Emilia and Ilya Kabakov or “The Russian Soul of New York” – Part 2

[Continued from Part 1]

The collaboration with the Kabakovs seems to have worked well from the beginning, as it quickly bears considerable fruit:

In 1989, Ilja Kabakov received a DAAD scholarship. This year, Kabakov's works are exhibited exclusively in the DAAD galleries in Berlin, the De Appel Foundation Amsterdam, the Institute of Contemporary Art and the Riverside Studios London, the Galerie de France Paris, the University of Saarland in Saarbrücken, the Genia Schreiber University Art Gallery in Tel Aviv and the Kunsthalle Zürich, and he is invited to group exhibitions in Paris, Munich, Düsseldorf and five Japanese cities.

In 1992, their work was already on display at Documenta IX in Kassel, and Ilja Kabakov taught at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main until 1993. In 1993, the Kabakovs represented their still rather averse homeland of Russia at the 45th Venice Biennale with the installation “The Red Pavillon” .

This trend continued: works by the Kabakovs were shown in all the major and many lesser-known museums of the world, first in Moscow in 1998 (on the private initiative of the US philanthropist George Soros), and officially in their homeland for the first time in 2003/2004, in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

The first Biennale was in Whitney in 1997, many followed, and at the same time public commissions came in from cities all over Europe. To this day, the Kabakovs are extraordinarily successful exhibition artists whose art enriches a considerable number of exhibitions every year.

Although the Kabakov duo only really got going in the late middle of their lives, they have had almost 300 solo exhibitions and a few hundred group exhibitions to date; Kabakov works can constantly be seen somewhere – those interested can find out where in the world they will be exhibited next (sometimes as far in advance as 2020) directly at ilya-emilia-kabakov.com/exhibitions.

The Kabakovs have also received numerous artistic honors and awards (although Ilya is usually the recipient, as our individually conceived awards are generally not geared towards genuine, fruitful collaborations between partners): 1990 Aachen Art Prize; 1992 Arthur Köpcke Award of the Köpcke Foundation Copenhagen; 1993 Max Beckmann Prize Frankfurt am Main, Joseph Beuys Prize Basel, Honorary Diploma Venice Biennale; 1995 Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Ministry of Culture Paris; 1997 Best Show Award of the International Art Critics Association New York; 1998 Goslar Kaiserring; 2000 Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy University of Bern; 2002 Oskar Kokoschka Prize, Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Culture Vienna; 2007 Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy Sorbonne University Paris; 2008 Praemium Imperiale (“Nobel Prize of Art”) Japan Art Association, Order of Friendship from the President of the Russian Federation, Honorary Membership Moscow Art Academy; 2010 Cartier-Lifetime Achievement Award of the St. Moritz Art Masters; 2011 Innovation Prize Moscow, Louise Blouin Foundation Award New York; 2013 Medal for Life-Achievements in Art, Moscow Art Academy; 2014 Commandeur De L'Ordre Des Arts Et Des Lettres, Ministry of Culture Paris, Gold Medal for Achievements in Art, The National Art Club, New York; 2015 Award For Excellence in Arts, Appraisers Association of America New York.

For those who wish to enrich their vacation with enigmatic art, here are the public collections that hold works by Kabakov:

• Australia : Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art Brisbane
• Belgium : Museum for Contemporary Art Antwerp, Stedelijk Museum for Current Art Ghent
• Germany : Hamburger Kunsthalle Berlin, Kunsthalle Bremerhaven, K21 Düsseldorf, Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main, Museum Ludwig Köln, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst in Leipzig , Museum Wiesbaden
• Finland : Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art Helsinki
• France : Musée Maillol Fondation Dina Vierny Paris
• Greece : National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens
• Great Britain : Tate Britain
• Italy : Museo nationale delle arti del XXI secolo + Nomas Foundation Rome, Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea Luigi PecciItaly Prato
• Norway : The Museum of Contemporary Art Oslo
• Portugal : Ellipse Foundation Alcoitão
• Russia : Moscow Museum of Modern Art, National Centre for Contemporary Arts Moscow, Tretyakov Gallery Moscow
• Switzerland : Kunstmuseum Basel
• Slovenia : Moderna galerija Ljubljana
• Turkey : Huma Kabakcı Collection
• USA : Museum of Modern Art, Apexart, Exit Art New York City; Chinati Foundation Marfa, Texas

The farewell as a ticket to success

The artwork that established the fame of the newlywed artist couple was Ilya Kabakov's farewell greeting to Moscow.

This concerns the installation “The Man Who Flew from His Apartment into Space”, 1985, Moscow, bit.ly/2rfttdq. What at first glance appears to be a cluttered room with a hole in the ceiling tells the story of the Soviet Union to anyone with an imagination; including all the hardships suffered by millions of Russians under the incompetent and therefore cruel regime: The room has the exact dimensions of the one-room hole in which Ilya Kabakov had to live in Moscow.

The colorful posters on the walls are typical Soviet everyday propaganda, portraying the joys of Soviet life in a seemingly optimistic (but actually deeply depressing) manner. The actual furnishings don't even seem optimistic; they're simply utterly ugly, left behind untouched and disordered under, in, and above the rubble of the breach, from the unmade bed to the ejection seat made of straps and springs…

Ultimately, the story unfolds as the fulfillment of the collective dream of all those under oppression: the intoxicating vision of escape, made possible by a sudden, miraculously bestowed, overwhelming power. That this escape leads into space may be an expression of a deep-seated pessimism about humanity, but it could also simply be a dig at the Soviet part of the "space race.".

For all the irony, often bordering on cynicism, found in Kabakov's work, this may also be a harsh blow against the Russian population, who collectively dream of miracles; Kabakov must have known perfectly well that improving the lives of all people does not come about by miracle, but is brought about by people acting together (the more people, the faster; the sooner they come together, the less violent).

Definitely a “Kabakov” in the most typical way possible, with the content of the respective installations touching on a huge range of the hardships that humanity has to deal with.

The small room with the crater in the roof was resurrected for the exhibition “Ten Characters” at the Ronald Feldman Fine Arts Gallery in New York: In Moscow, the original installation was only ever set up for a few hours at a time because Kabakov feared uninvited state visits. In 1988, the installation was reconstructed and, for the first time, allowed to be displayed for an extended period without any threat.

With the nine characters that joined the "Man Who Flew from His Apartment into Space" (again, the portfolio series "10 Personažej" was also created between 1972 and 1975), the Kabakovs became pioneers of the total installation. Each character fills a room with the demons of their life: the man who was so short he wanted everyone else to take care of him; the talentless artist who received many official commissions; the tenant who never threw anything away…

Because it would be almost cruel to anticipate the discovery of the far too unknown art of the Kabakovs, only a few titles may whet your appetite here:

• “Vškafusidjaščij Primakov” , 1972 (The Man Sitting in the Cupboard Primakov; a long, completely black narrative in several acts in memory of the founding father of the Russian avant-garde, Kazimir Malevich)
• “By December 25 in Our District…” , 1983 (the two construction shovels were supposed to build the long list of schools and hospitals by the end of 1979, but on December 25th, four years later, they hadn't even started)
• “Vacation No. 1-8” , 1987 (long vacation, for Soviet citizens from life, before even one of the government-promised benefits of normal infrastructure is realized)
• “Incident in the hallway near the kitchen”, 1989.
• “The Red Wagon” , 1991 (a history of the Soviet Union in fast forward, ending in a pile of rubble)
• “The Man Climbing Over The Wall” , model for the sculpture “The Eternal Emigrant”, 1995/2004
• “The Fallen Chandelier” , 1996 (according to Kabakov, the actual artwork is the reaction of passers-by)
• “Model for Healing with Paintings” , 1996/2010 (Is the effect noticeable by 2010?)
• “How to Meet An Angel #2”, 1997/2014
• “And if you look up and read the words” , 1997 (sculpture with text, see www.orbit.zkm.de/?q=node/20 )
• “Wordless” , 1999 (Relationship work on/in the river)
• “Not everyone will be taken into the future” , 2001 (and exhibition title: “Not Everyone Will Be Taken Into the Future”, 18.11.2017 – 28.01.2018 at Tate Modern London)
• “Palace of Projects” , 2001 (in the salt warehouse of the Zollverein coking plant: bit.ly/2BhvjkV )
• “The Window Into My Past”, 2012
• “20 Ways to Get an Apple Listening to the Music of Mozart”, 2016

What remains: Much more than ironic art or a piece of Russia in New York.