comprising: an artist painting a church as a figure walks past, pencil, 20.25cm x 28.75cm; six framed lithographs depicting figures in landscapes, some with dates and inscriptions (printed); a folio of unframed prints; a gatefold album containing futher unframed prints and biographical information on the artist; and two unopened volumes of 'The Camp Drawings' (a lot)
| Estimate: | £500 - £1,000 |
| Hammer price: | £3,800 |
Boris Sveshnikov was arrested in 1946 while a third-year student at the Moscow Institute of Decorative and Applied Arts. He spent the next eight years in Siberian labor camps working under inhuman conditions in mines and lumber camps before becoming a night watchman in a carpentry workshop, where he was able to create paintings and drawings. Sveshnikov's memories of those years colored his work until the end of his life, but, at the same time, his voluminous output remains a testament to the strength of his spirit and his willingness to confront the horrific experiences he lived through.
His early drawings and paintings, however, are not realistic portrayals of the brutality of camp life but fantasies derived from that life. His sources lay in his memories of works or copies he studied during his student years, illustrations in books left behind by previous inmates, or materials his parents were able to send him. Of particular importance was the grotesque imagery of the Netherlandish artists Hieronymus Bosch (ca. 1450-1516) and Pieter Brueghel (ca. 1525-1569) and the carnivalesque frenzies of the French printmaker Jacques Caillot (1592-1635). The works he produced in the camps include multi-figured sketches of wild parties with plenty of food and drink; abrupt juxtapositions of pleasurable, even highly erotic, scenes with those of torture and death; and images depicting the indifference of camp inmates to the misfortunes of others. Whether intentional or not, Sveshnikov attested to the amorality and immorality of camp life, which existed outside of the unrealistic norms of communal behaviour established by the Soviet regime.
After his release in 1954, he lived for three years in Tarusa before receiving permission to return to Moscow. There, he joined the Artists' Union and supported himself as a book illustrator, often for Russian translations of Western European Romantic literature. The German writer E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822) was a favourite, and perhaps provided him with subject matter for his later work. Around 1960, Sveshnikov's style began to change. He developed a stipple technique made up of myriad small dot-like strokes in which objects near and far were reproduced with the same degree of detail and intensity of color, thus calling attention to the pictorial surface and the resulting claustrophobic spaces. Faces and entire bodies might be portrayed in close-up while surrounding forms appear in miniature. Sometimes, bodies almost disappear into the welter of small strokes. Subjects ranged from the macabre to scenes evoking his camp memories to seemingly pleasant urban scenes, but many having the uncanny appearance of a nightmare still in progress.
