Rating and value of sculptures, paintings and drawings by Ernst Iossipovich Neizvestny

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Rating and value of the artist Ernst Iossipovitch Neizvestny   

Considered an important artist of Russian sculpture and painting, Ernst Iossipovitch Neizvestny leaves behind a unique artistic repertoire, within which bronze works and painting occupy a prominent place.

At present, prices for his works are rising enormously under auctioneers' gavels. His creations are particularly prized, and the price at which they sell on the art market ranges from €30 to €48,920, a considerable range but one that speaks volumes about the value that can be attributed to Neizvestny's works.

In 2022, a bronze statue, Centaur, created between 1974 and 1982 sold for €40,300, while it was estimated at between €24,180 and €34,260.

Order of value from a simple work to the most prestigious

Artist's style and technique

Ernst Iossipovich Neizvestny (1925 - 2016) is a twentieth-century artist who produced various sculptures that can be linked to the Expressionist movement. The artist created in many media : drawing, printmaking, painting and sculpture.

He makes privileged use of bronze and brass, but also steel, concrete and wood, sometimes combined. He also creates monumental works for public spaces (memorials, urban sculptures) and smaller-scale pieces for private collections.

He works in fused bronze and brass, with various patinas, and welded assemblies for steel. The surface is treated in a powerful, expressive way, with angular, faceted, often fragmented volumes.

He combines organic elements with biomorphic forms and human bodies, then geometric with blocks and mechanical structures. The workmanship is often rough and uneven, marked by the trace of manual labor or welding.

Themes are centered on the human body (torso, face, hand), and treated as a symbolic and universal form, not a realistic one. The figures are frequently fragmented or reduced to anatomical essentials, but always charged with inner energy. The dialogue between abstraction and expressive figuration is constant.

The sculptures are conceived as dynamic structures, playing on unstable balance, internal tension and monumentality. Voids are as important as solids: the surrounding space becomes an integral part of the sculpture.

He constructs his sculptures in vertical assemblages, suggesting forces of compression or elevation. His works are also marked by memories of war and the traumas of the 20th century.

He sees his figures as existential allegories, with a struggle between oppression and freedom, life and death, matter and spirit. He is influenced by Russian Constructivism (Tatline, Gabo), but transformed into an existentialist, organic language.

Like Western and structural Expressionism (Giacometti, Henry Moore), he at the same time asserts a Soviet specificity. Iossipovitch Neizvestny is defined as a dissident artist, in conflict with official socialist realism, but paradoxically respected for his symbolic force (Kruchtchev himself recognized this despite virulent criticism).

Neizvestny, his life, his work

Ernst Iossipovich Neizvestny (1925-2016), a Russian artist, became an important figure in 20th-century Russian expressionist art, both in painting and sculpture.

He was born in Lekaterinburg, at the time the fourth-largest city in the Soviet regime. Very little is known about his life and career.

He worked with a variety of inspirations, including ancient figures (without adopting their iconographic canons), elements of religious art, notably crucifixes - resulting in representations close to those of German expressionist artists. The artist also takes on more recent codes, such as the Statue of Liberty.

He died in New York in 2016.

Focus on Torso, 1960, Yossipovich Neizvestny

Torso is a bronze sculpture created in 1960 by the artist during his Soviet period, which was subsequently developed into editions. These are bronzes made using lost-wax casting, generally in small to medium format (30 - 70cm).

The work can be found in private collections and Western museums (MoMA, Zimmerli Museum). It partially depicts the human body, reduced to a fragmentary bust.
There is no head, the limbs are sketched out, and the work focuses on the central mass of the body. The form is asymmetrical, crossed by lines of tension and internal voids. The surface is rough and uneven, marked by the imprints of modeling.

There is an alternation of solid volumes (massive, compact zones) and hollows (internal voids, cracks), creating a plastic breath. The patina is dark, with shades of brown and green, accentuating the dramatic effect.

The torso seems both fragmented, like an ancient relic, and alive, carrying an internal energy. The irregular volumes catch the light in a moving way, reinforcing the impression of suffering and thwarted vitality.

The fragment becomes a metaphor for the human condition, insofar as it is broken, incomplete but animated by an inner force. The human figure, reduced and mutilated, reflects the violence of Soviet history, as well as the memory of war and repression.

This work is quite intimate, as opposed to public monuments, and concentrates its expressive charge on the tactile and direct relationship to the body. It is close to European sculptural expressionism (Giacometti, Germaine Richier), but with an organic intensity of its own.

This work recalls ancient fragments (Greek or Roman torsos) but reinterpreted in a modern, existential aesthetic, approaching in this respect Mitoraj. The work is representative of the way in which Neizverstny, at his own level, constructs a sculpture that is both tragic and universal.

Neizvestny's imprint on his period

Neizvestny is a well-known artist among lovers of Russian sculpture and painting, and is the author of a sizeable artistic output. Today, most of his works are kept by private collectors, which increases the value and success of his works on the auction market.

His bronze sculptures are particularly prized as they are absolutely unique pieces that reveal the artist's inspiration and way of working, but his paintings are just as famous and prized, and are constantly breaking records on the auction market.

Recognizing Neizvestny's signature

It's not always easy to decipher or even be lucky enough to come across a work signed by Neizvestny, which is why expertise is important.

Knowing the value of a work

If you happen to own a work by Ernst Iossipovich Neizvestny, request a free appraisal without further delay via our form on our website.

A member of our team will contact you promptly to provide you with an estimate of the value of your work, not forgetting to send you ad hoc information about it.

If you're considering selling your work, our specialists will also help you find alternatives to sell it at the best possible price.