Oleg Kudryashov born in Moscow in 1932. He became one of the leading graphic artists in Moscow in the 1960s, but finding himself alien to the official Soviet culture, emigrated to London in 1973 where he lived and worked there until 1998. He is the only famous Russian artist who chose to emigrate to Britain and after being discovered by Ronald Penrose rubbed shoulders with the likes of Peter Blake and Frances Hodgkins on equal footing. He represented Britain at the Third Biennale of European Graphic Art in Baden- Baden in 1983.

Oleg's creative diapason is very wide. Despite being primarily a graphic artist, he does not want to be entrapped in the two-dimensional flatness of paper; he transforms the medium into spatial construction, crossing from paper reliefs to metal sculptures. When he is hindered by the stillness of time locked in his drawings he turns to a film camera, setting the forms born by his powerful creative energy in motion. Oleg sees no dividing lines between different art genres and forms.
The Tate Gallery curators were the first ones to buy the works of this unusual and original London artist from Russia. The Tate was followed by the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow, the National Gallery of Art and Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Museum Boijmans, Rotterdam and all major Russian art museums.

Oleg Kudryashov moved back to Russia in 1998 where he was awarded the State Prize for Arts, the highest National Art Award, in 2001.

Preface by: Christina Lodder