour and by movement, the flow of colour. The painting is executed in restrained olive-green and grey tones, superbly conveyingthe coolness, purity and quietness of the setting and the deeplypensive mood of the guests. The female face, freed for the first time from face veils and "veilsof silence", had a particular attraction for the artist. In art, untilthat time, there existed only the conventional image of "easternbeauty" created by poets and miniaturists, with beauty-spots, elaborate curls framing the cheeks, half-moon brows and tiny mouthssmaller than an ant, or the romantic and exotic image ofEuropean tradition. Volkov also paid tribute to this, but here, in awork of the late 1920s, he seeks a real image of a woman of thepeople, a worker, an equal participant in the new life. Before usare four young women with broad irregular faces, charming intheir rustic simplicity, completely absorbed in the solemnity of theunfolding event. Volkov depicts them with their caps rakishlypushed back to the side, massive necks, and plain, almost severedresses, and faces framed by contrasting dark, smooth hair. Thespace is shaped softly, very sparingly by translucent shadows incold tones and by light brushstrokes of white. The narrow, expressive eyes are barely shaded, emphasising the flashing pupils anddark red of the cheeks. For all the ethnographic accuracy andindividuality of the portraiture, the faces of these young womenare universal, exalted, showing signs of age. Fusing the local colour of his native Uzbekistan with the searchfor a new figurativeness which characterised the art of the late1920, Volkov becomes part of the worldwide trend towards a newkind of figurative art, which gives Wedding international significance.
Alexander Volkov (1886-1957) Caravan signed in Cyrillic 'A. Volkov' (upper right) pencil and watercolor on paper 8½ x 15 in. (21.6 x 38.1 cm.) Executed in 1920.
signed in Cyrillic (lower right); bears inscription A Volkov in Cyrillic and dated 1944 (on the reverse); variously labeled (on the stretcher and frame) oil on board
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, WISCONSIN UZBEK, 1886 - 1957 BOYS WITH QUAIL measurements 36 1/2 by 36 1/2 in. alternate measurements 92.7 by 92.7 cm signed in Cyrillic and dated 1927 (lower left); also signed and inscribed in Cyrillic, numbered N32 and dated 1927 (on the reverse) oil on canvas mounted on board PROVENANCE Henry L. Carlsruh & Co., Inc., Milwaukee, Wisconsin Contemporary Russian Art, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Private collection (acquired directly from the above) EXHIBITED Milwaukee, Contemporary Russian Art, no. 145, p. 14, illustrated (titled Boys from River Crossing) NOTE By the 1920's Alexander Volkov had integrated what he learned from Matisse and Cézanne with his own style and had returned to more figurative work. Volkov harmonized the influences of Cézanne and the Cubists, combining flat patterns and color with elements of Central Asian painting. Combining the short, visible brushstrokes and geometric patterns of the Cubists with these 'foreign' scenes, Volkov found new subjects, much as Matisse had done in Morocco. The present work dates to 1927, it mirrors an earlier series of paintings completed by the artist in 1918--20, entitled Eastern Primitive. Volkov's subject matter in this series was the rich culture and daily lives of the Uzbek people. The Uzbek tea ritual, cotton harvesters, even workers in a field became subjects for Volkov's work in which he celebrated the Uzbeki identity. Volkov taught at the Tashkent Art School for thirty years, where he continued to paint scenes of Central Asia.
Reverse oil on glass scene shows street scene with buildings against a teal colored sky. This scene is as close to a photographic image as one could expect. It is signed lower left "A. Volkov 1991". This painting was used as the frontice piece for a brochure of his exhibition called "Beyond the Turning" . Volkov moved to Flemington, NJ from Leningrad, Russia in 1990. Housed in a modern black metal frame.
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