Klever
Images and Biography
Jeffrey Winter Fine Arts
8272 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90046
310-657-4ART (4278)
Klever
1949 -
Klever was born into a military family and was supposed to follow in his fathers’ footsteps by being a recognized soldier. Although Klever was forced to join the military for a required amount of time imposed by the government , his impressions of a military life reinforced his desire to not pursue it as a career. Many paintings that Klever painted are a derivative of the experiences which he encountered during his military tenor.
After the military, Klever continued to paint and enrolled in Universities whose specialties were art and art history. Around this time, Klever became a participant in a group of painters called the “Non-Conformists”. The group was an outlet for him to relate with others who had similar views on the society they all lived in. These painters were told that they could not paint what they wanted to and were stuck in a dichotomy where their desire to be conforming citizens tore at their life’s purpose to paint.
Artistic expression and then following, artistic repression, began to play an even larger part of Klever’s life. The artist began to paint politically-defiant pieces of art which depicted the artist’s view of what life was like in the Soviet Union and life in the Soviet military. These pieces were quite inflammatory and because of this they needed to stay hidden. The paintings were stashed in make-shift walls, behind shelving units and at trustworthy friend’s houses. Regardless of the secrecy, the KGB found out about the existence of these pieces and began to follow Klever’s every move. There were surprise visits to his studio, harassment wherever he went, friends and family being questioned. These paintings are now being publicly displayed.
After several failed attempts to defect, finally in 1978 Klever, along with his family, was able to emigrate to the United States.
When the iron curtain fell in 1986 and perestroika began, Klever was able to return to Russia to retrieve many pieces of art that he wasn’t able to take with him when he emigrated. Through back channels and middle-of-the-night trucks which headed into Paris, Klever was able to bring back to America these art pieces being displayed now.
Klever continues to work on graphics, sculptures and artwork.
