Ilya Kabakov Drawings

by Ilya Kabakov

Ship from Germany, hardcover. This catalogue accompanies the exhibition dedicated solely to Ilya Kabakov's drawings, in which life, politics and human interaction are recurring themes. His work reveals a deep love for his roots in Russia, but is also seasoned with his quiet humour and capacity to weave stories. His drawings span a period of over 40 the earliest ones, influenced by his critical view of the Soviet regime, were produced in 1956 and the latest ones to be included date from 1997

105 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1999

About the author

Ilya Kabakov (Russian: Илья́ Ио́сифович Кабако́в; born September 30, 1933), is an American conceptual artist, born in Dnipropetrovsk in what was then the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union. He worked for thirty years in Moscow, from the 1950s until the late 1980s. He now lives and works on Long Island.

Throughout his forty-year plus career, Kabakov has produced a wide range of paintings, drawings, installations, and theoretical texts — not to mention extensive memoirs that track his life from his childhood to the early 1980s. In recent years, he has created installations that evoked the visual culture of the Soviet Union, though this theme has never been the exclusive focus of his work. Unlike some underground Soviet artists, Kabakov joined the Union of Soviet Artists in 1959, and became a full-member in 1965. This was a prestigious position in the USSR and it brought with it substantial material benefits. In general, Kabakov illustrated children's books for 3–6 months each year and then spent the remainder of his time on his own projects.