Lev Nussberg

Artist. Born in the family of Woldemar Nussberg in Tashkent (1937). Studied at the Moscow Secondary School of Art (1951–58, expelled for abstraction) and graduated from the Moscow Regional School of Art (1958). Worked for publishing houses and taught drawing. Founded the Dvizhenie (“Movement”) group of Kinetic Art (1962), including Vladimir Akulinin, Galina Bitt, Alexander Grigoriev, Rimma Zanevskaya-Sapgir, Francisco Infante and Yury Lopakov (Sergei Zorin and Vyacheslav Koleichuk were affiliate members). The group collapsed as a result of creative differences and pressure from the authorities (first half of the 1970s). Leader of Russian Kinetic Art. Started painting works of Op Art and minimalism (1961). Continuing the traditions of Constructivism, addressed three-dimensional constructions made of different materials. Studied the concept of symmetry in a constantly changing environment and the idea of synthetic art employing the new possibilities of modern technologies. Awarded a number of official commissions, including decorating the centre of Leningrad on the fiftieth anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution (1967) and planning the enormous Fifty Years of the Soviet Circus exhibition at the Moscow Manège (1969). Emigrated to Germany (1976). Lived in Vienna, Paris and West Berlin. After emigrating to Germany, where Dvizhenie had already made a name for itself, managed to reassemble part of the group and continue work on futuristic utopian projects of an artificial “bio-kinetic environment.” Dvizhenie finally wound up when its leader emigrated to the United States (1981). Lives in the United States. Contributed to exhibitions in private apartments (from 1957), in Russia (from 1964) and abroad (1965).