Oscar Rabine (Russian, b. 1928)

As early as 1951 Oscar Rabine, subjected by the Soviet government to live in the barracks at Lianozovo, secretively held illegal gatherings of artists, musicians, poets, writers, including foreign diplomats and journalists. By the 1960’s the authorities developed a hatred for the Lianozovo Group. With undaunted determination, Rabine continuously initiated countless unofficial group shows, often forcibly closed by the KGB. In 1974, Rabine organized the historic First Autumn Open-Air Exhibition of a dozen non-conformist artists in an empty field in Moscow. Within hours government bulldozers demolished the artworks. Foreign journalists present reported this “Bulldozer Exhibition” as a shocking example of Soviet desecration of the arts, which at once catapulted the plight of this underground art movement to the Western world. Two weeks later, a relenting government permitted the artists to show their work in Ismailovsky Park for four hours. 200 artists and 15,000 people attended. Oscar Rabine’s life story and work are included in volumes of books and museum collections throughout the world.