VASILY SHULZHENKO (RUSSIAN B. 1949) Moan, 1989 oil on linen 152 x 120 cm (59 7/8 x 47 1/4 in.) signed and dated lower right; signed and titled on verso EXHIBITEDForbidden Art: The Postwar Russian Avant-Garde, February 1998-April 2002The exhibition traveled to:Pasadena, ArtCenter College of Design, Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery, February 22 - May 3, 1998Moscow, The State Tretyakov Gallery, May 15 - June 15, 1999St. Petersburg, The State Russian Museum, February 12 - April 4, 1999Oxford, Ohio, Miami University Art Museum, November 2 - December 12, 1999Brighton, Massachusetts, Boston College, McMullen Museum of Art, October 15 - December 10, 2000Gainesville, University of Florida, Samuel P. Harm Museum of Art, April 12 - July 3, 2005Laramie, University of Wyoming Art Museum, September 8 - November 18, 2007St. Peter, Gustavus Adolphus College, Hillstrom Museum of Art, September 3 - November 10, 2008LITERATUREForbidden Art: The Postwar Russian Avant-Garde (Los Angeles, New York: Curatorial Assistance, Distributed Art Publishers, 1998), ex. cat., p. 288 (illustrated) (titled Suffer)LOT NOTESAlthough Shulzhenko was born in Moscow, where the artist lives and works, much of his oeuvre features that which is - both literally and figuratively - marginal. The subjects of his frank and often graphic paintings are situated in transitional spaces: the street, the village, the public restroom, and, most obviously, the verges of society. Simultaneously, the artists' works, imbued with a Bacchanalian facetiousness, are equal parts inflammatory social commentary and light hearted gag joke. Shulzhenko's men and women are conventionally unattractive, their bodies and faces as frequently distorted by alcoholism and anger as they are by lust and laughter. Heavily featuring the grotesque, the artist knowingly adopts, comments on and subverts conventional artistic narratives.
