Mihail Chemiakin Color Lithograph Signed

A fine color lithograph by Mihail Chemiakin, signed and numbered in pencil.

Professionally framed.

Artist: Mihail Chemiakin, Russian (1943 - ) Title unknown Year: Circa 1980

Framed size: 36" Wide x 30 1/2" High x 1 1/2" Deep Striking and engaging color lithograph will enhance any contemporary or modern setting.

About the Artist:

Poet, Producer, Musician, Sculptor, and Philosopher, Mihail Chemiakin is no doubt an artist who deserves recognition within the art world. Looking at Chemiakin’s work, it is clear he draws inspiration from cubism and surrealism, or perhaps more specifically, Picasso, Leger, and Dali. Chemiakin developed the philosophy of Metaphysical Synthesism, which was dedicated to the creation of a new form of icon painting based on the study of religious art. Exhibiting a wide range of artistic influences, colors, and subjects, Chemiakin surely has proven he is multifaceted artist.

Chemiakin was born to a military family. Mihail Chemiakin spent his early years in East Germany where his father served. His family returned to the Soviet Union in 1957. He studied at the secondary school of art affiliated with the Il’ya Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Leningrad, but was expelled from it in 1961 for «aesthetic deprivation» of classmates and failing to conform to Socialist Realism norms. Between 1959 and 1971 he did all kind of niche jobs and in-between took part in different art projects.

He later got a job at the Hermitage Museum. With his colleagues from the museum Chemiakin organized an exhibition in 1964, after which the director of the museum was fired and all the participants forced to resign. In 1967 he founded the group of artists called St. Petersburg. Together with the philosopher Vladimir Ivanov he created a treatise called Metaphysical Synthesism dedicated to new forms of icon painting based on studying of religious art of all epochs and nations. He was subjected to forced psychiatric treatment and in 1971 he was exiled from the Soviet Union. According to Chemiakin, the KGB officer behind this actually saved him by offering to quietly leave the country with $50 in the pocket, because some people from the Artists' Union of the USSR insisted on his isolation.

He settled in France where he published Apollon-77, an almanac of post-Stalinist art, poetry, and photography. He moved to New York in 1981. Since the early 1990s he started visiting Russia once again, working on street shows by Slava Polunin, ballets by the Mariinsky Theatre, a TV series by Russia-K and other government-backed projects. In 2007 he returned to France where he currently resides.