Рухин, Евгений Львович

Painter, conceptual artist

Born Saratov, 2 July 1943

Died Leningrad, 24.May 1976

Educated as a geologist like his father, Rukhin began painting at about age 20. With little artistic training, he created abstract works with an emphasis on geometric shapes. He began incorporating found objects, bits of furniture or newspaper on white backgrounds, sometimes dramatized with blocks of bright red paint, to express his nostalgia for the former Russia. His studio was in Leningrad, but Rukhin helped organize the Moscow's “bulldozer exhibition” of 1974. on May 24, 1976, a fire consumed the second-floor studio where Rukhin and three others were spending the evening. He died of smoke inhalation at age 32.

1975