Artist of the week: Evgeny Chubarov
ARTinvestment.RU   20 июля 2020

History, pricing and marketing indices of the non-conformist, abstract artist and one of the most enigmatic artists of the second half of the twentieth century Eugene Iosifovicha Chubarova

"Each of his paintings — is the space where many worlds. The macrocosm in which every element of the microcosm is absolutely brilliant and refined. Chubarov is incredibly sensitive to the experience of world art, he is constantly co-exist in dialogue with the surrounding new culture".

Gary Tatintsyan. 2007

Years of life: 1934-2012

Direction: abstract

type of art: the painting, sculpture, graphics

Life and work

Evgeny Chubarov born December 11, 1934 in Bashkiria, in the small village of Bobino (or Emashi, according to some other sources). A penchant for drawing manifested itself in the future of the artist in early childhood, but although his father supported the creative aspirations of his son, to learn, and even during the war, was nowhere.

after Graduating from high school, Chubarov went to the city of Zlatoust, where lived his uncle, and was a crafts school. Until 1954, he also studied engraving on metal and the profession of jeweler and designer of decorative weapons. Upon graduation, he was drafted into the army and for the next five years he served in the Baltic fleet.

After the army Chubarov what-то time lived in Saratov, and in 1959 arrived in Moscow Zagorsk (now Sergiev Posad) and met the sculptor D. F. by Caplina, who became his first mentor in the field of fine art. Working as the assistant in the Studio Tsaplina, Chubarov borrowed from him many of the artistic techniques, the interest in the depiction of animals and, obviously, a special relationship to the depiction of form in space. Influence Tsaplina is clearly seen in many sculptural experiments Chubarov — for example, the monument to the victims of repression in 1937, over which the artist worked in 1970-х and which today can be seen in the sculpture Park "Muzeon" in Moscow. In composition, consisting of 237 sculptural heads, clear evidence of the desire to simplify the shapes, coarsening them, avoiding augmented reality, realism to a generalized form that is characterized by both Chubarov sculptures and animal figurines Tsaplina.

Work Chubarov 1960-70-х differ with the underlined figurative, almost vital objazatelnaja forms and unique expression, a characteristic, indeed, for a later artist. In 1960-х in Zagorsk Chubarov was focused on creating figurative paintings and graphic series, in which he depicted the people around him — residents of the small town, neighbors, men and women.

In 1968 Chubarov moved closer to Moscow, in the city of Mytishchi, where with some interruptions he lived until the end of life. In Mytishchi it is, among other things, worked on their sculpted heads. One of his friends, the artist XCAP gassiyev, recalled: "Mytishchi, 6-й district, a vast field between Jubilee street and North CHP. Where-то in the center — a small hill, a summer “workshop–dugout” of the sculptor Yevgeny Chubarov. Dugout, a large mast dug into the ground, rising on the roof rollers. System of his own invention. Possessing great physical strength Chubarov raised the roof by means of a cable, installed the struts, did a workshop. In the evening, afterwork, put the Studio back. On the box the sculptor found large stones (diameter 30-50 cm), dragged the “workshop” and chopping of their heads.

the Main workshop Chubarov, in a deep basement of an apartment house along the walls of the lattice of the wire. For these lattices, he threw the head, brought from the field. Nearby stood a figure out of wood. Over time, these goals from different stones, there is a great amount. An eerie sight in the basement, in the shadows... So, a monument to victims of Stalinist repression in the Park of sculptures in Moscow (for CHA)".

sculpturing and creating multi-figured, for the most part graphic series of the genre, almost reportage stories, remained the main (but not exclusive) directions in the development of his art until the end of 1980-х years. In 1975 he was admitted to the USSR Union of artists, but if then it seemed that the artist's life went in a certain direction, already by the mid-1980-х it became clear that the easy life and making his work in the artistic environment Chubarov is not worth waiting. In the mid 1980-х he developed arthritis, so I had to abandon sculpture and to focus on two-dimensional art. But if three-dimensional work has found its audience, many graphic sheets, made in a unique and distinctive writing style, remained largely not understood and not appreciated.

In 1988, the German gallery "Tetons" invited Chubarov in Germany. Accepting the invitation, the artist and his wife went away for a few years. Chubarov later told friends that he was given shelter and a workshop, provide materials, and he created many works. "While earned little, all the paintings remained in Germany, but waiting for some-то shifts". In the early 1990-х returned home but the shifts did not occur. Moreover, according to his friends, Chubarov sell my graphics on the old Arbat. An A3 sheet of paper was worth 25 rubles. Of course, at the first opportunity, the artist returned to Germany. It was during the second visit, he came from original expressive figurative to full abstraction. Large-scale abstract compositions are inspired Chubarov signs of the ancient culture of Bashkiria and early Buddhism, brought him fame in the international arena.

Attention to their abstractions in 1990-2000-е years Chubarov greatly obliged Tatintsian gallery owner Gary (Gary Tatintsian). With the support of the monumental abstraction Chubarova was shown at the famous venues in Europe and the USA, and later in Russia. Largely through his own efforts, in 1995 the state received a grant of the "Pollock Krasner", dedicated to the support of outstanding artists worldwide. But international fame is not much changed the character and lifestyle of the artist. In 1996, he returned to his apartment in Mytishchi, where he lived a recluse until the end of life in 2012.

Among the surviving memories of the most famous Chubarov associated with a visit to his Studio in Mytishchi Ilya Kabakov in the company of Viktor Pivovarov and Vitaly Patsyukova in 1978 or 1979. Kabakov affected environment portfolio, said: "We were visiting a living genius". Vitaly Patsyukov laterdescribed by the artist: "It is a mammoth in a frozen heap. In this piece he experienced the entire evolution — from the amoeba up to the present time, recorded it on your hard drive and as soon as it thawed, was able to give the information accumulated in a single plane".

In 2004, the State Russian Museum (Saint-Петербург) hosted a large retrospective exhibition of Evgeny Chubarov. In 2015 in the Gallery of Gary Tatintsyan was a personal exhibition of the artist on the 80-летию from the day of his birth. In August of 2016 in the German city of Hagen in the Museum Karl Ernst Ostkhaus opened a personal exhibition of The Works Chubarova Berlin. All the artist's works participated in more than 20 solo and 30 group exhibitions. Chubarov's works were exhibited alongside works of Chalk Bochner, Frank Stella, Sol LeWitt, Damien Hirst, Peter Halley, Stephan Balkenhol and other recognized artists of the twentieth century.

the work of Eugene Chubarova are in the permanent collections of the Pushkin Museum. A. S. Pushkin, the State Tretyakov gallery, Moscow Museum of modern art, abroad — in the collections of the Museum Zimmerly (USA) and the Museum Karl Ernst Ostkhaus (Germany). In Russia and the United States, the artist presented by the gallery Harry Tatintsian.

Financial indicators

the three most expensive works of Eugene Chubarova included painting, created in the early 1990-х years and sold to the British auction houses. The third value of the result was achieved in the year 2016: the painting untitled (1992, oil on canvas) was sold to Phillips for $171 751. The other two record sales are for 2007: the second value of the result was set at Sotheby's: $562 550 for the painting untitled, 1992, and the most expensive work was sold to Phillips for $1 438 992 — is also a painting untitled, written two years later, in 1994-м.

According to the database ARTinvestment.RU, at the time of publication of the artist's work 340 times were brought to auction, of which graphics @321 mdas work, painting @18 mdas works, mixed media — 1 work. The average price of sold works — $9.9 thousand, the Total capitalization on the public market — $2.37 million Has a balance of sold and unsold works 239 to 101 (70 % of all trading completed the sale).

table 1. Sale during the auction

table 2. Sales by country the auction

table 3. Re-sale

Results of re-sales of Eugene Chubarov is not significant: given that the holding period between the purchase and the sale never exceeded 12 months, we can talk about the speculative nature of transactions with the works of the artist. However such mechanisms are widely used when working with contemporary art and increase the number of repeat sales in 2019, says the interest in the growing market for artist (albeit speculative interest). Use the tally exceeded the estimate upon successful sales, the average estimate of all sold works by the artist have been exceeded by 205 % — in other words, the sellers received an average amount of 2 times more than the initial estimation of the auction house. The upper limit of the estimate is recorded at 56 % of sales.

it Should be noted that two of the three most successful sales of works of Eugene Chubarova have for 2007 — on the peak of interest in local art lovers to the Russian artists, reflected in record sales in London and new-Йорке. Then, in 2010-х, the price dynamics of many authors has slowed significantly, and the majority of artists failed to restore market performance. The work of Eugene Chubarova, having experienced a decline in market activity (which can be seen from table 2), in contrast, are much more likely to appear on the secondary market, which seriously increased the percentage of lots sold compared to 2010-2015 years. Part of that was the death of the artist in 2012: the size of the heritage decided the new works of the author brushes on the market do not appear, and existing ones increased in price. But the main reason — patronage Harry Tatintsian as a major collector and dealer of artists, which extends far beyond Russia. If this approach to the legacy of Eugene Chubarova will continue in the future, the modern abstract expressionism to the name of Gerhard Richter ininternational field added a new Russian name.

On the current 339-м AI Auction pictorial composition untitled 1982.

Maria Kuznetsova, AI
Denis Belkevich, AI