BORISOV Leonid Konstantinovich

June 29, 1943 (Leningrad) — January 6, 2013 (Saint-Petersburg)

Painter, sculptor

Since childhood Borisov took interest in drawing; he attended art studios and designed school wall newspapers. He was not educated in art institute. Borisov was under great impression of abstract art at the American Exhibition in Sokolniki in 1957.

After school, Borisov was interested in radio engineering; in 1968 he graduated from the M. A. Bonch-Bruevich Electro-technical Institute of Communication in Leningrad. He worked as an engineer until the beginning of 1980s.

In 1970 Borisov became acquainted with the artist A. Leonov, who was expelled from the Academy of Arts because Leonov’s manner of painting differed from the canons of socialist realism. Later Borisov was close to the Leonov’s style. Due to Leonov, Borisov became member of the circle of Moscow artists; he became acquainted with E. Shteinberg, I. Kabakov, V. Nemukhin, D. Plavinsky and others.

Borisov’s creative manner was formed under the influence of Malevich’s geometrical compositions. He also was interested in the group Dvizhenie (“Movement”), which was engaged in development of different versions of geometric abstraction in three-dimensional space with technical elements (kinetics).

Borisov was not admitted to Leningrad art circles, and so he together with Leonov moved to Moscow. In 1970s geometric abstraction became the leading idea of his works. The artist combined geometry of Russian avant-garde with minimalism and conceptualism.

According to the art critic V. Turchin, strong influence of Dadaism was noticed in Borisov’s works. His objects were created both in two- and three-dimensional spaces (collages).

Due to technical education, Borisov could find simple and rational decisions for tasks of any difficulty. His constructions were characterized by clearness of the abstract image. His style was based on simplification of the image, on different variations of the elementary geometric figures (Composition, 1995).

In 1974 Borisov visited the Bulldozer Exhibition in Moscow.

Borisov began to participate in exhibitions in 1975. He took part in the Exhibition of sculpture, painting and drawing in the Palace of Culture Nevsky. At this exhibition he exposed three works: Ring, Train and Landscape. He also took part in the exhibition Painting. Graphic. Object in 1976 in the House of Culture named after Ordzhonikidze and in the House of Culture named after Haas. According to the artist, he began to think different after participation in exhibitions.

Borisov’s art was subjected to criticism in derisive articles. He was under threat of arrest for welfarism, as he never worked officially. His friends helped him to get job at a boiler house. During his life the artist changed a lot of jobs: from stoker to cleaner in sanatorium.

In 1978 the first personal exhibition of Borisov was held at the House of Culture named after N. K. Krupskaya in Leningrad. In the same year his works were exposed at the exhibition New Art from the Soviet Union (Washington, Ithaca, New York, USA).

Borisov participated in different group exhibitions: Geometry in art (1988, Moscow), Contemporary Artists — to Malevich (1991, Moscow), Towards Malevich (1992, Vienna, Austria), Nonconformists (1996, St. Petersburg; Moscow; Frankfurt am Main, Germany), Russian Constructivist Roots: Present Concerns (1998, Washington, USA), Gift and Acquisitions.1988–1998 (1998, St. Petersburg), Contemporary Russian Photography (1999, Minneapolis, USA) and others.

Personal exhibitions of the artist were held in 1994 (Cubism), in 1995 (Geometry), in 1999 (Dedicated to Malevich) in St. Petersburg and in 1998 in Moscow (Lessons of Geometry).

Borisov was the first who held an exhibition of experimental art at the Benois Wing of the State Russian Museum. In 2000s he participated in exhibitions Labyrinth, Scientific and technological progress, Krutitsya-vertitsya (“Spinning”), and Sound, held at the Museum of Architecture named after A. N. Shusev in Moscow.

Since late 1980s Borisov began to work in photography. In 1991 the artist together with the collector and photographer V. Sychev (Paris) held action in Olgino in order to restore the former name of the city of Leningrad to St. Petersburg.

Borisov’s sculpture Mu-Mu, exposed in August 2008 at the exhibition New ideas for the city in St. Petersburg, aroused interest of the press and public. In September of the same year personal exhibition of the artist Game was held in the gallery Atelier No.2 at Moscow Centre for Contemporary Art Winzavod. In October his works were exposed at the exhibition Adventures of the “Black Square” by K. Malevich at the Benois Wing of the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

Works by Leonid Borisov are in the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, Penza Art Gallery, Dresden Art Gallery, the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum in the USA, and in others museum and private collections in Russia and abroad.