The Enlightener of Souls: Vasily Sitnikov and His School

‍
‍Holy fool, artist, inventor, philosopher, lamplighter. Vasily Yakovlevich Sitnikov (1915-1987) and his school.

For the 110th anniversary of the artist's birth.

‍

"Remember your leaders..." (Hebrews 13:7)

"The core of the movement, its nerve, its avant-garde consists not of innovators of forms and new creative concepts, but of innovators of a new vision of the world." I. Golomshtok

Dedicated to my uncle Vladimir Evgenievich Arkharov-Fredynsky. Special thanks to my scientific advisor Kirill Nikolaevich Gavrilin. In memory of Anna Yuryevna Chudetskaya.
‍

Special thanks to the Machand Gallery team

‍

Artist Vasily Yakovlevich Sitnikov (1915-1987) is one of the most brilliant and distinctive masters of unofficial art in the USSR during the mid-20th century. The movement, known as "nonconformism," "other," "dissident" art, or the "second wave of Russian avant-garde," which emerged prominently by the mid-1950s, holds exceptional significance for both national and global artistic processes of the 20th century.

Moscow was the Soviet cultural capital of that time. It was in Moscow during the 1930s that the tradition of Russian avant-garde art continued its existence, reviving during the Khrushchev Thaw when many representatives of the old school returned to teaching in art institutions, forming their own workshops. In Moscow, with the beginning of the 1950s, a young generation emerged in art, irreconcilable with official ideology, which created its own creative path. These new creators used personal and meditative experiences to develop their own artistic language.

The phenomenal nature and innovation of V.Y. Sitnikov's creative life, oriented towards nonconformism and an independent path by the early 1950s, lay in the atmosphere created around art and the inseparability of life and creativity. The "academy" created by V.Y. Sitnikov, which existed for more than twenty years in Moscow (1951-1975), embodied the master's established creative practices, expressed in the speed of training, in constant collaborative work with students, where lessons and exercises were formulated by the master in the process of direct work on the painting, teaching from scratch, where the aesthetics of live communication was dominant.

Artist Vasily Sitnikov – known as "Vaska the Lamplighter," Moscow's holy fool, "Vasya - Russian souvenir," Soviet "Linarado da Vnichi," "Professor of all professors" with his "academy"... He was a very distinctive master and teacher with his own innovative system of painting techniques and their stylistics, with unusual methods of form-making for that era. He was an original "lone" artist alongside such famous painters as Anatoly Zverev, Vladimir Yakovlev, Mikhail Shvartsman, whose works could not be associated with any general trends or groupings.

Vasily Yakovlevich Sitnikov was born on August 19, 1915, in the village of Novo-Rakitino, Lebedyansky district, Tambov province. Vasily was the eldest child in the Sitnikov family; he had a brother Nikolai (1919-2011) and sister Tamara (1924-1999).

Novo-Rakitino was located on the left bank of the Don River; his ancestors came from the villages of Kazaki and Olkhovets. His father, Yakov Danilovich Sitnikov (1887-1949), was born and raised there in a poor family. His mother, Darya Semyonovna Sitnikova, née Bogoslovskaya (1896-1950), from the village of Zuevo, grew up in a wealthy miller's family. His parents married in 1910, and after Vasily's birth, his father decided it was time to establish a household and moved to Moscow. In 1916, Yakov Sitnikov, after working as a stonemason, became a doorman in a five-story residential building near Pokrovka, in Lyalin Lane, No. 9. The conditions were unbearable, and the family returned to Lebedyan, where they had lived before moving. When the revolution began, Y.D. Sitnikov was drafted into the White Army, fought for three years in the 9th company of the 148th Chernomorsky Infantry Regiment, and was demobilized as a lance corporal in 1918. Yakov Danilovich was fanatical and hated the communist regime, maintaining loyalty to his views until the end of his life, expressing fierce rejection of Soviet power.

In Vasily's upbringing, one can note the special role of his maternal grandfather, Semyon Bogoslovsky, who, being a Tolstoyan, organized a cultural colony in the village of Zuevo and influenced the formation of the future artist's views and lifestyle. He was an extraordinary person, literate for that time, being an ardent admirer of Leo Tolstoy and, despite the fact that "the authorities strongly opposed the organization of the great writer's funeral and in any case could look askance at all participants in the memorial service for him in Astapovo, grandfather Semyon, wearing his best outfit, went to Leo Tolstoy's funeral and grieved much for him afterward... He subscribed to newspapers and magazines – an unheard-of thing in our area even for parish school teachers..."

Christianity was perceived by Tolstoyans only as an ethical teaching; they rejected church dogmas and public worship but highly valued the moral principles of Christianity. Followers of L. Tolstoy criticized the Orthodox Church and official religion in general, as well as state violence and social inequality. V. Sitnikov was never registered at the military commissariat, including not thinking about service with the beginning of the war in 1941. Certain dietary restrictions also played a role: Tolstoyans, as a rule, adhered to vegetarianism, a healthy lifestyle, did not consume alcohol and tobacco. Vasily Yakovlevich followed the prohibitions; smoking and drinking alcohol were not allowed in his apartment-studio.

An offshoot of Tolstoyanism was the Dobrolyubov movement, formed around the personality of poet and ideologist A.M. Dobrolyubov – a romantic hero of the early 20th century. Young Vasily was inspired by the poet's story, which became widespread in the 1910s-1920s. Such a miracle-shrouded story of a "prophet," "hermit," "wanderer," and "pilgrim" would be embodied in his work as an endless lyrical theme, running like a red thread through all periods of his creativity.

In 1921, the Moscow stage in Vasily Sitnikov's life begins, his family settles in the capital. The role of his father, Yakov Danilovich, was enormous in the upbringing of his sons. A characteristic feature of Y.D. Sitnikov was his illiteracy; he mangled unfamiliar and incomprehensible words. There was some hidden, never explained meaning in this, a kind of deliberate, demonstrative ignorance, behind which was hidden the "peasant cunning" well noted by Leo Tolstoy. He always said "filyugan," instead of "starch" – "trahmal," "niversity," "kavhoznik," which drove his sons mad; he couldn't stand being corrected. Such folksy manner became one of the foundations of artist V. Sitnikov's "phonetic writing," which he used in notes to his students' drawings, letters, notes, and even the titles of his own paintings.

According to his brother Nikolai, as a boy, Vasily ran to the market, the legendary Sukharevka, to look at antique shops. The passion for rare things, and later for collecting them, was formed in Vasily from childhood. Sitnikov stood spellbound before the antique dealers' shops, examining the canvases of landscape painters – Kuindzhi and Tropinin. From Moscow's junk dealers, he acquired an enviable ability to collect interesting things; he began to develop a taste for collecting.

Probably practicing independently and copying subjects, V.Y. Sitnikov soon achieved a considerable level of mastery for his teenage years, and already in 1928, he was noticed by the master of Soviet fine arts, President of the Academy of Arts I.I. Brodsky, who had briefly stopped in Moscow. However, Vasily did not agree to become the master's student and independently took his first independent steps in art. Given the peculiarities of Vasily's upbringing in the family, the rejection and non-acceptance of Soviet power by his father, he could never have become an artist following the postulates of official ideology.

The artist's youth was spent in the environment of Sretensky Boulevard, where a special creative atmosphere reigned. In his youth, Vasily Sitnikov quickly found friends: Nikolai Deni, son of a famous caricaturist, brothers Alexei and Anastas Spendiarov, descendants of the legendary composer. Vasily noted the fantastic grotesque of caricature images while visiting at his friend Nikolai's house, the son of Soviet artist Viktor Deni. V. Deni's caricatures were in "Pravda," in "Krokodil" and many other magazines, as well as those of his friend Dmitry Moor, another Soviet caricature artist who excellently drew God Sabaoth, angels, Satan for anti-religious publications. Looking at the drawings, V. Sitnikov already had a clear understanding of satire by that time; he developed an interest in caricature and grotesque images.

By the mid-1930s, Vasily Sitnikov achieved, in his opinion, certain success in drawing, but did not enter any higher art institution. In autumn 1934, he went to the Northern Capital. All his attempts to enter were unsuccessful, and he found the only consolation in his trip – visiting the Hermitage and viewing Dutch painting: Jacob van Ruisdael, Adriaen van Ostade, Gerard ter Borch, and the "teacher" Rembrandt. After an unsuccessful attempt to pass exams in Leningrad, V. Sitnikov spent the whole year (1934/35) preparing to enter the Art Institute (named after Surikov) in Moscow, but, unfortunately, having passed the mandatory disciplines, he did not pass the general education subjects and was not admitted.

The sphere of interests of twenty-year-old Vasily Sitnikov included invention, work with three-dimensional form, its manufacture. Sitnikov entered the river technical school in the navigation department (1933), where he became fascinated with making models of sailing ships; his talent as an inventor first manifested itself in creating a single-seat kayak. Inner energy did not allow the artist to abandon creative searches, and together with Dmitry Lukhmanov, director of the Transport Museum at the Riga Station, he restored models of various vessels. The artist had a talent for creating three-dimensional forms, models; he approached volume modeling with special thoroughness.

Being undoubtedly gifted, Vasily gets work and enjoys respect at the Mosfilm studio, earning well, developing his artistic talent. In 1935, he works in the group of animation director A.L. Ptushko. V. Sitnikov's mastery in working with director A.L. Ptushko, for example in "Gulliver's Travels," was not in creating props, but in a kind of artistic installations, the art of composition of black and white films. V. Sitnikov as a composition master encompasses spaces with a single glance; such a technique would continue in his series of panoramic landscapes. Another important feature of V.Y. Sitnikov that manifested during those years was the artist's compositional thinking.

As his brother Nikolai notes, the lack of earnings, failures, engaging in menial work psychologically affected Vasily, and during this time (1936-1937), his character began to deteriorate. The artist took as a basis for his statements the read treatise of the Florentine writer, philosopher, thinker, and ideologist N. Machiavelli's "The Prince." Such a choice speaks of dogmatic thinking, his authoritarianism, experience of suggestion, of perceiving "The Prince" as a kind of revelation that should have helped him become a famous artist. The artist's despotism would manifest in his methods of teaching drawing, requiring unquestioning obedience.

The period of 1937-1938 relates to intense work in drawing from nature in the amateur art studio at MOSKh, where classes were led by I. Mashkov's student, master of socialist realism P.P. Sokolov-Skalya.

In 1937, V. Sitnikov, trying again, does not enter the Art Institute and a year later, in 1938, becomes a laboratory assistant, assistant to art history lecturers in one of the best higher art educational institutions in Russia at that time, showing glass slides on a huge projector, "lantern." The young laboratory assistant nicknamed "Vaska the Lamplighter" immediately attracts the attention of leading professors, among whom was V.N. Lazarev, as well as outstanding artists – institute head S. Gerasimov and student Y. Kugach.

V. Sitnikov actively attended life drawing classes with students from 1938; the atmosphere of the high professional school influenced the master's future artistic activity. He continued painting studies at the Art Institute, where he began taking consultations from S. Gerasimov. At that time, the master reveals himself as a subtle lyricist; painterly impressionism is expressed very organically. S. Gerasimov's work reflected post-revolutionary upheavals and troubles – primarily in the recurring motifs of the Luzhetsky Monastery neighboring his house, destroyed and barbarically ravaged after its closure in 1926. Gerasimov's personality and creative method as a landscape painter had an enormous influence on young Sitnikov, which served to develop his own lyrical landscape line.

The formation of V. Sitnikov's painting manner was influenced by frequent visits in the late 1930s to the State Museum of New Western Art (GMNZI), where he went to look at paintings by Rembrandt, Degas, Manet, Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne, Picasso, Watteau, and Turner. Being an educated person, Sitnikov was interested in Bonnard's painting, chose symbolists, paid attention to the Fauvists – Rouault, Braque, Derain. His observations before visiting the museum were based on postcards, from which he knew the names and works of Gros, Repin, Shishkin, Aivazovsky. V.Y. Sitnikov, who was also fascinated by ancient Russian painting and icon painting, was accustomed to carefully painted pictures. The new Western European art he saw did not fit into his concepts.

Early drawings by V.Y. Sitnikov are male and female portraits from life. The mid-1930s period is characterized by active copying of old masters' drawings – in particular, these are copies of drawings by the Dutch painter and graphic artist Rembrandt. In graphic works, the organic process of form birth from space is often felt. For example, on one of V. Sitnikov's first graphic sheets, with the touching, childlike signature "My Papa" (1933), where his father Y.D. Sitnikov is depicted from life, the features of a beginning brilliant draftsman first vividly manifested in the lively execution of the portrait.

The style and manner of artist V.Y. Sitnikov formed gradually, under the influence of various factors and personalities. Including, thanks to drawing classes at D.N. Kardovsky's school, where Vasily Yakovlevich mastered maximum proximity to nature in creating portraits. From 1939, trials continued at the studio school at the Pedagogical Institute. These are "Female Portrait," "Portrait of an Old Woman," "Male Portrait" (1939). The dryness of graphic pencil drawing, construction, working with hatching on planes did not attract the master. V. Sitnikov accurately copied the faces of models, but at the same time, despite the educational nature of the setup, found a psychological element for each, remaining an artist not indifferent to the depicted nature.

V. Sitnikov never had any specific theoretical manifesto; he did not read articles about art and did not write himself, but only fanatically left endless notes in the margins, along the edge of the drawing; constant practice was the basis of his work. In 1939, the master developed and cultivated an interest in the formal side of creativity.

In 1940-1941, V. Sitnikov created a whole series of small-format painted and graphic self-portraits, in which we see the artist's interest in self-identification: "This is a Self-Portrait" (1940), "Avtoportret" (1940), "Exercise Self-Portrait" (1941). Such artistic self-expression is characteristic of classical art in general; there is an increased interest in facial expressions, displaying individual features, rejection of image idealization. In this series of self-portraits, Sitnikov's inner inclination toward self-irony first appears, which will be embodied in many subsequent creative works. The coloring of the painted self-portraits is executed with a sparse set of shades – red, brown, ochre, but nevertheless, it correlates with the image conveyed by these means. Similar form modeling is present when working with still life, for example, on the reverse side of the cardboard "Avtoportret" ("Still Life with 'Masters of Art' Book and Jug"). Such "two-sidedness" of work can be explained by some frugality of the artist and lack of material, in this case, cardboard, so he resorts to double imaging on one sheet.

V. Sitnikov's first landscapes are his "Steppes," executed in oil on cardboard, small, chamber format, dating to the 1940s: "Steppe," "Rain in the Steppe," "Horseman at Sunset," "Steppe with Sun." Vasily Yakovlevich turns to the traditions of philosophical landscape characteristic of C.D. Friedrich, W. Turner. Many Russian artists of the late 19th – early 20th century reinterpreted and embodied them in their work: A. Kuindzhi, M. Vrubel, V. Borisov-Musatov, P. Kuznetsov, and others. The best artists of Russian romanticism managed to express something more than superficial impressionistic effects.

The theme of wandering and hermitage in V. Sitnikov's work will become inseparable from his constant reference to the Russian romantic landscape. Into the boundless space of the steppes, the master introduces the figure of a person, cast into the vast expanses, where he experiences not just sacred horror and delight but also paradoxically dissolves into nature. Here is the following of A. Dobrolyubov's philosophy, where he is on the verge of some fantastic metaphor – transformation into a tree, into branches flying in the wind, shreds, grasses... Such tragic tension is born inside an absolutely balanced, cold, and motionless space: earth, horizon line, and sky.

In 1941, artist Vasily Sitnikov was removed from classes and sent near Vyazma to construct defensive fortifications — anti-tank ditches, trenches, etc. Battles at that time were already taking place almost near Smolensk, and German planes showered the rear with leaflets calling for surrender and passes for surrendering. Vasily returned from digging defensive fortifications with a whole collection of such leaflets, explaining that it was "for the collection of rare things... Huge admiration in Sitnikov is caused by foreign things, foreign magazines, illustrations, and so on, and in connection with this, an involuntary comparison with all of ours – Soviet comes to his mind."

As a result of such "anti-Soviet" actions, V.Y. Sitnikov was arrested and sent to Lubyanka, as evidenced by the facts of criminal case No. 4904 from the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GA RF), in which V. Sitnikov's interrogation protocol can hardly be called falsified; it indicates the artist's uncompromising attitude toward authority. Vasily, like his father, consciously speaks out against the Soviet regime, especially against collectivization, which destroyed his native village.

The beginning of the war marks the beginning of a difficult period for V. Sitnikov when in 1941-1944, the artist was subjected to arrest. While in detention at Taganka Prison (1942) and awaiting transfer to Kazan, Sitnikov read Homer's poems, Machiavelli's "The Prince," Guicciardini's "Trade" for all seven months while the investigation lasted.

According to the investigation's conclusion, Vasily Sitnikov was sent to Kazan Prison, special block, and then to a psychiatric hospital. It was in Kazan that V. Sitnikov underwent severe trials of fate; his existential experience relates to this stage. Vasily Yakovlevich falls, like many others, under the repressive machine, resulting in the master being isolated from society for four years. Psychologically, this did not affect him; on the contrary, it was in Kazan that Sitnikov continued his own line of creativity, creating numerous sketches from life, interior sketches, portraits, and also tries himself in monumental painting, enjoying the favor of the administration and executing murals for the hospital on Arsky Field.

Artist Vasily Sitnikov at this time consciously tests himself with madness, provoking an incorrect diagnosis: "At present, it is found: in his statements tends to reasoning, use of flowery expressions, tends to overestimate his personality, considers himself a great artist, that he is very talented, he must produce works equal in power to the works of Repin and other famous artists. By character considers himself a shy, timid person, loves solitude. Based on the above, the commission concludes that V.Y. Sitnikov suffers from mental illness in the form of schizophrenia. In relation to the action incriminated to him, committed in mental illness, Sitnikov V.Y. should be considered insane." But on the other hand, the artist thereby provokes an exit into the irrational world, passing these trials of "mental illness," begins to peer into this alien life, tries to understand it, penetrate its mystery, comprehend its crushing power like the great masters.

A characteristic work of that time - "Mentally Ill Writer" (1943) - the master sharply noted the tragedy of the portrayed person's personality; Sitnikov leaves this drawing unfinished. Accurate transmission of the image, mad gaze, dirty clothes, and matted volume of manuscripts – and the unfinished lower half of the writer's face, lack of mouth drawing. American collector of Russian art Norton Dodge recalled that he was enormously impressed by this particular portrait, which is why he acquired it for his collection.

In the self-portrait of 1943, the artist is depicted at the most difficult time for himself – when he was on the verge of life and death. During the years of "repressive isolation," many factors could have affected V.Y. Sitnikov's psyche: medicinal intervention, isolation from society, his usual environment. At that moment, his self-perception was terrible; he felt himself on the verge of death and depicted himself in the drawing as if dissolved in space. Volume disappears, along with it disappears the certainty of the world; it becomes blurred, deprived of foundation, core. Expression is particularly felt in the artist's desire to catch, capture something dissolved in the environment of the psychiatric hospital.

At the same time, parallel to constant work on sketches from life, Vasily Sitnikov turns to depicting Orthodox churches. One of the first pencil drawings on paper – "Churches" (1942-1944), small format – 11 x 15.5, bears a schematic, unclear, sketchy character. In the drawing, among empty space in the right part of the sheet, an Orthodox church is linearly depicted with hints of architectural details, and in the distance, less clearly, the silhouette of another is visible. Probably, according to the artist's concept, this is an image of a village parish church. In the left part of the sheet, slightly closer to the center of the composition, one can see the image of a horse with a cart, from which the silhouette of a person walking toward the church moves away.

V. Sitnikov returns to Moscow from Kazan in 1944. The artist's subsequent maturation was difficult after consciously undertaken trial, the war years, and then the death of his father in 1949, whom Vasily especially revered. These circumstances influenced the formation of thirty-year-old Sitnikov's character. The post-war period (1945-1950) is devoted to independently building drawing and painting experience through visiting studios of old school masters, particularly A. Fonvizin and R. Falk.

From 1944, symbolic images of freedom began appearing in V. Sitnikov's work: a running figure with hands raised to the sky in prayer, a bird soaring over the steppe expanses (inscription: "Enlarge the drawing on the photograph maximally," 1945), a flying wind god figure copied from Renaissance masters' paintings, and numerous dynamic drawings of horsemen galloping through boundless fields. These motifs appear in numerous graphic drawings where V. Sitnikov embodies his feelings, primarily his deeply desired and anticipated sense of liberation. The drawing "Thanksgiving Prayer of a Liberated Man in the Warm Grassy Steppe" (1944) depicts a freed man running through the steppe with hands raised to the sky, calling to God in prayer. Here we see the master's constant irony and duality characteristic of V. Sitnikov, along with Russian mockery: "Text: Drawing 2 from 1944. Thanksgiving prayer of a liberated man in the expanse of warm grassy steppe. 4 liters of water per 1 kg of sugar, 300 g yeast for 4 days."

The landscape "Steppe with Sun" from the same year depicts nature's transition from day to night, expressing the artist's free breathing and symbolizing the beginning of a new stage in Vasily Yakovlevich's life and work. Throughout the 19th century, landscape painting acquired its national Russian character, with a gradual and indirect path toward establishing a lyrical image of Russian nature in the consciousness of artists and viewers, extending from the work of A.K. Savrasov, F.A. Vasiliev, and I.I. Levitan to artists of the turn of the century. During this time, the principle of plein air painting achieved final victory in the landscape genre, and almost all authors came to recognize the necessity of infusing chosen motifs with emotions and feelings, which inevitably led to interest in depicting transitional states in Russian nature.

"Horsemen" was a characteristic theme in V. Sitnikov's work during 1947-1949, which the author never returned to in subsequent years. These are album-format graphic sheets executed in pencil, accompanied by the author's comments: "Horseman" (inscription: "07.11.1947 20:15. Again, as before the war, unwillingly (though I am irresistibly drawn to it) I predict war tomorrow, I am drawn again to make a horseman, this will be partisan Vershi Gora." Below: "Eagle in the steppe, horse, apple tree, oak, ruins, flowers, sunrise, sunset, cart, woman with bundle, grave, etc."); "Rode Away Forever" (inscription: "It turns out Konenkov also did this theme, calling it 'Liberated Man.' On the reverse: 'Erotic Scene.' Inscription: 'Concert for Piano and Orchestra by Rimsky-Korsakov'"), "Horseman 1948-IX-27," "Horseman. Approximately like this... 1948-I-23," "Horseman in the Steppe. 1949.XI.5."

By the late 1940s, a series of erotic scenes emerged, where the artist first introduced his self-portrait into a genre composition of two figures ("Erotic Scene" on the reverse of "Rode Away Forever," "Eros," 1947). Through the sensual sphere, the author experiences his own erotic sensations in his art. The series reveals the artist's personal experience and feelings, serving as a kind of symbolic diary. In the early 1950s, this theme was transformed by Vasily Sitnikov into active work with female nude models, where in rare cases the master would add a male figure.

In 1948-1949, Vasily Yakovlevich perfected the contourless drawing method in sketching, working with shading according to form without preliminary construction. In portrait sketches, drawing from life disappeared; Sitnikov was interested in the formal side, studying "form in space," where he saw sitters' heads only as forms for quick work. This is a series of quick ink sketches on paper: "Exercise. Face. 1948-IV-3," "Head. 1948-IV-13, Profile," "Highlights. 1949-IV-20," "I'm mastering it! 1949-IV-20" (in this work, Sitnikov's rejection of personalizing the depicted subject is particularly evident), "Exercise. Heads. 1949-IV-15," "Back of Head. Hairstyle. 1949-IV-11," "Sitting Figure. 1949-IV-1." The master actively turned to studying form, generalized quick drawing of the human head, without focusing on personal features, face, entirely skipping details.

In the 1949 self-portrait, we no longer see the image of artist V.Ya. Sitnikov disappearing in space. His own portrait is executed with confident shading without contour; for the first time, he depicts himself as jubilant, triumphant, acknowledging his own success. "Self-portrait. 1949-3-30" can be called pivotal, as it marks V. Sitnikov's transition to a new stage of life and creativity, the beginning of his own independent creative path. The reverse sides themselves carry traits of a specific epoch and serve as documents. On the white field of the pencil drawing, instead of usual comments and notes about work done, he leaves a biblical line: "MENE TEKEL UPHARSIN" ("Numbered, Weighed, Divided") – those magical words addressed to Belshazzar, interpreted by wise men as a prophecy of the Babylonian kingdom's fall.

The beginning of his independent creative path is characterized by the period of the "first academy" existence at 3/13 Rybnikov Lane. During this period, from 1951, Vasily Yakovlevich concentrated on two directions. Having felt himself a master ("I cynically awarded myself the title of professor of all professors and appointed myself director of the Academy of Arts"), significantly "trained" enough to teach others, the artist began forming his own school, offering his students to master the directions he had mastered himself in previous years.

Vasily Sitnikov's participation in Moscow's cultural life of the 1950s - early 1960s is considered in connection with the general revival of creative atmosphere in the years following Stalin's death. The 1957 World Youth Festival for Sitnikov was associated with the opportunity to hold the first exhibition of students at the MSU Student Club on Mokhovaya Street. The revival of the Pushkin Museum and Western art exhibitions were also important here. It was during this time that V. Sitnikov gradually gained the status of a professional artist and teacher.

After his release from the Kazan hospital, Vasily Yakovlevich Sitnikov was deprived of his passport, not allowed to marry (hence the large number of mythical wives), and was considered mentally ill by the authorities. He needed a guardian, a role fulfilled by Vladimir Moroz, a student at the Art Institute, from the early 1950s.

Vladimir Moroz was the son of high-ranking Soviet officials, constantly moving in Moscow's high society circles among military personnel, musicians, dancers, and journalists. Presumably, one of the motives for approaching V.Ya. Sitnikov was Tolstoyism. By that time, V. Moroz's circle of acquaintances included O. Prokofiev, son of the famous composer S.S. Prokofiev, artists L.F. Zhegin, and A.V. Fonvizin. It's worth noting that V. Moroz was by then the personal assistant to pianist Sviatoslav Richter.

In the late 1950s environment, with V. Moroz's help, V. Sitnikov gained the opportunity to collect antiquities, make joint trips to the North, buying Orthodox icons, church utensils, and antiques. We have no direct evidence, but attribution might have been provided by Art Institute professors – prominent specialists M.V. Alpatov and V.N. Lazarev. Professor Lazarev, a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1943), specialized in the history of ancient Russian and Byzantine painting. This time coincided with scientific research, discoveries, and undertaken research expeditions.

V. Moroz's role was also notable in the establishment of V. Sitnikov's "academy," as unofficial culture of the 1950s-1960s was organized on the principle of private acquaintances. Artist Sitnikov did not belong to any association; his "academy" was an example of an individual artistic project where personal connections and friendly relations played a special role. It was a hermetic world, closed to outsiders.

The first direction in the master's work can be designated as formal, performed primarily in graphics, aimed at conveying three-dimensional form in space. The formal practice of drawing between teacher and students consisted of executing gradients, followed by rounded forms – sphere, plaster head, nude female torso. The second direction concerned the painting cycle, expressed through themes reproduced from memory and triggered by the artist's mental and emotional state, liberation of the sensual sphere hidden in personal experience, an attempt to reach one's own sensations through imagination.

With the beginning of pedagogical activity in 1951, V.Ya. Sitnikov constantly "showed" the basics of drawing to his students: "I teach because knowledge and experience literally burst out of me. I have been teaching since 1940 (break from 1941 to 1951) and from 1951 to this day. I give away my knowledge, which I obtained through hard 25-year work by countless trials and revisions and reinforcement exercises, without mentors, 'by feeling.'" We notice the emergence of a continuous process that becomes the essence of joint work: the student begins, the master picks up and continues the work.

It is known that one could only get into artists' studios by recommendation; however, it was Vasily Sitnikov who, in his apartment-studio from the early 1950s, readily accepted all willing students and literally hypnotized them, subjected them to drawing, tried to liberate them and rid them of complexes. Joint works can be traced in drawing studies with rounded form. In the work "Sphere" (1957), three-dimensional form in space is achieved through perfect light-and-shadow modeling via pencil gradients from highlight to shadow without preliminary construction and notches. Within the framework of working with "form in space" for student studies, Sitnikov chose a plaster head, deliberately giving assignments not for form construction but to apply non-constructive drawing, not working on the facial part, preliminarily covering the facial part from above with an ordinary cloth: "Exercise. Plaster Head. 14/XII-55," "Exercise. Plaster Head. 1956-VIII-1," "Head" (1957). These exercises show the initial joint practice; the master thus shows students his drawing principle.

Work with the nude female torso begins from 1951, where in the pencil drawing "Nude Model. Torso in Half-Turn" V. Sitnikov, actively making internal hatching, consciously avoids detailed drawing of the head, neck, arms, hands, ankles, and feet, making it one of the first student practical manuals. On this sheet, the master first demonstrates the basic principles of depicting torso as "form in space." He shows these rules in sketches: "Leaning on Elbow. 1951-XI-12," "Sitting with Back Turned. 1956-X-19," "Sitting with Back Turned. 1956-XI-1."

The artist was little interested in precise hatching according to form, characteristic of academic drawing. Vasily Yakovlevich experimented with his own techniques that weakened the rational approach to drawing. He used hatching less and less; in 1956-1957, Vasily Sitnikov introduced the technique of "micropointillism" in oil on paper, preferring a more durable material – oil paint over pencil, charcoal, or sauce. He placed small dotted strokes of liquid single-color oil paint on the paper surface with a dry brush, using a wide-format flat brush. To master pointillist technique and smooth gradients from light to shadow perfectly, Sitnikov and his students chose large format sheets, minimum 60 x 80 cm, for work. He achieved highlights and light surfaces without white paint, only by erasing with an eraser on convex areas. The shoe brush was a tool invented and mythologized by V.Ya. Sitnikov as a replacement for the brush, so elevated in those years by socialist realism masters.

In the mid-1950s, V. Sitnikov turned to Greek myth – "The Rape of Europa" (inscription on the reverse: "A true artist must create both the posterior and the face of the Madonna equally, holding his breath in admiration of beauty"), continuing the erotic series of drawings begun in the late 1940s. By the late 1950s, joint work on nude models in Sitnikov's studio was characterized by dynamic poses, angles (graphic sheets: "Sitting Nude 1958-I-31," "Nude 1959-IX-19"), emphasized plasticity of the female body, complexity of compositional arrangement on the sheet, and expression.

The composition of the "first academy" in Rybnikov Lane was quite heterogeneous. Undoubtedly, the impact of the "professor of all professors" personality was great. V.Ya. Sitnikov paid special attention to emotional state, expression, strongly psychologically influenced his first studio students, among whom was the famous Moscow hypnologist Viktor Raikov, who himself underwent such hypnosis from teacher Vasily Yakovlevich; the studio was visited by thirty-year-old painter V. Veisberg, to whom Sitnikov gave a four-hour lesson without break; the teacher gave recommendations to beginning artist V. Yakovlev, who worked in the "Art" editorial office. But in reality, the best students for V. Sitnikov were beginners, those who had never studied anywhere, didn't know academic techniques, but wanted to draw: G. Makudinova (Amalrik), A. Kharitonov, Yu. Vedernikov. They unconditionally accepted the principles and authoritarian methods of teacher V.Ya. Sitnikov and followed him.

Artist Yuly Vedernikov (born 1943), deaf-mute from birth, studied in V.Ya. Sitnikov's studio. The Vedernikov family, particularly Yuly's aunts – Marcella and Irma, were very close to Robert Falk and attended classes in his studio. In 1958, with the master's death, "there was no one and nothing to replace him... For Falk, COLOR was paramount. For Sitnikov, color was secondary; FORM IN SPACE was primary." The acquaintance took place in 1962. V.Ya. Sitnikov wrote: "What is drawing? How should one draw? One must draw in the MIND. To facilitate and accelerate learning to draw, one MUST! ABSOLUTELY!! Eradicate in oneself all concern about proportions, for this concern is premature and only constrains and cultivates in the student fears and apprehensions about how it might turn out 'bad' and 'unlike.' Eradicate everything except the single concern ABOUT FORM IN SPACE, and this must be learned first of all. I continued to work and worked for another two hours in a state close to shock. Mastering the dry brush method."

The second direction in V. Sitnikov's work, based on his inner sensations, subconscious, on themes caused by "awakening of memory," on the hidden, secret side of his personality – these are works created by the master himself. The reproduction of images in genre scenes and portraits is built on the artist's psychic, emotional impressions of what he saw, resulting in such experiences being embodied in drawings from memory.

Analyzing the series of women's portraits from the 1950s-1960s, we note that artist V. Sitnikov demonstrates different manners. In watercolor drawings "Portrait of Olga" (1950), "Portrait of Sister Tamara" (1951), "Portrait of Rita Krutilina" (1962), the influence of A. Fonvizin's painting, with whom Sitnikov maintained contact and visited his studio, is clearly felt. In some portraits, for example, "Portrait of Shurochka" (1953), "Female Portrait" (1955), there is still a noticeable tendency toward heightened naturalism characteristic of D. Kardovsky's school. This technique would be vividly expressed in the depiction of people crowding near majestic monasteries in Sitnikov's "metaphysical" canvases in the 1970s.

The satirical series of linear graphic drawings from 1963, close to folk folklore and lubok, is expressed in small ironic pictures and caricatures: this includes the self-portrait "Your Loving Husband Vasya," the series "Eight Illustrations to Russian Cuisine for V.Ya. Sitnikov's Book" ("Those times when we ate soup with bast shoes are gone," "A bucket of water replaces 100 grams of butter," "Everything useful that fits in the mouth," "Going seven miles for kissel," "Lean soup – you could wash trousers in it. 1963-IX-20," "You'll lick your fingers," self-portrait "Good porridge but small bowl," "This soup only makes your belly swell").

Abstraction held great interest for V.Ya. Sitnikov (one of his rare abstractions dates to 1956). Sitnikov did not engage in abstract painting, preferring figurative plasticity and work with form, but he knew how to explain it well and convey its principles to others. Many students of his school later became abstract artists: A. Kirtsova, V. Kazmin, A. Sheko, B. Myshkov, and others.

V.Ya. Sitnikov's work paradoxically embodied modernist searches with references to Western European culture, while simultaneously the artist was fascinated by reconstructions of rejected or forbidden languages of art from the past (turning to ancient Russian and Byzantine painting). Earlier than many of his peers, still under the Stalin regime, in the years of repression, Sitnikov made small pencil sketches of churches, and in 1952 created intimate works in oil on cardboard: "Church 1" and "Church 2." Gradually in the 1950s, the first painting cycles of churches and monasteries lost in the space of fields emerged in his work. These series are sparse in coloring; the main point here is conveying the atmosphere of space, with a small church at the center of the composition. The first "monasteries" by V.Ya. Sitnikov date to the early 1960s; they are modest in content and composition.

Work on romantic landscape continued in the 1950s - early 1960s. Vasily Sitnikov, following romantic principles, turned to landscape, creating a new cycle – panoramas. The depiction of empty space in paintings became one of the important themes in unofficial culture of the 1970s. For Vasily Sitnikov, the theme of emptiness, tense space filled with mystical light, emerged much earlier, in the mid-1940s, and continued into the 1960s. A characteristic work of the early period is "Field" (1962), with altered angle of view, diagonal inclination, panoramic vision, and cosmic perspective. The landscape was conceived by V.Ya. Sitnikov as panoramic, with a broad embrace of space.

In the space of the field, the theme of wandering and V. Sitnikov's personal solitude sounds with a special, touching intonation, where the artist himself acts as both subject and object: "Lost?" (1960), "Song in the Field" (1960), "Self-portrait with Balalaika" (1961), sketches for the painting "Russian Little Tale" (1962). In one of the first works of the period, "Lark. I Walk Carefree... 1951.IV.9," there is no drawing of personal features of the wanderer in the field, whereas in the early 1960s, artist V. Sitnikov becomes the main protagonist.

By the early 1960s, Vasily Sitnikov lost his main income – in 1959, he was dismissed from his position as assistant lecturer at the Art Institute due to conflict and sharp statements directed at USSR Minister of Culture N.A. Mikhailov. The artist's activities became concentrated on studio work, teaching, communication with collectors and foreign public, participation in apartment exhibitions. Communication with diplomats and Western public played a catalytic role in innovative processes taking place in fine arts in the early 1960s. Sitnikov became acquainted with Nina Andreevna Stevens (Bondarenko), wife of an American journalist and collector of nonconformist art.

Nina Stevens was one of the first to pay large sums for Soviet artists' paintings. In the late 1950s, Nina Andreevna and her husband Edmund moved to a huge mansion in Gagarin Lane. V. Sitnikov, who lived in cramped conditions, gained the opportunity to work on large canvases in the Stevens' private mansion, enjoying their patronage. Here occurred the first acquaintances with foreign buyers, predominantly diplomats.

1962 was a time of triumph in Vasily Yakovlevich Sitnikov's work, when his confidence in his own powers and self-esteem increased. His works, through Jimmy Ernst, son of famous surrealist M. Ernst, entered the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA): "Song in the Field," "Summer Day" ("Lark's Song"), "Field," "Adam and Eve." For an artist of the Moscow underground, who worked under constant restrictions expressed in the impossibility of holding exhibitions or showing his own works at official venues, inclusion in the collection of the famous museum of modern art meant a great deal and heralded the master's triumph.

Today we can understand that the works of nonconformist Vasily Sitnikov could have been valued by foreign collectors as unique "diaries," as examples of Soviet nonconformism. For the artist himself in those years, this was a sign of highest recognition in the world art space. Such victory generated illusory ideas about Western life for a Soviet artist in Vasily Yakovlevich's consciousness in the early 1960s, laying the foundation for thoughts about emigrating to the West. This illusion, ten years later, became one of the reasons for his escape from the USSR, which ultimately ended in the artist's deep disappointment with Western life and the tragedy of V.Ya. Sitnikov's final years spent in New York.

Unfortunately, during the 1950s-1960s, under the established political circumstances, the art of "underground" artists, especially "loner" masters who had entered it, was not included in the sphere of interest of official Soviet art history, which prevented objective evaluation of the master's work and generally excluded his existence from the picture of Soviet art in the second half of the 20th century.

The first book by American researchers P. Sjeklocha and I. Mead in English, "Unofficial Art in the Soviet Union," was published in Los Angeles in 1967. The publication first designated a special category of unofficial Soviet art – "social outcasts," which included artist V. Sitnikov. The catalog section presented an analysis of the artist's aesthetic program and works from the late 1940s - early 1960s. The release of E. Crispolti and G. Moncada's catalog "La nuova arte sovietica. Una prospettiva non ufficiale" ("New Soviet Art. An Unofficial Movement") was timed to coincide with the group showing of "unofficial" Soviet artists' works in the Russian Pavilion at the International Art Biennale in Venice in 1977. Also, countries showing undoubted interest in Sitnikov's creative heritage can be quite clearly identified. These are the USA, Italy, Germany, Great Britain, and others. Paradoxically, American studies in the field of Soviet unofficial art are particularly important, while Sitnikov himself, having emigrated to the USA in 1980, remains unclaimed.

By the 1960s, artist Vasily Sitnikov was already well-known, despite the private nature of his "academy." The teacher himself, the guru, was in excellent physical shape at fifty years old. We can assess the situation and see many psychological moments: undisguised narcissism prevailed in the master, along with theatrical self-admiration, shocking behavior, and humor characteristic of him.

Underground readings and apartment exhibitions, the tradition of visiting artists' studios were not just a way of existence for unofficial culture dictated by external conditions, but also defined important aesthetic parameters. In one of his letters to his brother Nikolai, Vasily Sitnikov emphasized the fundamental importance of live contact with an artist and the mandatory direct visit to their studio.

In the 1960s, private dialogue with artists or writers developed into closed apartment exhibitions. Aida Khmeleva (Sycheva) maintained an apartment-salon on Rozhdestvensky Boulevard in the mid-1960s. Another hostess of such a "salon" was, according to I. Dudinsky's memories, Ekaterina Sergeevna Fride (Madame Fride), where young people were especially welcomed, and the atmosphere of meetings was most relaxed and democratic, where V.Ya. Sitnikov himself was a frequent visitor. Student Elena Barinova, a friend of E.S. Fride, asserts that "Vaska the Lamplighter" joked and pretended to be poor, but he was a genuine art historian. Many prominent figures bought underground artists' paintings, and some even organized exhibitions in their homes: writer I. Ehrenburg, pianist Sv. Richter, literary scholar L. Pinsky, composer and organist A. Volkonsky, theater director L. Rumnev, and medical academicians Myasnikov and Burakovsky.

In 1965, V. Sitnikov was invited to participate in a poetry evening of the "Union of Young Geniuses" (SMOG) association. The SMOG poetry evening was held at the D.A. Furmanov Library on Begovaya Street, accompanied by an exhibition of works by V. Sitnikov, N. Nedbailo, N. Senkevich, and others. In November 1966, a similar exhibition of Moscow nonconformist artists was organized at the Moscow Institute of Occupational Health and Professional Diseases of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, featuring M. Grobman, V. Sitnikov, A. Zverev, V. Kropivnitskaya, and others.

In the 1960s, among collectors, the figure of George Dionisovich Costakis (Kostakis) was particularly notable, who by that time had acquired works by A. Zverev, D. Plavinsky, V. Nemukhin, L. Masterkova, and others, however, Vasily Sitnikov's works did not enter his collection. The artist served as an icon painting expert for G.D. Costakis, thanks to Sitnikov, the collector acquired many monuments of ancient Russian painting. Vasily Yakovlevich's works were purchased by N. and E. Stevens, collector A. Glezer, and Professor F. Miele. Alexander Glezer achieved remarkable results in popularizing Soviet underground art: he organized a literary and artistic journal, museums in Paris and New Jersey, numerous exhibitions, and various events similar to the Russian Seasons.

In 1969, V. Sitnikov met Professor Franco Miele from Rome. Miele purchased a series of works from him and then organized a retrospective exhibition of Vasily Sitnikov's works in the Italian city of Avezzano (Mostra antologica di Vasilij Sitnikov. Opere dal 1931 al 1971).

By the mid-1960s, we note some changes in Vasily Sitnikov's stylistic structure of painting. First of all, with the arrival of the 60s, the coloring of his works changed, showing a duality in approach to color: alongside the monochrome series, work with color is clearly defined. Vasily Yakovlevich paid special attention to so-called preparations on toned paper, which served as a basis for light-and-shadow modeling through highlight erasure. Such a foundation was used in painting both nude models and panoramic landscapes. Sitnikov actively employed the dry brush method with black or blue transparent oil paint on paper, actively working with a flat brush, often using an ordinary shoe brush, achieving a uniform gradient effect across the entire sheet space through the technique of "micropointillism."

It's worth noting that some directions begun earlier continued, but new ones also emerged. Vasily Yakovlevich, together with his students, continued the main direction of educational studies started in the 1950s: working with gradients, sphere, and the female nude figure. The "Nude" in the mature period lost its self-value as a separate work, becoming a simple "lesson," homework, or preparation for quick execution and mastery by the student. In the mature period, the master also continued the landscape theme, lyrical and romantic, independently addressing the theme of man and world. In landscape themes, there is V.Ya. Sitnikov's beloved image of the Russian village, his native Novo-Rakitino, which characterizes the artist as a subtle lyricist, similar to village prose writers.

However, the landscape featuring a solitary church in the space of fields transformed with the beginning of the master's mature creative period. If, looking at the early period, we can speak of initial attempts, by the mid-1960s the situation changed. The landscape theme depicting an idyllic solitary church unexpectedly transformed, absorbing grotesque, Russian absurdity (reflected in Ven. Erofeev's poem "Moscow-Petushki"), becoming an independent direction with its own stylistics, authorial polyphony, expressed in the series of monasteries. Before artist V. Sitnikov in this period arose a new task – to convey the theme of absurdity through maximum artistic means and expressiveness of drawing, to juxtapose in one space two worlds: worldly images of the human crowd, for whom V. Sitnikov made numerous portraits from life, and the divine, majestic silhouette of the Russian monastery reigning over the disorder.

The continuation of pedagogical activity went through two stages: in the studio on Malaya Lubyanka Street (1964-1969) and in a small apartment on Ibragimova Street (1969-1975). V.Ya. Sitnikov was surrounded by numerous students, working constantly in his apartment-studio. He came to the process of complete joint creativity, this period being characterized by such interpenetration. After completing work with a lesson or exercise, Sitnikov usually took them for himself (or bought them, paying money for good pieces) and rarely allowed students to keep anything.

The artist's own works from the beginning of this period were executed as theoretical postulates for students due to Vasily Sitnikov's unwillingness to write any manifestos. A characteristic feature here is the teacher's text running along the edge of the sheet or within the drawing composition itself, written in pencil or pen, with enlarged font in some places to attract the reader's attention, emphasizing important principles of how to properly build the process of working with various forms.

Continuing the "nude" series, by the mid-1960s V. Sitnikov maximally generalized it, transforming it into a more conventional image for quick mastery and study. A programmatic oil drawing "Figure" (1964) on a relatively large sheet of paper (95 x 70 cm) marks the finally formed three-dimensional technical approach. This is the principle of form integrity as a key principle of form-making for the artist, borrowed from Henry Moore's sculptures. This typically means depicting figures only frontally, in profile, or from behind, with static poses and absence of model detailing. The work is executed in micropointillism, transparent oil paint with highlight erasure and volume creation.

Further, we see how inseparable the creativity of Vasily Yakovlevich himself and his students became. "Figure" becomes an ideal teaching aid, whose principles V. Sitnikov applies with students in drawings like "Lesson to Valentin Tar" (1964), "Lesson to Gyuzel Makudinova" (1964), and other exercises. In rare cases, the "figure" was given portrait characteristics by Sitnikov himself (one might say, completed), as in "Portrait of Anastasia Stevens" (1965). Works from 1968 show the master's fascination with relief surface. The figure stands out volumetrically on the sheet surface, like a relief. V. Sitnikov worked with students deliberately without observing proportions, when the female model emerged with enlarged body proportions, reminiscent of Paleolithic Venuses.

The teacher's own works during this period are characterized by complex poses and angles of the "nude" ("Danaë," 1967, "Crouching Nude (Fear)," 1970). Such compositions could be drawn by V.Ya. Sitnikov himself. Students, as noted before, worked only in three projections, drawing simple poses, depicting views from front, back, and side: "Correcting M. Dm. Sterligova's homework," "Lesson to Boris Myshkov."

During the period of the "third academy" in the apartment on Ibragimov Street in Moscow, Vasily Yakovlevich clearly formulated a sequence of assignments for students, through which one could quickly achieve proper creation of three-dimensional form in space. V.Ya. Sitnikov initially gave new students the task of executing several uniform gradients from light to shadow (in pencil, ballpoint pen, or oil – "Lesson to Volodya Kazmin. Gradient. 1971-VII-I"), and then to create a sphere on a large format paper sheet. Student Sergei Zemlyakov studied such a sphere in large format, about a meter ("Sphere," 1972), which the teacher later took for himself. Zemlyakov achieved ideal smoothness of light-and-shadow gradient along the sphere's form, erasing light with an eraser on paper, endlessly continuing the work. V. Sitnikov's method "implied constant improvement, endless modeling with his invented technique, which could never achieve complete perfection."

Teacher V. Sitnikov taught his student Vladimir Kazmin gradient technique. Subsequently, the artist completely abandoned figurative work, transitioning to non-objectivity, abstraction. Using the tonal technique mastered in V. Sitnikov's studio, he structured space through light. Kazmin achieved pure embodiment of spiritual, borderline, metaphysical state. He continued and developed Sitnikov's theme of light birth, mastered the teacher's dry brush technique, which allows for very thin paint layer, making the painting immaterial.

In the late 1960s - early 1970s, "academic" studies in the figure work stage were maximally simplified, depicting only the middle part of the female torso, with students working on large format sheets: "Lesson to Bondarev Volodya 1968-XII-5," "Lesson to Katya Osipova. 1970-IV-5," "Lesson to Myshkov. 1970-XII-27," "Exercise. Lesson to Titov. 1971," "Lesson No. First to Marina Viktorovna Polskaya," "Exercise. Nude. 200 cm in length" (1972). By the early 1970s, V.Ya. Sitnikov assigned making S-shaped sketches of the nude – the middle part of the torso from the side extending beyond the sheet edge, deliberately omitting the depiction of head, neck, and limbs. Such S-shaped bodies for light-and-shadow modeling had the form of a kind of hose, required only for formal mastery of the method and quick work with the figure.

Another assignment when working with figures can be called sculptural modeling of the entire volume, from head to feet, through gradients, revealing three-dimensional volume with noticeable disregard for proportions. Such depiction was made frontally with convexities, making the figure appear more monumental and whole: "Figure" (first half of 1970s), "Nude from Behind" (first half of 1970s), "Two Figures" (1974), "Figure at Mirror" (1974).

As noted by one of V.Ya. Sitnikov's "third academy" students, Vl. Petrov-Gladky, "the teacher was primarily interested in the problem of light and space. The basis of his system was seeing form in space: there is no contour or line of the object, there is volume with environment. Space and object are built by conditional light going from the artist and viewer into the depth of the painting. External light modeling developed under the influence of impressionism, and based on symbolism principles, special internal luminescence was taken into account. The object's volume is thus built on front, convex, and illuminated points, resulting in internal volume of form."

Here, the interpenetration of students' work and Vasily Sitnikov himself most fully emerges, involving full-fledged joint creativity. But it's worth remembering that themes of works were always set by the master himself. Thus, the landscape line continued with V. Sitnikov and his students in the 1960s - early 1970s, when the artist, based on memories, set themes that also inspired village prose writers addressing Russian roots. V. Sitnikov did not possess conservative archaic thinking or imagery; rather, for all of them, this was a kind of common vector.

Landscape was conceived by V.Ya. Sitnikov as depicting simple life, village, plowed fields converging at the horizon. But fields were not only flat with perspective converging tracks; in landscape motifs, the artist paid attention to "convexities," marking with light the "belly" of the hill ("Field 1974-VI-30"). Students, working according to a certain scheme with rounded form, created preliminary "preparations" for landscapes, and the teacher "finished" the painting to what he considered a quality level.

In landscapes, especially in fields, V.Ya. Sitnikov's reflections on existential, deep philosophical questions were expressed. Here the author understood the sensation of Earth's roundness, the planet. Work with rounded form, with the convex surface of the planet or the womb of the nude, Sitnikov endowed with special symbolic meaning, thereby revealing the mysteries of existence.

In the work "Field 1974-VI-30" we see a transitional state of nature, which Vasily Yakovlevich depicts through an overhanging black rain cloud above the hill. The accent and emphasized attention to the foreground, detailed elaboration of field mixed grass brings to mind the specific "construction" of landscapes by one of the best Russian landscape painters of the second half of the 19th century, F. Vasiliev, to whose work in these pieces, in our view, V. Sitnikov is particularly close. Thus, the composed decorative landscape, close to the style of Russian artist A. Kuindzhi, is often replaced by conflicting landscape state, showing a turning point in nature's life: bad weather, the eve of rain or storm. Following Moscow lyrical landscape painters and Barbizon school masters, Sitnikov depicts transitional periods, transitional times of day – morning and evening, snow falling in twilight.

Student Alena Kirtsova, then wife of artist Igor Kislitsyn, with whom they came together to V. Sitnikov's studio, recalls work on landscapes. She speaks of extraordinary work with details, thanks to which the landscape literally came alive.

Vasily Sitnikov's landscape works are imbued with the theme of wandering and acute sense of nostalgia; the artist could not find his place, felt lonely, had no plans or strategy for the future. In works "I'm Leaving My Native Village" (1970), "One There Another Here" (first half of 1970s), "Where the Curve Leads (The Curve Implies Fate)" (1974), he creates a generalized, melancholic image of his native village steeped in legends, where amid a dreary field on a rainy day rides a chariot. All these works were painted by Sitnikov on horizontally elongated canvases to convey the fullness of panoramic view. This technique was introduced by the author in the early 1960s and perfected over time.

A new motif in Vasily Sitnikov's work from the mid-1960s was working with Orthodox icons. Having by that time already a significant collection of icons, V.Ya. Sitnikov was inspired by artistic imagery and coloring, viewing them as artworks of old masters. The artist manifested himself as a keeper and "curator" of antiquities, acquiring icons and church utensils as valuable antiques. Many of V.Ya. Sitnikov's students subsequently turned to religious non-denominational painting in their work (A. Kharitonov, V. Arkharov-Fredynsky in the 1960s, S. Zemlyakov, brothers Vl. and Vyach. Petrov-Gladky, V. Kazmin in the 1970s), and some became professional icon painters (A. Chashkin).

Vasily Sitnikov, raised in the family of Tolstoyan S. Bogoslovsky, could perceive Christianity as an ethical teaching. The artist was not a church-going person, in mature age did not attend public services, but highly valued Christianity's moral principles. He conceived Orthodoxy as an aesthetic program containing moral values, which also contained the possibility of distancing from the social, collective. In the mid-1960s, V.Ya. Sitnikov turned to the motif of Orthodox miracle – the miraculous icon, the manifested face of the Savior on a board, which he executed with barely perceptible scratching ("Portrait 1964-X-24"). The work resembles a miraculous icon of the Savior or the manifested image on the Shroud of Turin.

In Orthodox motifs, in the manifested miraculous face of the Savior, the artist makes one think about the search for truth, goodness, understanding – the main foundations of Christian teaching. The theme of wandering, one of the main ones in V. Sitnikov's work, sounds here with a new intonation. A wanderer, hermit – prophet, God's messenger on earth, bringing miracles to the world and revealing truth. The miraculous manifestation of the face on the board tells us about the sign, about turning to the foundations of Christianity, to moral and spiritual values.

Vasily Sitnikov approached religious painting beyond denominations, regarding icons as a source of inspiration, valuing the coloring and structure of the work. The rare in its simplicity northern icon "Miracle of Flora and Lavra" from the 17th century depicts a subject beloved in the peasant environment: saints returning stolen horses to shepherds. Such icons attracted Sitnikov's attention. In 1962 he made a sketch, and then based on the sketch in 1965 painted several paintings on the theme of wandering – "Russian Little Tale," where against the background of a gray stormy landscape move four chariots: red, blue, green, and yellow. The torsos of small colored horses, their fairy-tale spirituality, space conveyed by local color – all these are images from the "Miracle of Flora and Lavra" icon from the artist's collection.

Having formed many of his painting techniques under the influence of symbolism, V. Sitnikov developed these principles in his landscape compositions through light-spatial problematics. The master makes the church a central theme of landscape as a symbol of lost but eternal Russia. In his canvases of the late 1960s - early 1970s, he depicts boundless field space, a church or monastery, lost, hidden, dissolved in the idyll of space. Examining the narrative line of church depiction, we see that for the artist it is an important constant attribute of cultural consciousness, a sign of microcosm, defining the main point of the coordinate axis of human existence, the point of origin, and he constantly returns to it: "Monastery of my student Svyatoslav (Vyacheslav) Petrov" (1972), "Monastery in the Field" (1972), "Church on the Meadow" (1973), "Church in Fog 1974-VII-7."

In the mid-1960s, Vasily Yakovlevich Sitnikov worked jointly with artist Vladimir Fredynsky (Arkharov) (b. 1937), who at that time was engaged in restoration, reconstruction of Russian monasteries, fresco painting, particularly working in Zagorsk and Zvenigorod monasteries. V. Arkharov-Fredynsky's painting, inclined to miniature in working out architectural details of the church, principles of which came from Orthodox icon painting, acquired extraordinary precision in elements of the painting.

Having received professional academic education at the Graphic Arts Faculty of Moscow State Pedagogical Institute named after Potemkin and defended his diploma in 1961 under the guidance of N.D. German, V. Arkharov-Fredynsky showed interest in Russian folk art even during his student years, traveling extensively around the country, with ancient architecture becoming the subject of his study.

In the 1960s, Vladimir, along with V. Sitnikov, enjoyed special patronage from collector Nina Stevens. The artist actively participated in apartment exhibitions arranged in the mansion. Nina Andreevna saw his gift for conveying the special spirit of Russian culture through manner inclined to miniature, completeness of plot, detailed elaboration of each detail, similar to ancient Russian icon painting. Vladimir Arkharov-Fredynsky was an artist-theologian, turned to the triumph of life over death, light over darkness. The canvas space for the artist was cosmic; there was no following church everyday life, but the painter's clear knowledge of ritual, atmosphere of Russian folklore was evident, with scenes from simple people's life unfolded in their holy pristineness.

V.Ya. Sitnikov's early monasteries lack clear detail elaboration; they are unclear in construction. Clarity and pronounced appearance of the Orthodox church emerges after joint creativity: "1965-VII-5 'Hello dear Volodya! I want to talk with you as soon as possible about you painting a "monastery" for me and if you agree then how much money should I prepare for your painting and does the price depend on size or some other conditions. I've seen how you work and think that you will quickly whip it up with your flowing hand and it will be interesting for you and here I suddenly decided with my paycheck to get myself your painting. With bow and respect V.Ya. Sitnikov.'"

Vasily Yakovlevich's first monasteries resembled more of an ethnographic reconstruction, but by 1964-1965 the painting composition transforms into a metaphysical image; the master introduces the technique of so-called double painting, narrating about the absurdity of lower and higher worlds' existence in one space. The artist places his ironic, cheerful self-portrait in the painting as an image of creator and observer of what's happening, like a contemplator, a motif from German expressionist painting, in one of the first works "Monastery" ("Folding Icon," 1965). A specially made tone of darkened gray paper or canvas created the basis for conveying thickening twilight and heavy snowfall with множеством small snowflakes covering the surface. The painting of the monastery series is characterized by colorfulness, sophisticated drawing, fairy-tale detail (for example, "Zagorsk Monastery," 1964, or "Kremlin," 1970), special expressiveness of lines characteristic of symbolism imagery.

In the early 1970s, V.Ya. Sitnikov was inclined to speak in his work about absurdity, thereby criticizing the surrounding Soviet reality. Playing with color, he depicts a majestic, fairy-tale monastery reigning over colorful everyday life, surrounded by crowding people, food stalls, and other everyday objects. Images created by the artist combine an unshakeable lyrical tinge and Russian romantic mockery, so-called mockery, in paintings "Moscow" (1972-1973), "Monastery on 'Kudykina' Mountain" (1972), "Monastery of my student Volodya Titov" (1972). Here fully manifests that very "metaphysics," absurdity of existence, substantiated by philosopher and writer Yu.V. Mamleev and embodied in Ven. Erofeev's poem "Moscow-Petushki" with a share of folk folklore.

Writer and philosopher Yuri Mamleev formed the Yuzhinsky circle around himself in the early 1970s. "It was a center for understanding eternal questions of existence, which included E. Golovin, G. Dzhemal, L. Pyatnitskaya, and there were also artists and poets: A. Kharitonov, L. Gubanov, Ven. Erofeev. V.Ya. Sitnikov also visited the circle, and the philosopher, in turn, came to the artist's studio." In the treatise "The Fate of Being," Yu. Mamleev emphasizes the importance of an artist's ability to "transform" philosophical knowledge into an art object. Description of everyday situations as unreal (hidden, transcendent). Depiction of hero-mediators between reality and the otherworld and even in animal images (in V. Sitnikov's case, most often it's the mythical bull – the plot of "The Rape of Europa," etc.).

The hidden ("vile") side of personality expressed by philosopher Yu. Mamleev is manifested in the satirical portrait "Dunka Kulakova" (1972). As artist Vl. Petrov-Gladky notes, Dunka is an image from V. Sitnikov's childhood, resembling a resident of his native village. The master paints Dunka from memory.

Vasily Sitnikov, in one of his works, the painting "Moscow" (begun in 1972), imagined the capital not simply as an ordinary city, but as a sacred city, mystical Kitezh, embodying in its appearance all the paradoxes of history. Moscow in the artist's painting is a hypertrophied architectural image with countless churches, whose domes are crowned by either stars or crosses. The magnificence of the majestic appearance is disrupted by freaks swarming like ants at the foot of the shrines, an ugly human crowd embodying the vices of modern society. Artist Sitnikov played the role of social critic, expressing this dual contrast: between higher spiritual principle and dirty human vices, between the splendor of church buildings and the ugliness of human images.

Characteristic is the artist's own figure, which stands out in scale and active local red color of the hole-ridden undershirt. In the 1970s, Vasily Sitnikov turned to portrait with his characteristic caricature style. These are also self-portraits serving as peculiar sketches for large canvases: "How is Sitnikov Built?" (1973), "Sketch. I'm Drawing a Funny Self-Portrait" (1968-I-4). The artist in the sketch depicted himself in his "signature" rolled-up-to-knees track pants, back to the viewer, sitting on textbooks "Art History," "Anatomy," "History of the CPSU," "Perspective." Sitnikov was not prone to reading theory; from art books, he kept only illustrations, deliberately removing the text. He himself did not write books or treatises; he saw all his art in constant creative practice.

This is exactly how Vasily Yakovlevich depicts himself on the canvas of the large painting, drawing "Moscow": he leaves the huge perspective of the Kremlin with a whole pleiad of golden church domes covered in snow, a flock of black crows circling in the sky as if not man-made, finishing it like a Russian lubok. The master linearly introduces the contour of caricature images, coloring across the entire plane, similar to those figures he observed as a teenager in works of Soviet caricaturists V. Deni and D. Moor. Among all this lower environment, he notices special symbols of Soviet life: a glass traffic controller's booth, signs on wires, posters, crows, pigeons, sparrows, lighting fixtures, automobiles, electrical transformer, loading piles of snow onto a truck, a platoon of singing soldiers, glass container collection point, icicles everywhere, agitation point, everyone to the elections, thick trees, street scandal, etc. And of course, V. Sitnikov's beloved motif – duty policemen, whose portraits he drew from life, making sketches of criminals.

Another painting close in compositional structure is "Monastery of my student Volodya Titov" ("on which I depicted myself and him" 1972). In the composition in the lower left corner, slightly shifting from the middle, two artists stand on the street by the walls of a snow-covered monastery, where teacher Sitnikov, patting his student Titov on the shoulder, "explains" to him how to paint the monastery, gives him another "demonstration," "lesson" amid the swarming crowd. Sitnikov distinguishes the two figures by scale; simple people pay attention to them, policemen approach them.

The artist depicted in the painting, student Vladimir Titov (born 1950), was highly valued by V.Ya. Sitnikov. However, the first meeting remained forever in V. Titov's memory; when showing his first works, he was told to "come to the yard, stack all his works, pray and burn them, and never remember about it again." For Vladimir as an artist, "flea training" had an impact; for the painter, teacher Sitnikov was above all expression, passion, and breathtaking perspective. Form occupied the most important place in his work.

V.Ya. Sitnikov created his best works in the mature period in the building at 2 Ibragimova Street, apartment 172, in an ordinary Soviet small apartment, which was much smaller than the previous one on Malaya Lubyanka. There, despite constant surveillance by authorities, the artist continued teaching until his emigration in 1975, finding new students and like-minded people. The master himself was dissatisfied with the new apartment, hated moving, lacked space for his collection of Russian icons and antique valuables, on which he spent all the money he received. In the 70s, V. Sitnikov's collecting continued, though not as actively as in the 60s; there was clearly not enough space to accommodate such an extensive collection. Icons that didn't fit on the wall stood on edge on kitchen shelves, like books in a library.

Despite his constant involvement in art, artist and teacher V.Ya. Sitnikov remained a "socially dangerous element" for Soviet authorities. He was taken to isolation during state holidays. In the early 1970s, he was subjected to surveillance, as a result of which in 1972 he was detained for a series of erotic drawings; authorities regarded his work as pornography and sent him to Matrosskaya Tishina prison. From prison, the artist was sent for treatment to Moscow's Kashchenko psychiatric hospital; one of the repressive measures was again applied to him. Sitnikov was accused of pornography, Rabin of organizational actions, for which not Oscar himself but his son Alexander had to pay later.

While in the forensic medical examination ward of Kashchenko Hospital ("Kanatchikovskaya Dacha") under observation in 1973, V. Sitnikov drew a lot, creating "diaries" through drawing. All portraits are caricatures – these are caricatures of inmates, particularly dangerous recidivists from across the Soviet Union surrounding the artist in prison, whose images he endowed with sharp portrait characteristics: "Murderer. Expert Ward. Kashchenko Mental Hospital. 11th Department (signed in Latin). 1973-1-5," "Thief Anatoly Nikolaich Kuzmin. Expert Ward of Kashchenko Mental Hospital," "Elbert Iosifovich 1973-1-13 Saturday," "1973-1-9 Friday," "1973-1-17 Wednesday," "Kashchenko Mental Hospital. Alexander Ivanich Piliguz. Soldier. Stole an anti-aircraft gun," "Vlad. Petr. Afanasyev. Kashchenko Mental Hospital former 'Kanatchikovskaya Dacha.' Expert Ward for murderers from across the USSR. 1973-1-9," "Kashchenko Mental Hospital former 'Kanatchikovskaya Dacha.' Expert Ward for murderers from across the USSR. 1973-1-17 Wednesday," "This is a sports trainer – molester of little girls. Sent from prison to the Expert Ward for murderers from across the USSR. Kashchenko Mental Hospital former 'Kanatchikovskaya Dacha.' January 1973."

Constantly subjected to arrests and surveillance, Vasily Sitnikov by the time of mass emigration of creative intelligentsia from the USSR (mid-1970s) was especially afraid of arrest and imprisonment. Several reasons pushed him toward emigration. We can talk about the emigration of Jews, which in 1971 began under a new, previously unknown sign – emigration to the historical homeland, to Israel. Moreover, this irrepressible flow was joined by ordinary Russians – something unthinkable before – citizens without definite political views, with one passionate desire to see, touch the Western world, test their strength.

V.A. Moroz, close to V.Ya. Sitnikov, was also arrested, detained on the Lvov-Moscow train when he was secretly transporting a large batch of icons in the train compartment. In the mid-1970s, the atmosphere in the USSR was heated to the limit, with surveillance for anti-Soviet activity. V.A. Moroz received an anti-Soviet article; his dacha in Peredelkino was confiscated. The verdict stated: "In the period from 1954 to 1974, Moroz V.A. engaged in criminal activity, distributing works containing deliberately false fabrications defaming the social and state system." Being repressed, Vladimir Moroz wrote in the GULAG: "If it be God's will – I remain alive and return – to launch into general attention of people Tolstoy as a religious teacher."

In 1974, artist Vasily Sitnikov, who lived constantly under guardian supervision, received an affirmative diagnosis from doctors – "healthy," and for the first time in many years was issued a passport. It's difficult to understand why the artist was released by authorities during this period after long persecution. Perhaps it was a peculiar sign that Sitnikov needed at that moment to stop his mockery, free and unrestrained lifestyle, which created a threat of arrest, long-term imprisonment. The decision about emigration could have been caused by two factors: partly for artist Vasily Sitnikov, moving to the West was a dream born in the early 1960s, but it was also important that he was threatened with arrest and imprisonment. Sitnikov made the decision to emigrate in 1975.

Symbolic for this time becomes a painting executed by Vasily Sitnikov in co-authorship with student Vl. Petrov-Gladky, "Let Vasya Go to the Moon" (double signature, 1975): expressing the absurdity of existence and the artist's "knowledge" about the Moon, who tries to reach it, hanging on a pole amid a field and waving his cap. With all the comedy of the situation, the painting turned out emotionally ambivalent: it is sad-melancholic, narrating about Sitnikov's own sufferings, and at the same time reproduces his mythical ideas about another life, like ideas about the Moon, which one can easily reach. The painting thus metaphorically defines the master's own life situation.

The double signature indicates that V. Sitnikov bought works from his students and paid good money for those times, even exceeding the design salary of Vl. Petrov and T. Glytneva. "It was a great honor for us," recalls Vl. Petrov-Gladky, "that he then finished them or didn't finish them, we didn't know, but the paintings went into the world as his works, with his signature. We were always proud that our hand was there to some degree."

Vasily Yakovlevich possessed narcissism, self-admiration, public shocking behavior, and unsurpassed demonstration for students, which to some extent hindered the artist from fully focusing on his own creativity. He devoted much time to improving pedagogical methods, forming his approaches to drawing. All this led to ten years of intensive joint creativity when the works of master and students became a unified whole. However, this took away the precious time that the master spent on his own searches, new themes, plots, images – on the evolution of his own line of fine art.

The main reason for emigration, despite all his activity and fame in Moscow's bohemian circles, was V.Ya. Sitnikov's desire to reach a new international level. Sitnikov saw the solution in his escape to the West, where he could achieve maximum creative realization, which was impossible at that time in the USSR. He left everything as it was in his apartment-studio on Ibragimova Street, deposited a 13th-century Byzantine masterpiece and 600 17th-century icons in the Rublev Museum. He gave away all his monetary savings and flew to Vienna with one suitcase on October 30, 1975.

Vasily Sitnikov was known in Moscow, in demand as an artist and teacher in his environment and in a certain cultural context. Despite conscious self-isolation, in emigration the artist continued to create, believing in his own strength. The late period of creativity is characterized by many repetitions of previously created subjects, replicas of his own paintings, while introducing new techniques and methods. A symbolic work of the late creative period is the optimistically titled "Never Will Vasya-Cloud Cover (Eclipse) Vasya-Sun" (1979).

On October 30, 1975, Vasily Yakovlevich Sitnikov arrived by plane in Austria, in the capital city of Vienna. He made his escape like a hermit, poet, and writer A.M. Dobrolyubov, leaving all his property in the USSR and setting off on a journey with one half-empty suitcase. The artist pursued his great goal – to emigrate to the USA, but it was impossible to do this directly then, and Sitnikov stayed in Austria for a whole five years.

The Tolstoy Foundation – a charitable organization in Valley Cottage, New York, USA – provided assistance to the artist. The Tolstoy Foundation was established in 1939 by Alexandra Tolstaya, Leo Nikolaevich's youngest daughter, with the charitable purpose of helping Russian emigrants. In Austria, in Vienna, the Tolstoy Foundation was called the "Committee of Russian Emigrants."

Settling in the Austrian capital for some time, Vasily Yakovlevich Sitnikov met writer Konstantin Kuzminsky. During this time, the artist traveled to European cities – Munich, Vienna, actively visiting museums and getting acquainted with European masterpieces that he had only known from reproductions. These were creations of masters such as Bosch, Rembrandt, Goya, Picasso, their huge-scale paintings to which they devoted lengthy periods.

Meetings took place at Tolstoy Foundation evenings; at one of them in 1976, V.Ya. Sitnikov met Austrian gallerist Ferdinand Mayer. At Mayer's invitation to stay for a couple of weeks, Sitnikov settled in the resort town of Kitzbühel in the Tyrolean mountains. This became a period of "seclusion" for Sitnikov, where he lost the most important thing – his school.

In Kitzbühel, continuing to work on the monastery series, V. Sitnikov tried to introduce elements of the grotesque world into space (a technique that appeared in the mid-1960s). The attempt to mix observed reality is reflected in the "Kitzbühel Picture" (under other titles – "Memory of Moscow," "Kudykinogorsky Monastery," "Ferdinand Mayer's Monastery," 1977-1979). It was painted quickly on board with tempera. V. Sitnikov, despite his age, was physically developed; he needed enormous physical strength, particularly hand strength, to paint such a huge canvas (170x260 cm).

In mid-1980, the artist left Kitzbühel, having received documents from the Tolstoy Foundation in Vienna, and with the support of Prince T.K. Bagration-Mukhransky, head of the Tolstoy Foundation administration in the USA, departed on a direct flight to New York. The last seven years of life in New York, Vasily Yakovlevich worked, painted, but without former inspiration, producing numerous replicas, repetitions of images and motifs created by him in Moscow.

Finally achieving his dream, being in New York, V.Ya. Sitnikov tried to achieve the same success using the same techniques he used in Moscow. But in the 1980s in New York, the situation was completely different from Moscow. What he offered to Western audiences and how he did it did not find the necessary response. The last seven years of life in New York (1980-1987) were extremely difficult for Vasily Sitnikov. In Moscow, the master was always at the center of events. In New York, the atmosphere of Russian emigrants in which he found himself did not contribute to his full work. Sitnikov, who once led a significant number of people wanting to draw in his Moscow "academy," without knowledge of the language had only a few students from among emigrants.

Vasily Sitnikov actively used a new technical method – an acrylic layer of white paint, which he applied to designate light spots on the dark surface of plywood or board. The period is characterized by abandonment of his famous micropointillism; dotted brushstrokes were replaced by quick brushwork along the form, light intensity was achieved through highlights of white paint rather than eraser rubbing as before. The only "correspondence" student in Vasily Yakovlevich's last two years of life was his brother Nikolai, with whom he maintained active correspondence.

V.Ya. Sitnikov's letters are extremely important for understanding his work. The artist consciously rejected any theory in art and did not write books or treatises during his lifetime. Amazingly, especially during periods of "seclusion," Sitnikov created an enormous number of letters – this extensive epistolary heritage has been preserved in private archives. In his last years of life (1985-1987) in New York, he wrote continuously up to 15-16 written pages a day.

Each of the students preserved some number of his letters. The text of letters to students is characterized by directness of presentation, the author's special font, establishment of accents highlighting significant moments, with conscious phonetic writing, use of archaisms and dialectisms. Vasily Yakovlevich's inclination toward phonetic writing developed under the influence of his illiterate father Yakov Danilovich and manifested in letters, notes, comments on students' drawings and sketches, and, especially characteristically, in painting titles.

Letters, modeled from elements of reality, include autobiographical information, address to relatives and friends. This testifies to the formation of a certain image of the author as the main character of the work, existing on the border of life and art. The artist, working in the studio, listened to Russian songs; there was a striving for synthesis of arts in his works, where the boundaries of verbal language expanded in the context of specific phonetic structure, the word acquired significance in its sound expressiveness. This was similar to the sound of A. Dobrolyubov's letters. V.Ya. Sitnikov used phonetic writing in his painting titles to give them sound, intonation, expression: "I've traveled the whole universe," "From there," "Gotta get married!" The master also actively used archaisms and dialectisms, creating his letters in understandable phonetic writing and colloquial phrases.

V.Ya. Sitnikov had perfect memory, however, one had to play along with his unconventional figure. He loved to modify names and surnames, observing the effect this had on the interlocutor.

In emigration, V. Sitnikov was not only a writer but also a subtle lyrical landscape painter, who could be compared with Russian village prose writers and cultural figures who turned to Russian roots in their work. The main motif in V. Sitnikov's work was wandering, boundless longing for his lost native village. The artist, taking on the image of a romantic hero like poet A.M. Dobrolyubov, expresses the theme of longing and wandering, hermitage in large-scale series of landscapes of fields, churches, and monasteries.

V.Ya. Sitnikov's last work was a 1987 self-portrait, where the image of the jubilant artist seems to float and dissolve in a cloud of fog, like a hovering spirit, a herald of approaching end. The self-portrait is similar to works of the late period of world painting geniuses, serving as a kind of summary, finale of a long creative path.

The formed authoritarianism of character, dogmatic thinking of V.Ya. Sitnikov led to his psychological inability to submit to other laws, impossibility to remake himself, to restructure to a new, Western way for a more successful life. He could not change his life principles and foundations; this was his personal and psychological peculiarity. Having shown a certain degree of self-will and wayward character in Moscow, in the circle of like-minded people, it was impossible to apply it in Western society; due to such lack of demand, the master dies in solitude in 1987 in complete oblivion.

After the artist's death, poet and researcher K.K. Kuzminsky created a monographic album "The Life of Vasil Yaklich Sitnikov, Written and Drawn by Himself" (New York, 2009). The author-compiler includes in this album scanned handwritten texts composed by V.Ya. Sitnikov himself in the last two years of life in New York. The album published a significant body of the master's creative works, including the New York period, subjected to large-scale but unprofessional systematization.

A documentary film titled "Vasya" was made about artist V.Ya. Sitnikov by director A. Zagdansky in 2002. The film "Vasya" combines often contradictory and mutually exclusive memories of Vasily Sitnikov's friends and students with animated episodes dramatizing episodes from the artist's life. He is remembered by collector N. Dodge, Austrian collector and patron F. Mayer, poet and compiler of the poetic anthology "Blue Lagoon" K. Kuzminsky, artists D. Plavinsky, A. Shnurov, A. Krynsky, V. Titov, and art historian V. Teteryatnikov. The film was awarded a special diploma "For research of the artist's myth and his art in documentary cinema."

Today, the name of the extraordinary Soviet nonconformist artist Vasily Yakovlevich Sitnikov is known to many. Only after death does Sitnikov become a legend in Europe and the USA, while during his lifetime he was already a phenomenal personality in the context of Moscow's artistic life, a hero of unusual stories and love feats. By Soviet standards of that time, he was classified as insane, he had no right to have a Soviet passport and be present during state holidays. On one hand, this allowed avoiding more serious criminal persecution. But he could be taken to a mental hospital at any moment without any question.

Both before and after his recognition, Vasily Sitnikov is revered as an extraordinary teacher, unique master of painting, inventor, philosopher, and writer. Vasily Yakovlevich's fate created prerequisites for forming in him an artist of a new type, oriented toward rejecting official Soviet ideology, and led to organizing his own creative process, the main accent of which was creating a special atmosphere of art practice, consisting in the process of communication, joint action, and, most importantly, the inseparability of life and creativity.

Amazingly, a person who lived an interesting life, nevertheless being in great persecution, under mockery and suspicion, forced to emigrate from the USSR, has today become an object of serious and deep memories. The artist, who during his lifetime was called a holy fool and mentally ill, is today called a legendary teacher, the pinnacle of unofficial Soviet painting art, a spiritually strong and wisdom-filled creator.

Today, V.Ya. Sitnikov's few works are in collections around the world. These include the collection of works at MoMA (New York, USA), the Zimmerli Museum collection at Rutgers University (New Jersey, USA), Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMSI-MMOMA), L. Talochkin's museum collection "Other Art" at RSUH, collection of the "Our Artists" gallery (Moscow), as well as works in other museums and predominantly private collections (A. Kronik, I. Sanovich, A. Chekhoev, I. Markin, A. Khmeleva (Sycheva), V. Dudakov, and others).

Artist V.Ya. Sitnikov left an enormous heritage not in the form of theory, but in the form of comments on works and letters: "How to Look at Painting," "On Grounds," "On Gradients"; his working notes, numerous sheets, materials related to pedagogical work directly in the "academy" in Moscow and during emigration through correspondence with students in 1964-1975, correspondence with brother Nikolai in emigration - 1976-1986, as well as V.Ya. Sitnikov's notes made jointly with students who visited the studio.

The composition of V.Ya. Sitnikov's school students was quite diverse: Vladimir Raikov, Vladimir Yakovlev and Vladimir Veisberg, Vladimir Titov, Yuly Vedernikov, Alena Kirtsova, Inna Chon, artists of the Malaya Gruzinskaya circle S. Zemlyakov, A. Chashkin (who later became an icon painter), V. Kazmin, A. Polenov, S. Bleze, Vladimir and Vyacheslav Petrov-Gladky, T. Glytneva, M.D. Sterligova, S. Gubantsev, N. Shibanova, B. Myshkov and many others. Artists, many of his students (V. Titov, A. Kirtsova, V. Petrov-Gladky, V. Arkharov-Fredynsky), who began their path in V.Ya. Sitnikov's studio, of course, greatly respected him during his lifetime and believed in him, but it turns out this was only a shadow of what he actually deserved. After his death in New York in 1987, when he was no longer in the USSR, they only then realized how happy they were beside him, how easy it was to create when he was nearby, literally charging them with his energy. Students noted that they undoubtedly highly valued him as a teacher, mentor, and that Moscow time before his departure abroad.

It is interesting that Vasily Yakovlevich noted everyone who came to his studio down to the exact date, day of the week, and time. He himself kept a list of students, indicating their study time in his studio, marking with his author's highlighting those most significant to him.

V.Ya. Sitnikov's "academies" in Moscow, as well as private lessons in America, were attended by various students: from the first who came to him, Vladimir Raikov, an educated treating doctor-hypnotist, who was "hypnotized" and subjected to drawing by V.Ya. Sitnikov himself, to the last students of the New York period – Russian emigrants, mother and daughter Brozgul.

In 1976, after V.Ya. Sitnikov's departure, his activity was continued by students in the newly formed painting section at the City Committee of Graphic Artists on Malaya Gruzinskaya 28. Vladimir Petrov-Gladky works on religious, non-denominational subjects: "Guardian Angel," "Vision" (1975), "Mother of God" (1977), "Gaze" (1978). In "Vision," the influence of Sitnikov's school shows through; here from thin haze of fog emerge outlines of a monastery: walls, towers, cathedral, as if "woven" from light. Having observed the icon "Tenderness" in the studio, another work is born – "Mother of God," where the condensing light-bearing space "weaves" protruding volumes of figures, given as a cluster of white light.

We can say that V.Ya. Sitnikov's studio was a characteristic phenomenon of the 1960s-1970s period. However, we note here a number of features. First of all, not every leader of such a painting studio took all who came to his studio to study. Vasily Sitnikov tried to turn those wishing to comprehend art to drawing as quickly as possible through persistent "training," working with beginners together and treating them as equals. None of the masters of his circle could fully manage the process of joint creativity, but for V. Sitnikov such an act of creation was fundamental, allowing the student to master the master's artistic techniques while completely rejecting any work from nature. Important was not only the painting system, which provided an alternative to the official school, but also the atmosphere itself, fundamentally different from the atmosphere of state universities and resurrecting teacher-student relationships.

And today, when Vasily Yakovlevich is no longer among us, all partly understand, partly guess what a great, albeit Soviet Leonardo da Vinci they dealt with, for this was hidden during his lifetime under amazing simplicity, holy foolishness, the beggarly atmosphere of his studio and his appearance, and with all this deep, amazing humility. People who during V.Ya. Sitnikov's lifetime looked at him with disbelief and suspicion today strive to see and be imbued with the beauty of his few works, repent of their mistakes. Many have been imbued with universal deep respect, interest in the creativity and personality of master Vasily Sitnikov. There is great interest in his life, from adolescence to death.

Huge gratitude to all those people who, having learned about the writing of the article about V.Ya. Sitnikov, communicated in writing or orally information about stories, incredible cases, affairs of those years that they directly experienced. We would especially like to note and deeply thank all the students of Vasily Yakovlevich's school who greatly helped in clarifying many questions.

‍

Bibliography:

1. Sitnikov, N. From Dawn to Dusk. Moscow: State Public Historical Library of Russia, 2008

2. Kuzminsky, K. The Life of Vasil Yaklich Sitnikov, Written and Drawn by Himself. New York, 2009

3. Sitnikov, V. Lessons [Drawing Textbook in Letters] / Vasily Sitnikov [Introduction by Z. Plavinskaya]. Moscow: Agey Tomesh-Press, 1998

4. Vendelshtein, T. "Vasily Sitnikov and His School" // Our Artists Gallery. May 24–July 31, 2009. Exhibition Catalog. St. Petersburg: Petrony, 2009

5. Arkharova, N., Voitkevich, K. "Artist V.E. Arkharov-Fredynsky" // Vladimir Arkharov-Fredynsky. Painting. Graphics. Moscow: Stroganov MGHPA Typography, 2014

6. Moroz, V.A. Tolstoy in My Prison Life (excerpts from diary 1974-1981) / Vladimir Alekseevich Moroz. St. Petersburg, 1996

‍