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Yuri Zlotnikov (1930–2016), recognized as one of the undisputed classics of the Russian contemporary art scene, is also one of the first abstractionists of the Thaw period. Zlotnikov's use of the system approach in the creation of artistic language distinguishes his work when compared to other ways in which Abstractionism is represented within the Neo Avant-Garde. To a certain extent, this makes him a successor of the artistic systems of V. Kandinsky and P. Mondrian. He created his own "signal system" in which he combined the artistic approach with scientific methods. His works had a huge impact on the development of Russian contemporary art.

Early Life and Education
Yuri Zlotnikov was born in 1930 in Moscow. From 1943 to 1950 he studied at Moscow Secondary Art School at the USSR Academy of Arts. He was simultaneously engaged in a sculpture studio at the museum of A.S. Golubkina led by A.I. Grigoryeva. During these years, he attended lectures at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and often visited the house of the Favorsky-Efimov. During the period between 1954 and 1956, Zlotnikov worked at the Bolshoi Theater as a student-decorator together with A. Tyshler, V. Ryndin. and I. Rabinovich.

Abstract Art
Yuri Zlotnikov is one of the pioneers of abstract art in post-Stalin Soviet Union.Zlotnikov and his school friend, the artist and mathematician Vladimir Slepyan were science enthusiasts and sought artistic analogies for the latest scientific discoveries. In the mid-1950s, Yuri Zlotnikov began to engage in abstract art after attending lectures on cybernetics and mathematics. His interest in developing a close circle of like-minded people was shared by B. Turetsky.

Between 1956-1957 Zlotnikov developed the “Signaling System” in the visual arts, within the framework of which there is a thorough rapprochement of the scientific and artistic paradigms.Y Influenced by the advances in nuclear physics, Zlotnikov created his first abstract work, “Geiger Counter.” The further development of his own style came in the circle of artists who gathered in Slepyan’s studio (Boris Turetsky, Igor Kukles, and Oleg Prokofiev). In their research and happenings, they elaborated new forms of abstract art as the language of a future scientific and technological civilization and achieved lapidary forms of a purist style. For Zlotnikov the result of their collaboration was the “Signal System,” imbued with his study of Piet Mondrian and Kazimir Malevich.

Yuri Zlotnikov, had not even heard the name Clement Greenberg when he created his series “Signal Systems” in the late 1950s. But undoubtedly he shared the passion of the American theoretician of high modernism regarding the separation of the avant-garde from kitsch. For Zlotnikov, kitsch was not only the Socialist Realist system, but the work of many of his colleagues in the nonconformist camp, who brought metaphysical elements, which he considered inappropriate, to abstract art. He was meticulously purging these elements from his painting just as Kazimir Malevich in the 1920s used his quasi-scientific theory of the “additional element” in his teaching work. Yet Zlotnikov was severely critical of Malevich’s utopianism and said that he was continuing the tradition of spiritual seeking begun by Wassily Kandinsky. This is an important aspect for the understanding of the intellectual atmosphere of that period—the Soviet dissident artists categorically rejected Malevich’s ultracommunist utopia.

Return to Figurative Painting (early 1960s)
After Slepyan exiled to the West, Zlotnikov returned to figurative Ceґzannist painting in the early 1960s. He painted a series of self-portraits, as well as genre pieces and landscapes.

Abstract Expressionism (late 1960s)
In the late 1960s, he was back in nonfigurative work, but this time in Abstract Expressionism imbued with the early period of Kandinsky’s work. Zlotnikov’s connection to this tradition is evinced by his persistent attempts to convey musical sounds, as well the echoes of late symbolism, the motifs of mass movement of people, cathedral ceremonies, flights of spirits, all conveyed in an extremely schematic manner.

In the cycle Abstraction, Space, Rhythms, People and the People, space, rhythms series the artist aimed to capture the intense rhythm of the urban environment. In these works Yuri Zlotnikov deliberately fragmented the composition, distorted the shape and colour palette in order to convey thedynamics of life. The artist studied the interaction of figures with the white space of the sheet, which fill it like a vibrant crowd of people, perceived as a collective body. Some of Zlotnikov’s cycles included several series and developed over many years. They represent the stages of the artist’s creative quest, in which the themes that deeply touched him in a certain period of his life were embodied.

Later Years (1972-2000)
Zlotnikov started exhibiting his work in 1962, and ten years later in 1972 he was admitted to the Moscow Union of Artists. He was awarded the silver medal of the Russian Academy of Arts in 1998.

1990s-2000s
In the 1990s-2000s, he continued his plastic experiments working on the series: “Spatial constructions”, “Jerusalem”, “Spatial combinatorics”, “Polyphony” and others. In these series he constantly made unexpected creative discoveries.

Death and Legacy
Zlotnikov passed away in 2016 in Moscow. The artist left a rich legacy for future generations.