Footnotes

• Provenance
  Collection of Larisa Piatnitskaya (1940 – 2014)
  Thence by descent
  
  Exhibited
  Possibly, Moscow, VDNH Dom Kultury, Exhibition of works by Moscow artists, 20 – 30 October 1975
  Possibly, Moscow, Various apartment exhibitions of non-official art, Spring 1976
  Possibly, Moscow, MUCCGA (Malaya Gruzinskaya, 28), I exhibition of the Moscow United City Committee of Graphic Artists, 1977
  
  
  Sergey Bordachev is arguably one of the most prominent of unofficial artists working in geometrical abstraction in the 1970s, as well as a participant of virtually all of the historically significant nonconformist exhibitions of the decade (the "Bulldozer" exhibition and Izmailovo, 1974, DK VDNKh, 1975, "Apartment" exhibitions of Spring 1976, from 1977, Moscow Committee of Graphic Artists on Malaya Gruzinskaya, 28). Bordachev's art presents a synthetic blend of both geometric abstraction and expressionistic traditions as the ground for creative experiment with form, space, and media which often incorporated the use of commonly found objects.
  
  'During the famous "Bulldozer exhibition", Bordachev exhibited only one work which he "showed". However, his other works were brought to [the site in] Belyaevo from an apartment exhibition by Lorik Piatnitskaya along with the foreign press and Larisa's hippie friends from the art group "Volosy". But, as they say, they had been expected. Without allowing any work to be unpacked, [the authorities] immediately began tearing, breaking and treading the pictures in the mud, while water cannons drove around the lot shooting [around] some black dirt. It can be seen in the numerous photographs from this unforgettable exhibition. At the end of the crackdown, some of the foreign journalists picked the few remnants of the works, literally pulling them out of the dirt from under their feet, and gave them to the one person they knew - the organizer responsible for the press - Piatnitskaya Larisa (Lorik). After these events, [Larisa] gave the remnants of Bordachev's work to the author. It was from these unfortunate remnants rescued from under the heels of police officers and [communist] party activists, S. Bordachev created the legendary work, which at that time became the banner of the "Cultural Revolution,' (from memoirs of Larisa Piatnitskaya, documented by her son Yury Piatnitsky, Private archive of L. Piatnitskaya, Moscow).
  
  According to the memories of the artist, as recorded by Yury Piatnitsky, the work which Piatnitskaya brought to the "Bulldozer" exhibition had been given by Bordachev to Larisa and Vladimir Piatnitsky as a gift for their wedding which took place a few months earlier in July 1974. It is very likely that the wedding gift to the Piatnitskys is - in fact - the present triptych Labyrinths, partially damaged during the scandalous exhibition of 1974 and restored by Bordachev in 1975, as suggested by the date inscribed on the central part.
  
  We are grateful to Yury Piatnitsky for assistance with cataloguing this lot.