Valery Yurlov: it’s time to comprehend what we see

Valery Yurlov (b. 1932) is an abstract artist from the generation of post-war non-conformist avant-garde who never joined any artistic movement, preferring to live and work more like a hermit. He developed his own alphabet of geometric shapes and was a pioneer in studying the relationship of pairs of shapes in painting, graphics, collages, and objects.

“Before and After” is Yurlov’s plastic formula that he found on the seashore in the late 1950s. During one of his walks, he noticed a tin can broken by a wave. By comparing the two forms – the whole and the modified – Yurlov discovered a universal metaphor for the unity of opposing principles that form the basis of the universe.

We met the artist in his studio and asked about his early drawing studies in the 1940s, how he develops his abstract compositions, and makes them emotional.