Mikhail Odnoralov, Russian nonconformist artist, Died at 71

Mikhail Nikolayevich Odnoralov / Levidov/ Михаи́л Никола́евич Однора́лов / Леви́дов / Michael Odnoralov, was born on November 10, 1944, and died on January 22, 2016.

He was a Russian nonconformist artist.

He was famous in Moscow in the 1970s.

He has spent the second half of his life in New York City.

In 1957, Mikhail received early art lessons at Robert Falk’s private studio, and from 1958–1960, he received his art education in Krasnaya Presnya, Moscow.

Mikhail Odnoralov was a part of the second Russian avant-garde movement.

However, he was also a member of the USSR Union of Artists and showed his paintings at various official exhibitions.

From 1966–1979, Mikhail paintings were frequently exhibited at the Union of Moscow Artists.

Mikhail Odnoralov art studio was used as a gathering site for underground artists to plan their next collective show or to discuss one another’s work, and he was briefly detained for his role in the Bulldozer Exhibition in 1974.

A few weeks after his release, his paintings were displayed before crowds in Izmaylovsky Park.

The Soviet regime was wary of Odnoralov not mainly for the content of his paintings (although the Communist authorities did not like the icons portrayed in his works, which clearly reflected Russian religious philosophy), but for his uncensored social activity.

Reportedly, The KGB urged his neighbors to file complaints claiming that the guests at his studio disturbed them.

In 1980, Mikhail moved from the USSR.

He was working and living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Mikhail Odnoralov passed away at 71 yrs old in New York City.