Zverev’s "Don Quixote" from the collection of the museum belongs to a later period in the artist’s oeuvre and depicts two riders on horsebacks during the fight. The painting shows the scene of the battle of Don Quixote with the Knight of the White Moon, described in Cervantes' novel, resulting in the defeat of the "knight of the sorrowful countenance". 
The main character of the composition – the "persona" Don Quixote – metaphorically conveys the kind of an artist who does not belong to any group, who has not affiliated to any direction. Zverev belongs to this type as well. Artist appeals to this topic due to the problem of the loneliness of a creative person, and the conflict between aspirations and the real life of the representatives of this generation of artists, who could not fully express themselves within the atmosphere of "underground art".

Evgenia Sergeeva-Zelfond

A fragment of an article for the "Russian unofficial art of the second half of the XX century" collection for guidebooks of the "Twenty-five" series