4 June 1926, Moscow - 17 November 1997, Moscow
‘His art is without peer. He has been imitated, quoted and his views command fear and respect. He had many supporters but he did not find like-minded people even amongst them. He never hurried anywhere – for him, life was painting. He was someone with a sharp temper, he rarely changed his normal way of life and preferred the quiet in his workshop to any form of public activity, for this reason his first exhibition took place when the master had already reached sixty-nine’. Vasily Maksimov