Artist of the week: Ilya Kabakov
ARTinvestment.RU   15 февраля 2013

Considerable work of Ilya Kabakov will be stored and exhibited in Moscow CSR "Garage". Pictures, albums, installations will return home for its author

considerable work Ilya Kabakov is now stored and exhibited at the Moscow Contemporary Art Center "Garage". Pictures, albums, installations will return home for its author.

Ilya I. Kabakov was born September 30, 1933 in Dnepropetrovsk. In 1941, early in the war, the family was evacuated to Samarkand, and in 1943, 10-year-old Ilya started attending classes at the Leningrad Academy of Arts, also evacuated in this Uzbek city (Kabakov said: « in art school I started to learn before he realized himself as an artist »). In January 1944, the Academy travels to Zagorsk. Ilya with his mother (his father in 1943, went to the front) go for it and for a time lived in the suburbs. In the summer of 1945, the Academy returned to Leningrad, but Kabakov not obtain permission for residence in Leningrad. To move to Moscow, too, does not work, so the mother remains in Zagorsk, and Ilya began to study at the Moscow Art School and lives in a boarding house with her until his income in 1951 at the Surikov Institute.

It is believed that the youth spent in a hostel world where Kabakov came at the age of 12 years (let us not forget), affected the perception of life, art and his work. After many decades of motive little man in a huge, crushing him world, a world of communal and lack of personal space is one of the main (ideeobrazuyuschih) in his work.

artist remembers that in 16 17 years very sharp distinction between life and art. Art for art itself and to others: « I immediately made the decision to live as a normal Soviet people, under the laws of the society» . In art for himself, he can be free to express the world of thought and the way he perceives them, and in his life, he tries to be like everyone else.

Perhaps therein lies the key to understanding the duality nature of the artist in the Soviet period of his life (in 1987, he emigrated from the USSR), he is quite known as a book illustrator, a representative of the Soviet official art, while Kabakov - one of the brightest innovators in the parallel world of art informal.

From 1951 to 1957, Kabakov studying for graphic faculty MGAHI Surikov. Here it is largely determined by the artist, and here he began his friendship with the people that are now recognized as pillars of Soviet non-conformist, - About . Vasiliev , E. Bulatov and others defending his diploma - illustrations for the book "Wandering Stars" by Sholem Aleichem, from the late 1950s, he began a book illustration (mostly children) who becomes his official profession and cover for long 30 years. During this time he has completed numerous illustrations for books Detgiz and children's magazines, including "Murzilki", "Merry pictures" and so I must say, in addition to recognizing and reliable position, working illustrator bring a lot of money, which made him to informal work. So, in 1967, the fee, which he received for the design of the book "The House that Jack Built", was spent on repairing the attic of the house on Sretensky Boulevard, and in 1968 got Kabakov shop in Moscow.

In 1959 Kabakov became a candidate, and in 1962 - a member of the Union of Artists .

develops parallel unofficial artist. Since 1953, he starts to do the first works for himself. According to the memoirs of Kabakov, in the period up to 1960, it has created more than 500 abstract graphic works, then partly included in his first album.

Kabakov Two works without a title. 1964 Paper, pencil, colored pencils. 9,7 x 14,3 and 10,8 x 18,7 Estimate: 6 000-8 000 pounds Result: 10 625 lbs PhillipsDePury. 29.06.2012 Source: phillips.com

His albums - a completely different story. At first, he laid out in folders mountains drawings, more or less bringing them together thematically, and used these "art objects" as components in various projects up to the sculptural. In 1970 Kabakov creates about 20 such objects. Later the same folder with pictures were removed from the project and were called (yes, in fact, in many respects, they were) full of artist books. Best known for more than fifty of his albums. One of them - "10 characters" would later name one of his earliest installations.

Proceedings for publishers consuming three to six months of the year, the rest of the Kabakov dedicated creative travel, exhibitions, working in the studio on Sretensky Boulevard.

I must say that in the late 1960s, there was a special circle of artists that the light hand of the journalist Jiri Halupetskogo group now called Candlemas Boulevard (or "sretentsami"). The circle decided to include E. Bulatov and Oleg Vassiliev (Kabakov with them as a student and later, after graduation, he took lessons from Robert Falk ), Steinberg , B. Pivovarova , B. Yankylevsky , who lived in the neighborhood, talked a lot and have been in something similar in their understanding of art. And they formed the backbone of the movement of Soviet conceptual artist. Their works are different in style and technique of execution, but their focus is always not so much shape or color as the inner content of image objects, their idea, in other words - a concept.

Ilya Kabakov - an active participant of many exhibitions of "unofficial" art, from exposures in 1965 in Italy (L'Aquila), in 1966 in Poland (Poznan - Sopot) and the famous one-day exhibition in 1968 in a Moscow cafe "Blue Bird».

in a creative way can be described by Ilya Kabakov several conventional (because there are no clear dates and limits) stages.

As mentioned above, the end of 1950 - beginning of 1960 - x - the time of abstract graphic works.

In late 1960 Kabakov interest in philosophy and aesthetics of monochrome white space by 1969 is its series of white paintings: « My white work usually a badly painted white paint boards on which almost nothing was drawn - only some minor details ». It was assumed that when we look at this forum, it is perceived as a screen, which falls and from which reflected light from some infinite distance. White in Kabakov - is also a description of the emptiness that surrounds the little man.

simultaneously with the monochrome white in Kabakov's work is beginning to penetrate the text, first as an auxiliary method, then - as complete and even the main character.

Kabakov « Says E. Korobov: No need to screw it: I've already tried. " 1992 Serigraphy. 75 x 56 Estimate: 000-150 120 000 rubles. shovel. 01.12.2011, Gallery "SOVCOM" Source: sovcom.ru

In the late 1970s, Kabakov returned briefly Time to figurative art and once again is considering the idea of ​​reminding sotsart then to transmit the results of rethinking your next creative step. By the way, the most expensive work of Kabakov - "Beetle", "Suite" and "Holidays № 10" - things with figurative elements sotsarta.

Kabakov Bedroom Suite. 1981 boards oil. 2146 x 2959 Estimate: 400 000-600 000 pounds Result: 2,036,000 pounds 2nd place in the top 10 auction results website Source: phillips.com

Kabakov Vacations number 10. 1987 masonite, oil, paper, foil, cloth, rope, collage. 1003 x 1562 Estimate: 1 500 000-2 500 000 GBP Sell Price: 1 497 250 pounds third place in the top 10 auction results website Source: phillips.com

Beginning in the late 1970s and all of the following decade Kabakov often refers to the hoax, he creates fictional characters, artists, from person who carries on a dialogue with the audience. It's not an alias, and absolutely independent fictitious person, with his biography and view of the world. Kabakov pretends he curator and publisher of the work of others. So there they invented characters: artists Koshelev, Rosenthal, Spivak. Some of them are characters in a series of further installations under the title "Alternative History of Art." Each of them tells about art in the light of life and invented a creative biography of his hero - a fictional artist. Interestingly, the proposed public Kabakov and self-image as an apprentice invented Rosenthal.

in the 1980s in the work of Kabakov assemblages appear first and the theme of garbage. At this time, the garbage all over the world becomes attractive for art features: it extends the use of artistic techniques and places in the hands of authors yet another metaphor ... In fact any thing sooner or later have a chance to become waste. Ilya Kabakov: «For a foreigner who arrives in Moscow, for example, is an exhibit of all. He is amazed and looking for some meaning in that beautiful house in the center of Moscow turned into some piles of garbage, etc. When I went to the Soviet people, he was horrified: not pass, the whole staircase flooded with mud, etc. . But for a foreigner it's a museum ... And then, when someone starts to move to the attic, he found himself at the center of just disaster. Then, when a visitor passes this hell and into the artist's studio, which is also quite messy room with long unwashed windows, it expects to finally see the real works of art. Then with incredible enthusiasm and a smile on his face painter friendly visitor opens a drawer full of the same garbage that he had seen before on the streets of Moscow and on the stairs ». So, according to the author, no one needs a thing, trash given the status of a work of art - it depends on the context.

In the 1980s and '90s, one more very recognizable and almost universal character Kabakov - fly. It can be seen both in easel paintings, and in installations (there is even a huge project, "Life flies"). Fly to him, an indispensable attribute of the time, something as pervasive as the idea as his, Kabakov, informal art, and no fly has no personal relationship to the place in which it is located, or the place - to fly. Fly in Kabakov - it is also a small man in a totalitarian society: try not to notice it when you have to and the inevitable co-existence, and society can kill him at any moment, without even realizing it.

In the early 1980's theme and communal co-existence in Kabakov comes to the fore (symbiosis with its theme of garbage and flies obvious). A whole "Kitchen Series", and the Kabakov period of his life between 1978 and 1983 calls ZhEKovskim.

By the end of 1980 Kabakov began to create what he calls a total installation - a three-dimensional space, while in which the viewer becomes involved in a creative environment and becomes a kind of co-products: « viewer walks inside the sculptures, he covered it, but not completely free of it, as in a traditional picture». one of the first similar projects - "The man who flew into space from his room" - a room with a catapult in the center and a hole in the ceiling above it, through which the departed person.

Kabakov Man flown away in the space of your room. 1980 Installation Source: winzavod.ru

Post-installation space required each time a new premises in communal and shared by several artists studios is extremely difficult, and come to grips with them the artist gets the opportunity only when it begins to work abroad in the late 1980s. The next twenty years can be called the period of Kabakov scale projects and installations: it is estimated that in the 1990s and 2000s, he created more than five hundred of such projects. Here are some of them:

«Ten characters" (1986) - the first foreign total installation by Ilya Kabakov. Art objects in it are not only the objects and the space around them, but also its audience.

«Toilet" (1992) - a project that brought international recognition to the author, is a typical public toilet recognizable letters M and W and two rows of booths along the walls. Between them (and their direct participation) recreated fairly typical mid-century interior of the Soviet-bedroom apartment. Installing repeatedly and successfully exhibited in the halls of Europe, America and Russia.

Ilya Kabakov Ten characters. 1986 Installation Source: winzavod.ru

Kabakov Toilet. 1992 Installation Source: winzavod.ru

«School № 6" (1993) - one of the most lyrical installations Kabakov, recreates in detail the space model of the Soviet school as she remembered the artist.

Today Kabakov - an internationally recognized master who has received many awards. He became the first Soviet artists who came out of the boundaries of Russian art on the international stage and recognized by the international community, regardless of the country of origin. His works are in the collections and the permanent collections of many major museums and galleries around the world. He lives and works with his wife and co-author of Emilia Kabakov in the U.S..

ILYA Kabakov Beetle. 1982 Wood enamel. 226,5 x 148,5 Estimate: 1 200 000-1 800 000 GBP Result: 2,932,500 pounds PhillipsDePury. 28.02.2008 1st place in the top 10 auction results website Source: phillips.com

In addition to the global recognition of Kabakov and have a very stable market value, as an evidence of his record sales at auction. The highest price for Kabakov - almost 3 million pounds - was paid for his work in 1982 "Bug" at Phillips auction in February 2008.

must say that the peak of popularity was in the Kabakov in 2008, when Russia passed its most ambitious exhibitions and auctions of the world reached record prices.

Recently the new rise of interest in his work among the Russian art community - a month ago, a collection of 40 of his works (mostly older) were purchased for an updated contemporary art center "Garage».

Maria Kuznetsova, AI

Source: chaskor.ru , winzavod. ru , en.wikipedia . org , conceptualism-moscow.org , artinvestment.ru