After 30 years of exile, internationally acclaimed painter Oscar Rabin’s work is now exhibited in his native Russia. Opening an exhibit in Tretyakov Gallery on his 80th birthday, Rabin’s work that was considered by “unofficial art” is now on display in Moscow’s largest art museum.

Rabin rose to prominence not only as a highly talented painter but also as a symbolic dissident from the rigidity of official Soviet culture. In 1958, his studio at the old Lianozovo army barracks became the epicenter of Moscow’s progressive artistic intelligentsia. He remained at the forefront of “unofficial art” until his Soviet citizenship was revoked 20 years later.

This confrontation was never something Rabin actively sought. “We all wanted official recognition,” Rabin explained. “But that was unavailable to us because they had a crude world for which not everybody had signed up. Everything in life depended on those three-letter organizations, and we just wanted to get our art shown.”

Rabin claims that he only knows how to paint one way, making his conflict with the authorities inevitable. Remarkably, his abilities seem to have emerged fully formed, with few changes in technique or subject matter over more than 50 years. “My art is entirely subjective,” he said. “I just paint what I see and feel. I stayed away from the protest exhibitions — I didn’t want to go to the gulag.” (Moscow Times)

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