Anatoly Shugrin

ANATOLY SHUGRIN is one of the few Russian artists whose active, creative life spanned the hazardous Stalin years without being crippled, crushed, or repressed. Born in 1906, he developed his own expressive, personal style before Stalin's repression of artistic creativity and individuality in the late 1920s and 1930s laid a heavy hand on Soviet art. During the 1930s through the early 1950s, Shugrin's style continued to develop and evolve. Working in isolation - painting only for himself - Shugrin passed through phases of development reminiscent of various schools or trends in art which appeared in the West during these same years. His interesting uses of color, form, and surreal images were distinctive and impressive by any standard. His work during this period stood almost alone in Russia; it was unknown to all but a few friends.