*VOLKOV, ALEKSANDR (1886-1957) Wedding signed and dated 1927, also inscribed with an authentication from the artist's son on the reverse Oil on board, 76 by 95 cm. Provenance: Collection of the artist's family. Gift of the family to a close friend. Acquired directly from the above. Authenticity has been confirmed by the artist's family. Exhibited: A. Volkov. Oils and Works on Paper, The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, March 2007. Volkov's masterpiece Wedding, presented here for auction was painted in 1927, it belongs to a new phase in the artist's creative life associated with his exploration of figurative art. The complexities of this exploration, in which he soon diverged from the mainstream of Soviet art, led to accusations that the artist had lost his way in the “debris of formalism”, and are reflected in the complex history of Wedding. At least two versions of this subject are known, both dating from 1927. The larger of the two is in the Tretyakov gallery and depicts a bridegroom and the men accompanying him. The second version of the Wedding, presented here for auction, has been kept in the artist's family for many years. It can provisionally be called female, as the composition is structured in a way so that all three male figures have their backs turned or half-turned to the viewer, while the four central figures of young women face the viewer. We are unlikely now to learn how both these compositions relate to one another and what provoked Volkov's radical gesture, leaving only the upper part of the male procession to the history of art. But the unity of artistic conception of both paintings, structured around the image of a musician, suggests that they represent, if not fragments of a single monumental image conceived by Volkov, then at least a single compositional cycle. The artist's work on Wedding was inspired by his interest in nation- al culture and sense of affinity with the life of his country and its national heritage. Volkov was charmed by the sounds of the market squares, the processions, the old and new holidays and it is music. Therefore, that forms the focus of both Wedding compositions. In the “male” version, the composition is structured around the mouth of the traditional Uzbek shawm (surnay) played by a musician dressed in red. In the “female” version — music and merriment are symbolised by the jingling Uzbek tambourine slightly to the left. All the details of social life are depicted accurately, with a precise sense of scale and space. The sense of music is conveyed with great sensitivity by the simplest, most economical means, creating the impression that Volkov's pictures reproduce pictorially the distinctive rhythm of traditional Uzbek monody and solo song, often with a hypnotic effect. The movement of figures in a circle “to the sonorous chorus of amber faces” (from Volkov's own poetry) and the closed circle of the compositional structure form the counterpoint of the painting presented here for auction. The surrounding, the circle, and the parts of the circle vary ceaselessly in scale and colour, shifting, turning and shortening, each time embodied in another subject: the spherical heads with their skull-caps, the arched brows, the rounded knees and large hands of the seated figures, the curve of the arc in the notional background. The picture, seemingly casually framed and full of spontaneous movement, achieves a rare unity and elegance, a sense of completion and enclosure, drawing the total space, the many small spaces, bodies and dimensions togeth- er. All details are consciously structured and linked to one another. The tambourine, brought close to the face of the man on the left in a natural, spontaneous movement, “echoes” the half-moon of the yellow cap on the figure to the right. The dancing circle of hands raised at different levels is depicted with great skill. Unity and strength of composition is also achieved by the smoothness of the enclosed forms, both by the general structure and by the dominance of circularity in the shapes, but most of all, of course, by colour and by movement, the flow of colour. The painting is executed in restrained olive-green and grey tones, superbly conveying the coolness, purity and quietness of the setting and the deeply pensive mood of the guests. The female face, freed for the first time from face veils and “veils of silence”, had a particular attraction for the artist. In art, until that time, there existed only the conventional image of “eastern beauty” created by poets and miniaturists, with beauty-spots, elaborate curls framing the cheeks, half-moon brows and tiny mouths smaller than an ant, or the romantic and exotic image of European tradition. Volkov also paid tribute to this, but here, in a work of the late 1920s, he seeks a real image of a woman of the people, a worker, an equal participant in the new life. Before us are four young women with broad irregular faces, charming in their rustic simplicity, completely absorbed in the solemnity of the unfolding event. Volkov depicts them with their caps rakishly pushed back to the side, massive necks, and plain, almost severe dresses, and faces framed by contrasting dark, smooth hair. The space is shaped softly, very sparingly by translucent shadows in cold tones and by light brushstrokes of white. The narrow, expressive eyes are barely shaded, emphasising the flashing pupils and dark red of the cheeks. For all the ethnographic accuracy and individuality of the portraiture, the faces of these young women are universal, exalted, showing signs of age. Fusing the local colour of his native Uzbekistan with the search for a new figurativeness which characterised the art of the late 1920, Volkov becomes part of the worldwide trend towards a new kind of figurative art, which gives Wedding international significance.