Konstantin Konstantinovich Kuzminsky (1940-2015)
Konstantine Konstantinovich Kuzminsky (Kонстантин Константинович Кузьминский) was a Russian artist, performance poet, and long-time resident of Lordville after previously living in Soviet Russia.
Born in Leningrad on April 16th, 1940, Kuzminsky emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1978 to Lordville, New York to avoid prosecution by Soviet authorities for his non-conformist works and beliefs. Kuzminsky was a mastermind artist of the Soviety non-conformist movement, and moving to America allowed him to further his work and grow as an underground artist. He published "The Blue Lagoon Anthology of Modern Russian Poetry". Other publications include a collection of Russian poetry "The Living Mirror". He appeared in several documentary films, among them two by Andrei Zagdansky: Vasya, a portrait of a close friend and Russian/Soviet nonconformist artist Vasily Sitnikov and Konstantin and Mouse a.k.a. "Kostya and Mouse", a double-portrait of Konstantin Kuzminsky and his wife Emma, nicknamed Mouse.
When Kuzminsky moved to Lordville, he settled in what was originally the Lordville Post Office/General Store with his wife, Emma. Kuzminsky died on May 2, 2015 in his home in Lordville. Today, the house has been preserved with the various works of Kuzminsky as the Konstantin Kuzminsky Museum.
Watch the Konstantin and Mouse documentary by Andrei Zagdansky on YouTube
Konstantin Konstantinovich Kuzminsky circa 1981