Popular Russian painter Yankilevsky passes away at 79

Popular Russian painter Vladimir Yankilevsky breathed his last at the age of 79 in Paris, today.

According to TASS news agency, the news of his death was announced by the Chief Scientific Officer of the Centre for Study and Development of the Modern Art, Alek Epstein.

Epstein wrote on Facebook: "Vladimir Yankilevsky, an outstanding artist and one of the pioneers of the Moscow conceptual art, has died today, shy of his 80th birthday in over a month."

Vladimir Yankilevsky was born on February 15, 1938, in Moscow. In 1962, his works were displayed at the famous exhibition of abstractionist painters devoted to the 30th anniversary of the Union of Artists, during which the then Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, strongly criticised the art of avant-garde artists.

In 1990, Yankilevsky left Russia and lived first in New York and then in Paris, until his death.

The Russian artist's works are displayed at around 35 museums and galleries across the world.