Nikolai Silis is a Russian artist, draftsman and sculptor, and an influential voice in twentieth century Russian art. Expressive and emotional in its nature, his work is characterized by recognizable biomorphic forms featuring smooth, fluid lines.
Silis’s artistic career unfolded against the backdrop of Stalinist repression, the “thaw” of Nikita Khrushchev, and the economic, cultural and artistic stagnation that marked Leonid Brezhnev’s long reign. Silis’s art developed in spite of the doctrine of Socialist Realism sanctioned by the Soviet regime. Silis was persecuted for ‘formalism’ but he continued to strive to capture human beauty through abstraction.
Silis has always been a trail-blazer and an innovator, the master of unique artistic expression. His art was not widely known or appreciated during the Soviet era because it was out of step with the official aesthetic. Yet Silis, a powerhouse of creative energy, labored on, undaunted by the realization that his works may never reach the mass viewer.