Composition
Michael Chernishov (b. 1945) is a Russian and American artist, considered by many experts to be among the most important figures on the Soviet art scene in the second half of the twentieth century. In the 1960s to 70s he worked in parallel in the genres of pop art and geometric abstraction, and he also became one of the pioneers of performance in the USSR.
Chernishov’s style and his primary spheres of interest were initiated in the late 1950s, in isolation from other artists, groups or schools. He consciously focused on art at the age of 15, after seeing the work of abstract expressionists at the American National Exhibition in Sokolniki in 1959. In the 1960s he was on friendly terms with the artists Mikhail Roginsky and Vladimir Yakovlev. At the same time, in 1962, Chernishov’s first apartment exhibition, ‘Red Truck’, was held. It took place in the Mnevniki district in Moscow, where Mikhail Roginsky was living at the time. Two years later Roginsky and Chernishov staged a joint exhibition at the Disk Cinema in Moscow.
In the early 1960s Chernishov studied at the Zagorsk Art and Industrial College of Toys, before moving to the Department of Art History in the Historical Faculty of Moscow State University, but after two courses, while attending classes on Byzantine art, he lost interest in studying and was expelled. In 1974 he took part in the ‘Second Autumn Viewing of Paintings’ at the Izmailovo Forest Park in Moscow, known as the Izmailovo Exhibition. With a group of artists he held a happening in 1975, ‘30th Anniversary of the UN’ (Moscow), and in 1976 he and Boris Bich authored the happening ‘Doubling I’ at Vorontsov Park (Moscow). Two years later, in 1978, Michael Chernishov, Boris Bich, Konstantin Zvezdochetov, Vitaly Dlugy and A. Vlamov presented ‘Doubling II’. In 1978 a retrospective of his works from 1961 to 1978 was held at the City Committee of Graphic Artists. In 1980 he emigrated from the USSR. In 1987 he wrote a book of memoirs (‘Moscow 1961-67’) about his early years as an artist. He lives and works in New York.
Michael Chernishov’s works can be seen in the collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), the Russian Museum (St. Petersburg), the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow), the Zimmerli Museum (New Jersey, USA) and other museums.
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