Two of St Petersburg's finest avant-garde sculptors have finally made it to Russia's finest art gallery after years in the wilderness of the underground movement.
An exhibition of works by the formerly taboo artists Levon Lazarev and Vadim Brodsky is attracting flocks of visitors to the Krunk Gallery, a subsidiary of the Hermitage.
On entering you'll find yourself face to face with Lazarev's beheaded, bronze sculpture "Orpheus." Lacking hands and legs, this complex, tortured figure, is torn apart by jagged spokes protruding from quite unexpected places.
The figure echoes the form of a large, damaged violin, an implementation of tragedy in bronze. It has been silenced; there is a feeling of loss.
Another dramatic sculpture executed by this master is a plastic bust of Pablo Picasso's head. This huge, dark form creates the impression of a giant with big ears and sharp, bulging eyes that almost protrude from the face on stalks.
The bust is aggressive and extremist, like much of Picasso's work, and incorporates the essence of cubism, captured in the fabric and material of the sculpture.
Several other of Lazarev's exhibits are almost electric and this lively feeling is personified in the "Steppen Madonna," a black, faceless figure reminiscent of a pagan goddess.
The woman's womb is open and from it emerges a small baby, almost an idol. Here is the master's idea of the concept of fertility and childbirth, the mystery of birth and life itself.
There are several other madonnas by Lazarev on display. A bronze nude titled "Pieta" is among the best. It is surprising how this 73-year-old sculptor retains such a youthful presence of mind. His nudes are supple and fruitful in his perception of feminine beauty and love.
Turning to the works of the other exhibitor, Vadim Brodsky, we find 10 fascinating works by this graphic artist from his series "Childhood Cycle."
His works seem to be a confusion of colored stains which do not immediately bring a coherent idea to mind. To understand them you should look at them for some time and the images appear.
Time allows you to make out silhouettes of well-known buildings and other landmarks in St Petersburg. It's their relationship to the space in the pictures, upwards or downwards, which conveys their overall mood.
It is harder still to make out his use of color and why particular colors were chosen. Why, in particular did he choose to paint green dogs? And then he chooses to color a physically handicapped subject in bright pink!
Dreamy contemplation is an important strand to his work as in, for example, the picture "Near Kazansky Cathedral" which shows a huge dreamlike figure in a uniform, bending over the tiny cathedral. He makes an impressive character of Dostoevskian proportions.
In the piece titled "Fear" we are confronted with chaotic and restless egg-like creatures, which create an impression of nervousness and instability.
Many of the pieces in the exhibition are for sale, with pictures costing from $150 to $1,000 and $2,000 upwards for the sculptures.
Unfortunately the catalog for this exhibition has only been printed in Russian and each exhibit bears a number rather than its name, making it difficult to identify the works without the catalog.