Painter, writer, critic, actionist went all the way from expression to concept, United by a powerful intellectual beginning, which is preserved throughout his creative life

January 31, 2020 did not become the artist, the writer, the actionist and founder of the ESCAPE programme Valery Kharitonovich Eisenberg.

His life was marked by constant movement not only in art but also in space — between Moscow, new-Йорком and tel-Авивом. The artist himself said that he "lives" where it turns out to work and compose in the moment.

In 2017 it is large (over 100 works) retrospective "Migratio" ("Migration") showed a constant process of transformation, changing places and directions — the very essence of the creative and personal life of the artist. Eisenberg was engaged in expressive and conceptual painting, photography, video, doing performances and wrote texts about art and poetry, participated in public cultural life.

Valery Eisenberg was born 9 September 1947 in the city of Bakhmach, near Chernigov. He graduated from the Kharkov Polytechnic Institute (1971), worked as an engineer, began to study art, in 1984, arrived in Moscow with the rank of painter-экспрессиониста and a few of the perestroika years was the path from expressionism to conceptualism, which naturally coexisted in his early works: "... it is impossible to compare with conceptualism expressionism — there is confession, anguish of the soul when the artist expresses himself extremely. But the Moscow conceptualism is a kind of confessional, with some emotion, just not shown by the Creek." the Early work of Eisenberg — "Bahurim" (1979), "Adam and eve" (1979), "the feast" (1987) — are confessional in nature, in them emerges the link with the tradition of Eastern Christian art. In the next phase of his work, in 1980-х, there prevailed a spontaneous expression that conveys the impression of the city, which is reflected in his landscape works "Red gate" (1985), "November 7" (1985).

towards the end of 1980-х in his works, the transfer of the image is gradually replaced with expression of relevant ideas, changing set of pictorial means, enhanced by the emphatic signification of the structure, proximity to geometric trends ("Toro-1", "Imperialism"). The late 1980-х marks the appearance of a fully conceptual works, filled with signs, symbols, text ("Drifts"). From the former expression remains except the color...

With the early 1990-х begins "vaivarini" period: the most important thing for the artist becomes a statement, a snapshot of the relevance of the gesture. But oil's not up to it, we need a new tool that allows you to capture stream of consciousness, — watercolor, gouache, video, installations. The space for implementationplans. "At the time, I was worried about the state of nature@the semicolon at the sketches I was so worried that the color relations caused on my tongue and taste sensations (saliva became sweet, then sour, then salty)".

So, in a series of watercolor paintings "Spring fever" is he trying to get his variation of the same painting by Rockwell Kent (one of his favorite things early creative period), your sense of Spring in nature and in human society "In the "Spring fever" happily combines natural phenomena and spiritual experiences, it caused me nervousness, impatience, excitement... the only thing that bothered me in this picture — is a horse. They trample the ground. Usually the thud is a bit annoying. And in my works, I turned to silent animals — caterpillars, larvae, and cocoons, bees, butterflies, beetles — they are just touching the ground. I was interested in the little things, the invisible connection, what forms the continuity of life, the vital impulse (for Henri different person).

Also silent and incorporeal mythological characters, different ancient entities, from time to time take different forms, often hybrid" (source: krokingallery.com).

Soon his workshop became a space for artists, which held exhibitions and actions. The mixing of genres and styles got the author's name Escape program, and soon became known and a group, the nucleus of which, in addition to the Valeria Eisenberg, was his younger colleague Anton Litvin, Liza Morozova, Bogdan Mamonov. This, of course, was a challenge — against the monopolization of the art gallery owners, curators and art-критиками, the emphasis on the artist as the driving force of art. Even the name of the program — Escape — meant care, literally escape from the standards to the personal statement of an individual author.

the work of the early 2000-х often represented installation or video-ребус, which is impossible to unravel without explanation of the author... (for example, the installation "the Eye"). While Eisenberg was convinced that the most important perception, and even the attitude of the artist is often less important than the attitude to work of a certain ideal of the viewer. The question is whether this perfect audience that truly understands that expresses the artist. Especially if the author can't tell us the key to interpretation...

Alexei Smirnov, specifically for AI