Andrei Grositsky Russian, Composition with musical instrument, oil/canvas. Image size 23 in by 19 in. Andrei Grositsky is an artist who belongs to a generation of innovators working in a period when realism prevailed. He received a classical training at the Surikov Institute and this academic education distinguishes him from many artists who, starting from the late 1950s, belonged to the circle of the so-called “non-official art”. In 1968 Grositsky became a member of the Artists' Union, and at about the same time he started exhibiting at the unofficial exhibitions of Soviet counter-culture artists. Long friendships and the experience of working side-by-side with Mikhail Roginsky and other artists from that circle enabled Grositsky to widen his knowledge of world avant-garde art, and to look at it through the prism of his personal experience.
Formally, Andrei Grositsky is a master of the still-life. However, although the exterior of an object is important for the artist given that most of his pictures feature the waste and refuse from human activity, this aspect is not what matters the most to him - the artist is focused on the philosophical, metaphysical aspect. Hyperbolization of seemingly ageless objects, such as old lamps, equipment blocks, remains of rusty pipes and scuffed and crushed metal paint tubes and the like, impart so much monumentality and inner importance that one starts to sense the cosmic significance of the object.