Oleg Vassiliev (1931--2013) dedicated his artistic practice to exploring the landscapes of memory. He was born in Moscow and lived in the United States from 1990 on. Vassiliev’s creative process began with intimate personal recollections of home, family, and landscapes, which he then translated into universal visual experiences. He skillfully incorporated elements from different times and spaces, arranging them according to the painting’s internal logic. His style combined Russian realist landscape traditions, reminiscent of Isaac Levitan, with the avant-garde sensibilities of the 1910s and 1920s, allowing him to capture the intangible essence of memory. In 1958, Oleg Vassiliev graduated from V.I. Surikov State Art Institute in Moscow, specializing in graphics. From the 1950s to the mid-1980s, many Muscovite nonconformist artists, including Ilya Kabakov, Eric Bulatov, and Victor Pivovarov, supported themselves through book illustration while pursuing their independent art. In the late 1950s, Bulatov and Vassiliev discovered and were inspired by the works of the generation of avant-garde artists, such as Vladimir Favorsky, Robert Falk, and Arthur Fonvizin (known as the “three F’s---Formalists”). In their early works, Bulatov and Vassiliev studied the principles of interaction between a painting’s surfaces and space as a philosophical concept. His exploration of light led to an abstractionist period focused on the dialogue between surface and space, emphasizing the crucial moment of initial artistic expression. Vassiliev belonged to the generation of nonconformist artists. The division between the personal and political, between the private and public, was ideologized in the Soviet Union. Vassiliev escaped the ideology to capture very personal memories of art and life. By extracting and elevating a personal, almost intimate selection of visual images from the past, transformed into the future---some intensified, some dramatized---Vassiliev captured something more universal, something common to all human memory. He monumentalized sketches, revealing overlooked details, and created a pictorial analogy of memory's incorporation into consciousness, inviting viewers to explore their own cognitive landscapes and bridging personal experience with broader cultural narratives.
Natalia Kolodzei and Kira Vassiliev, eds. Oleg Vassiliev: Memory Speaks (Themes and Variations), published by Palace Editions, the State Russian Museum, with essays by Amei Wallach, Andrew Solomon, Natalia Kolodzei, Ilya Kabakov, Eric Bulatov, Victor and Margarita Tupitsyn, and Oleg Vassiliev. Oleg Vassiliev: Memory Speaks (Themes and Variations) reflects the artist’s career from 1949 to the present day. Book available for information please contact Natalia Kolodzei at Kolodzei@KolodzeiArt.org or visit Amazon.com
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2005 Oleg Vassiliev: Memory Speaks (Themes and Variations). State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
2004 Oleg Vassiliev: Memory Speaks (Themes and Variations). State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
1999 Oleg Vassiliev: Works 1987-1995. Blomquist, Oslo, Norway.
Oleg Vassiliev. On Black Paper 1994-1997. Wake Forest University Fine Art Gallery, Winston, Salem, NC, USA. Travel to Denison University Art Gallery, Granville, OH, USA.
1968 Oleg Vassiliev. Bluebird Cafe. Exhibition including 25 works. Moscow, Soviet Union.
