Mikhail Chernishov's Retrospective at IFA Gallery Berlin Reveals Radical Soviet Non-Conformist Art

Mikhail Chernishov's retrospective exhibition 'Angriff – Arbeiten 1961-2002' at IFA Gallery in Berlin from August 23 to October 13, 2002, showcased four decades of his radical visual analysis. At age sixteen in 1961, Chernishov staged his first 'living room exhibition' in Moscow, framing wallpaper samples to challenge conventional image-making. Self-educated through daily visits to Moscow's Inostranka library from 1960 to 1963, he rejected Soviet official art. His 1962 exhibition featured military magazine cut-outs reduced to geometric symbols, a method he maintained in later jet fighter depictions. Chernishov's work explores symbol expression, as seen in his 1994 video 'The State of Suprematism' comparing Suprematist and Nazi aesthetics. After periods in mental health institutions from 1966, he emigrated to New York in 1980. Curated by Marina Sandmann, the retrospective included a companion exhibition at her commercial gallery pairing Chernishov with older artist Jurij Sawljewitsch Slotnikow. A catalogue and German translation of his 1961-1967 memoirs accompanied the show.