Konstriktor, Boris [pseudonym of Boris M. Akselrod].

[SOVIET NONCONFORMIST ART – NEOFUTURISM] Original ink drawing (Ikh shterbe!!! Ikh shraibe!! Ikh shaibe!) [I am dying!!! I am writing!! I am scrawling!], dated 1986.

[Soviet Union], 1986. Single leaf of creased semi-transparent tracing paper with ink and gouache to rectos and versos. Measures 24.5 × 17.5 cm. Signed and dated by the artist. Item #P6200

Original drawing by a major figure of Leningrad non-conformist and underground culture, the poet and artist Boris Konstriktor (born 1950). This drawing combines both concrete (or visual) poetry and graffiti-style writing, with the markings to both sides of a translparent paper creating a collage effect, a layering of meanings and styles.
Konstriktor was a member of the Transfu(tu)rist group, “the only group in the post-Stalin period to have a close relationship with the Russian Futurists” and one which “from the beginning included experimentation in visual and verbal art simultaneously.” The group also produced minimalist and conceptualist works. Made up of Boris Konstriktor, Ry Nikonova, Sergei Sigei, as well as a number of other temporary members, Transfu(tu)rists coalesced around the underground, samizdat journal "Transponans" (1979–1986). The scholar of nonconformist art Gerald Janecek writes: “Since the issues were all hand-made, it was possible to vary and combine materials, use elaborate original collages, hand colouring, original sketches unusually shaped and cut-out pages to spectacular effect. Contributions to the journal included a wide range of contemporary avant-gardists such as Dmitry Prigov, Genrikh Sapgir, A. Nik, Igor Bakhterev (the last surviving member of OBERIU group), Yuri Lederman and many others” (Richard Kostelanetz ed. A Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes, pp.618). This work dates to the last year of the group's journal, similarly working with word and image to achieve artistic effect. Konstrictor’s literary output circulated in samizdat under the pseudonym Boris Vantalov, published widely in leading samizdat journals of Leningrad, such as “Obvodnyi kanal” and “Chasy”. After the fall of the Soviet Union, he continued to publish and has also performed at festivals and readings both in Russia and abroad. In 2022, after first being nominated in 2008, Konstriktor won the prestigious Andrey Bely Prize, Russia’s oldest independent literary award. His work is well represented at the Museum of Nonconformist Art in St. Petersburg, with an archive of his work held by Harvard University.

Price: €800.00

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