The series conceived and compiled by Isaak Kushnir.
Regina Solovieva, concept.
Natalia Kozyreva, compiler and general editor.

With participation of Jannet Kennedy, professor of Art History at Indiana University, USA and Alla Rosenfeld, Curator of Russian and Soviet Art at the Zimmerli Museum (Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA)

Aleksandr Manusov (1947 - 1990) is one of the most subtle and complex artists of the Leningrad Underground of 1970s - 80s. His work is an outstanding and original phenomenon of Russian art in the last third of the 20th century.

The depth of Manusov's approach, with its moments of drama and tragedy, bears witness to the artist's meditation on the great questions of life. These qualities, along with Manusov's artlessness, his technical virtuosity, musicality, warmth, and loving relationship with his medium, aiiow us to call his talent unique. His art involves a mysterious transsubstantiation of colors he is thinking philosophically through the medium of paint.

The starving artist, suffering his whole life from a serious heart condition, an outcast from the official artists' unions, a Jew and a dissident, a participant in subversive apartment exhibitions, a member of the Aleph group of Jewish artists (the first-ever such organization in the Soviet Union), a man persecuted by the KGB almost until the final year of his life.

But all this is just appearances; that which is hidden within cannot be observed through such superficial details.

This publication reproduces the artist's paintings and graphic works, representing the main periods of his artistic development. Also included are articles about the artist, a list of exhibitions, catalog of his most important works and a bibliography.