In the Soviet Union, where Social Realist art was considered the only art acceptable, abstract artists found themselves in an opposition to the official ideology, and in an open confrontation with the state. Vladimir Nemukhin (1925-2016)), whose art was close to Western European art of the time, was expelled from the Surikov Moscow State Academic Art Institute. But despite the official ban, his oeuvre was of great interest to the younger generation of art lovers, which appeared during the Khrushchev Thaw.

He met his companion Lydia Masterkova at Na Chudovke art school, and in 1954 she became his common-law wife. The couple occupied one third of a room in a communal flat they shared with Masterkova’s parents, and in a constant dialogue in this tiny live-and-work space each developed his or her unique vision of abstract art. In 1968, Nemukhin and Masterkova separated but, due to the mutual influence they had exerted upon each other’s art, the couple remains one of the outstanding examples of an artistic union in Russian art.

After the experiments with abstract expressionism (1952 -1962), his creativity gradually returned to figuration, he acquired his own style by creating half-abstract ‘still-lifes with cards’.