Almost nothing is known about the artist Andrei Akuzin, who died in a pretrial detention center. We asked his friend Tatiana Frolova about his life and views

Almost nothing is known about the artist Andrei Akuzin, who died in a pretrial detention center. We asked his friend Tatiana Frolova about his life and views

Andrei Akuzin died by suicide in SIZO-3 in Komsomolsk-on-Amur on the morning of April 10. The artist was 53. There is neither a biography nor any paintings by him online; he almost never exhibited, although he had painted throughout his adult life.

Theater director Tatiana Frolova, who had known Akuzin since the late 1990s and was the first to report his death, believes that he did not consider himself an artist at all, but never stopped painting because, for him, “it was like air.”

Akuzin was arrested on April 2 over some comment on social media; Mediazona wrote that, according to one of the Telegram bots that analyzes users’ public comments, the artist had shown interest in Artpodgotovka, a movement banned in Russia.

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“Scatter my ashes over the Amur”

On April 10, theater director Tatiana Frolova wrote on her Facebook page about the death of her friend, the artist Andrei Akuzin. He hanged himself in SIZO-3 in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Akuzin was arrested on April 2 over some comment on social media; Mediazona wrote…