Ernst Neizvestny

Ernst Neizvestny was a Russian-American artist who created monumental sculptures that reflect his philosophy of art and life. He was born in Sverdlovsk in 1925 and joined the Red Army as a volunteer in 1942. He was severely wounded and declared dead, but survived and became an artist. He graduated from the Surikov Moscow Art Institute and the Philosophy Department of the Moscow State University. He gained fame and controversy for his works that challenged the official Soviet art style. He had a famous confrontation with Nikita Khrushchev at the Manege exhibition in 1962, but later designed his tombstone. He emigrated to the US in 1976 and lived and worked in New York City. He created many sculptures around the world, such as The Mask of Sorrow in Magadan, The Tree of Life in Tashkent, The Black and White in Stockholm, and others. He also wrote books on his art theory and philosophy, such as The Metaphysics of the Polygon, The Dialectics of the Transition Period from Nowhere to Nowhere, and The End of the End. He died of heart failure in 2016.