A large-scale exhibition of the famous avant-garde artist Marlen Spindler has opened at the Museum of Nonconformism

All the works in the exhibition were created either in prison or in between prisons

The story of this artist is as extraordinary as the combination of his first and last name. Marlene is a neologism from Marx and Lenin. This name was invented for the future artist by his father, who came from a family of Central Asian rabbis. Maybe this contrast in some way determined the fate and character of Marlen Spindler. Hot-tempered but sincere, uncompromising but easy-going, romantic and innovator. The nonconformist, who served three prison terms, became widely known after an exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery in 1996. Then he could only move around in a wheelchair. The new exhibition “Before the Holiday” at the Moscow Museum of Nonconformism tells about the artist’s thorny path.

The exhibition includes 50 works created from the 1960s to the 1990s. By the time Marlen Spindler found his original style, he was slightly over 30. He had seen contrasts. The future artist was born in the Kyrgyz city of Karakol in 1931. He spent his childhood in Tashkent, Samarkand and Alma-Ata, and at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War the family moved to the Moscow region. After the war, he entered the Art School at Mosfilm and attended the studio of Eliya Belyutin. Those same studio members and the independent avant-garde artists who joined them were vehemently criticized by Nikita Khrushchev at an exhibition in Manege in 1962, after which the Belutin association “New Reality” went underground. Actually, in that very year one of the first exhibitions with the participation of Marlen Spindler took place. His works were shown along with the works of Ernst Neizvestny, Yuri Sobolev-Nolev, Yulo Sooster, Vladimir Yankilevsky in the Teacher’s House on Bolshaya Kommunisticheskaya Street (now Solzhenitsyn Street). Foreign journalists were covering an exhibition of abstract art, and then a strange thing happened: the artists, without explanation, were asked to take their works, and a few days later they were invited to the Manege. Marlen, however, no longer participated in the manege exhibition, but everything happened before his eyes.

At that time, he had an official place of work: since 1954, he worked as a graphic designer at the Decorative and Applied Arts Plant. Invented and drew trademarks. It was there, while engaged in design (at that time this word was just coming into circulation in the USSR), Spindler began to turn to the sign system, study archaic symbols and ancient images. He was attracted by what went against the socialist reality that was pleasing to the authorities.

“When he was fired from his job at the plant, he decided to pursue his dream – to make frescoes,” says Nadezhda Brykina, founder of the Museum of Nonconformism and curator of the exhibition. “He found bags and wrote on them with tempera, which he prepared himself. He brought materials from Ferapontov. He specifically ensured that there were cracks on the canvases, as if they were traces of archaism. To do this, he dried the work with a blowtorch or over a gas stove. Things aren’t easy for Marlene.

This also applies to fate. Spindler was imprisoned three times, but not on political charges. This is due to his hot-tempered character: a conversation about high art could turn to high tones and lead to a fight. The first two times he ended up behind bars after arguments that resulted in hand-to-hand combat. He spent time in Butyrka, then was in Vologda for forced labor and served his last sentence in Uglich. After returning from his second term, he was supposed to live 101 km away, but one day he secretly came to his wife in the Moscow region: as soon as she poured him borscht, Marlena was taken – on the denunciation of an anti-Semitic neighbor. In total, he served 15 years. All the works in the exhibition were created either in prison or in between prisons. And what’s surprising is that they are all filled with incredible inner peace.

From Spindler’s symbolic paintings, almost all of which contain church domes, one can guess that each one resembles a kind of cipher. There are brown, black, red and pale blue periods. In the paintings one can discern images of birds, flowers, temples, stars, and hieroglyphs. Also fascinating is the signature, often made with three crosses – it seems to be an allusion to three terms in prison and a connection with ancient temple culture. There is another version that this is an allusion to family – he loved his wife and daughter Masha very much. Spindler’s paintings and graphics are on the verge of abstraction and figurative. And this borderline character distinguishes his special manner. Moreover, according to Nadezhda Brykina, in his prison works there is more reality, and in those created in freedom, there is more abstract vision – free flight.

The contrast between the tragic fate and the spirituality of the individual, the eccentric character and the stoic attitude towards difficulties is also echoed in the title of the exhibition – “Before the Holiday”. The thing is that the artist, no matter where he was, never stopped creating, and perceived each work as a “takeoff,” a joyful and exciting event.