Paysage Russe. Litho 47/50 Signed lower right

Sight: 20in. x 30in. (51cm x 76cm)

Framed: 32in. x 43in. (81cm. x 109cm.)

Mihail Chemiakin was born in Moscow in 1943, grew up in occupied East Germany, and returned to Russia in 1957 where he was admitted to the Special High School of the Repin Academy of Art in Leningrad. He was expelled from art school for failing to conform to Socialist Realist norms, and from 1959-1971 worked as a laborer in various capacities. He was subjected to compulsory treatment at a mental institution, which was a standard way of dealing with ideological dissidents at that time. In 1971 Chemiakin was forced out of the USSR by the Soviet authorities. He settled first in France, then moved to New York City in 1981. In 1989, the return of Chemiakins work to post-Communist Russia began with the first exhibition of his work there since his exile. He installed three monuments in St. Petersburg, to Peter the Great, to the Victims of Political Repressions, and to the Architects and Builders of St. Petersburg. In Moscow, Chemiakin's fifteen-figure sculptural ensemble, Children - Victims of the Sins of Adults, was commissioned by Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov as a gift to the city and dedicated in 2001.