Boris Chetkov, Russian painter (b. 1926)
Boris Alexandrovitch Chetkov (Russian: Борис Александрович Четков; 27 October 1926–6 September 2010) was a Russian painter and glass artist known for his vivid works which range across genres but can be loosely aligned with Expressionism, Abstract Expressionism and Figurative Expressionism. His theories on art and use of colour also align him broadly with Modernism and Kandinsky though in his painting he worked largely in isolation from his peers and remained disconnected from the international art community until the end of Communism. He was a member of the Saint Petersburg Union of Artists.
Despite a difficult early life and an almost total lack of recognition from the art establishment of the Soviet Union, Chetkov was a hugely experimental painter until his death. He had an almost obsessive urge to create: for example in the early 1990s alone he painted more than 400 pieces. Both his paint and glass works are notable for their evocative, idiosyncratic and sophisticated use of colour, which built in intensity through three distinct periods of artistic development.
Chetkov's work can be found in private collections around the world as well as in the Hermitage Museum and the State Russian Museum in St Petersburg. His was the opening exhibition for Russian Art Week in 2013.