 | Leonid Anatolievich PURYGIN 1951 — 1995Леонід ПУРИГІН • Леонид ПУРЫГИНLeonid Purygin began an independent life at the age of fourteen, performing various odd jobs. He started his art education in 1969 at the studio of the Narofominsk House of Culture. Over the course of four years he unsuccessfully attempted to enroll in the Moscow Art School in Memory of 1905. Purygin’s name became known after the first Sotheby’s auction held in Moscow in 1988. His art draws on Russian folk art, mythology, and his own mental storehouse of fantastic imagery. He called his work “mystical realism”. It has elements of both surrealism and naïve art. Purygin was influenced by Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Brueghel. His works were often based on icons and altarpieces, in which the place of Jesus Christ is occupied by Leonid Purygin or by one of the artist’s personal demons or saints. |
