Lydia Masterkova: The Right to Experiment

This first monograph on the work of Lydia Masterkova (1927 2008), one of the few female artists in the unofficial art milieu of the late 1960s and early 1970s, was written by her niece, art historian Margarita Masterkova-Tupitsyna. The book covers the Soviet and foreign periods of Lydia's practice, beginning with her decision to take up the “uncommon and dangerous profession” of an alternative artist in 1943. It includes rare photographs and letters from Lydia Masterkova to Margarita Masterkova-Tupitsyna and Viktor Agamov- Tupitsyn, written during the period of emigration and before the collapse of the Soviet Union. They are published here for the first time.