The Fantastic Vision of Vadim Rokhlin

The Zimmerli Museum's Norton and Nacy Dodge Collection contains nineteenth works by the remarkable but little-known Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) nonconformist artist Vadim Rokhlin. This exhibition is the first extensive showing ever of Rokhlin's intriguing art. Rokhlin died of a heart attack in 1985 at the age of forty-eight. During his lifetime only a small circle of Russian intelligentsia were fully aware of his art. He participated in the two important Leningrad exhibitions of unofficial art held in 1974 and 1975 at the Ivan Gaza and Nevsky Palaces of Culture, but because his style of fantastic realism was so harshly criticized by the local press he was never able to have a one-man show of his work during his lifetime.

It is only now with the gracious assistance of Rokhlin's wife, Tamara Fedorova, that we are able to assemble a representative number of his paintings and drawings for his retrospective exhibition. For years, Rokhlin's paintings were stored in the small Leningrad apartment that served as home and studio for the artist and his wife. Since the artist's death, Ms. Fedorova has committed all her energies to preserving and cataloguing her husband's art with the ultimate goal of presenting it to the world. 

Curated by Alla Rosenfeld and Jeffrey Wechsler.