Vagrich Bahchanyan in the Stella Art Foundation
ARTinvestment.RU   26 января 2010

In the Stella Art Foundation opened the exhibition of works of classic modern art of Russia Vagricha Bahchanyana from his own collection fund

In the space of Stella Art Foundation Mytnaya (st. Mytnaya, 62) An exhibition of works of classic modern art of Russia Vagricha Bahchanyana from its own collection fund. This eighty-graphic sheets of the almost infinite number of works created by a remarkable artist, who died Nov. 12, 2009 in New York. In addition to individual works, viewers will see two large series, created Bahchanyanom already in the U.S.: "Naked" Truth "(1974) and" Americans Russian eyes "(1983). All works Bahchanyana demonstrated in Moscow for the first time.

first series ( "Naked" Truth ") was made immediately after the emigration . In it the artist uses clippings from the main Communist newspaper Pravda, connecting them with the "capitalist" pornographic images. As a result, headlines, taken out of context, are a direct commentary on the sex scenes. Obscenely comic effect is reinforced by the fact that the official Soviet culture remained very deerotizirovannoy, why in the course were the expressions, erotic nuances are not taken into account. But in the colloquial lexicon, in anecdotes and folklore of other samples of similar meanings are accented and otherwise play with.

second series ( "The Americans Russian eyes") is reproduced in an enlarged form of fragments of Soviet cartoons showing " savage grin of imperialism. These images are deprived of the text, as they say for themselves. Promotional expression nonwaste Bahchanyanom converted into an art, the consciousness of the viewer affects only the form: line, the contrast of black and white, scale.

himself Vagrich Bahchanyan, - schedule, writer, artist books by objects and performances - defines itself as "the artist's words." Using this language stamp purely ironic, he always played a favorite trick turning inspirational nonsense in elegant language formulas. In other words, easily operated methods of the discipline, which in the slang of contemporary art theory called deconstruction, or critique of language. Explain any bahchanyanovskih tricks - meant to kill his essence, to keep the miracle of art to the technical banality. Instead of sleight of hand that the artist used his inexhaustible wit, which, as it should be witty, based on the spectacular savings. The quiet replacement pair of letters in a word, change of context, "confrontation" of the text with image, the return of metaphor to a literal meaning - need to receive the artist was always ready. "What do I do?" - He answered the question about his profession. - Tampering doing. Exchange ideas, concepts, sometimes one letter ».

admirer of Russian Futurist poets Velimir Khlebnikov and Alexei Kruchyonykh , Bahchanyan was the predecessor, the initiator of many literature-centric tendencies in the Russian unofficial art. At the core of his creativity is the gift of wit and fine sense of the word. This characteristic bahchanyanovsky humor is not self-sufficient. His countless puns - the result of experimentation with linguistic formulas, in particular with the acoustic nature of language. Visual works Bahchanyana built similarly - on a system of creating new meanings of substitution, similes and establishing links between random shapes.

Vagrich Bahchanyan (1938-2009) was born May 23, 1938 in Kharkov (Ukraine). In mid-1960 he moved to Moscow. His first solo exhibition was held in 1968 in a Moscow cafe "Blue Bird". In 1967-1974 he worked in the department of humor "Literary Gazette" Club 12 chairs. " Collages Bahchanyana also been published in magazines "Knowledge - force" and "Youth". In 1974 he emigrated to the United States, where New York went on an artistic activity, to associate it with sots-art.

In 1977 Bahchanyan was an exhibitor La nouva arte sovetica - una prospettiva non ufficiale the so-called "dissidents Biennale in Venice. In 1979 his works were exhibited at Artist's Book, held in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Pompidou Center in Paris. In 1981 he participated in the 16 th Biennial in Sao Paolo. Works Vagricha Bahchanyana are in the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, (New Brunswick, USA), the State Tretyakov Gallery, State Russian Museum and other collections.

Bahchanyan published several books, including including: the Autobiography of forty years the author "(1981); Visual diary: 1/1/80 - 12/31/80 (1981);" demarche enthusiasts "(1985) (co-authored with Sergey and Nahum Dovlatov Sagalovskim);" Signac under eye: puantel Aviv Poem "(1986)," Not a day without a line (annual report) "(1986)," Poems of various years "(1986)," a lot of the Flies: making art "(2003)," "Cherry Hell and other plays "(2005).

The exhibition runs until April 9, 2010.

Source: news release Stella Art Foundation

January 22, 2010 at the NCCA was evening in memory Vagricha Bahchanyana . story about him and photos taken at the party, You can look at the forum ARTinvestment.RU .