Lev Nusberg

Born Lev Valdemarovich Nusberg in 1937 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Soviet Union. Son of a German victim of the gulag and a Tatar mother. He graduated from the Moscow Art School (MSKhSh). The eye-opening for him was the Picasso exhibition in Moscow (1956). He formed the Dvizheniye group (1962-74) whose members included Francisco Infante and Viacheslav Koleichuk among others. The aim of the group was to create 'bio-centric' systems called Igrovye Bioniko-Kineticheskie Sistemy [playful bionic-kinetic systems]. A charismatic leader, Nusberg attracted people, but some members of the group (particularly Infante) found his management style 'totalitarian'. Nusberg emigrated to the United States in 1974, and led a hermetic life afterwards. In 1977 he participated at Documenta 6. He moved from kinetic art to surrealist painting, and keeps rewriting the history of the movement.