Oscar
Yakovlevich Rabin

Was born in Moscow on January 2, 1928. Orphaned early. Actually second family Rabin was the family of the artist and the poet Elektromagnitnogo, his first master in the art and future father-in-law. In 1946-1948, studied at the Riga Academy of arts, then re-settled in Moscow. In 1948-1949, he studied at the Art Institute named after V.I.Surikov, where he was expelled for "formalism". Up to 1958 he worked as a loader on the Railways and as a site foreman, and then in the Works for design and decoration Art Fund of RSFSR. Was one of the most active members of "Lianozovsky group", showing a remarkable ability not only masters, but also the organizer of "unofficial" avant-garde. He exhibited his work at home from 1957 (exhibition of works of young artists to the 6th world festival of youth; subsequent exposure long been underground and semi-underground), and abroad - since 1964 (the Grosvenor gallery, London). Was one of the participants of the "bulldozer", i.e. dispersed with the use of bulldozers of the exhibition on a vacant lot in Belyaevo (1974). In 1978 emigrated to France, settled in Paris.

In a Mature manner Rabin, developed in the second half of the 1950s, combines the features of expressionism and surrealism. His work has absorbed the specific features of its then everyday environment (barrack house in Lianozovo). It is melancholic, dark in color, shimmering snow landscapes marginal wastelands, backyards and garbage (Trash № 8, private collection, Moscow), full dark sarcasm still life: a series of still lifes with vobla on the newspaper "Pravda", or Three skulls (1973, Museum of contemporary Russian art, Jersey city, USA)that lie on the newspaper with the headline "Peaceful coexistence " - a form of class struggle". The focus of the image is sometimes a large number plate or the document itself Rabin (Passport, 1964, private collection, Moscow), hovering in the background Lianozovsky landscape; these images are approaching the poetics of pop art. Published a book of memoirs Three lives (1986).