This exhibition is about farewell to Moscow — according to the artist, the one that he loved, the one that has always been his muse, and which he lost.
From June 21 to September 23, 2022, the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center hosts Semyon Faibisovich’s personal exhibition Razgulyai. Farewell. The exposition includes about 50 of the renowned artist’s works, most of which were made in Moscow and some have not previously been shown to the general public.
In the 1980s everyday, ‘random’ images of the capital and its inhabitants were the artist’s main theme, but each decade demands new optics and stylistic approaches, in line with the latest technology. Shooting his compositions on photo film in his early career, Faibisovich returned to painting at the start of the 21st century after a 12-year hiatus, shooting on a mobile phone, to record the most prosaic stories, anticipating the modern totality of the digital environment, which absorbs things once peripheral and hidden from our curious eyes.
His mastery lies in the closeness of a gaze which is able to discern and highlight the extraordinary in the most banal aspects of everyday life. Semyon Faibisovich may be strongly associated with the term ‘photorealism’ but his works stem not from photography, rather from the impression of real life set within a photo frame. Ranging from documentary photography to semi-abstract painting, Faibisovich’s works defy simple definition.
He presents a multifaceted portrait of the modern city. In the series of works Trolleybus, Kazansky Station, My Yard, Metro Again, Faibisovich offers images of homeless people and beggars, migrants and impoverished pensioners, ordinary workers and street traders. However, his presentation of the common man arises not from an ideological agenda, but from a desire to tell the truth, to capture life as it is. At the same time, it’s a reality which is artistically transformed, by the key positioning of human figures within the space of the canvas, and ultimately by the scale afforded to nondescript images which lends them an occasionally epic quality.
The central part of the show consists of works from Night Razgulyai. Created in 2013 and 2016, this cycle of paintings is Faibisovich's visual poem dedicated to the new Moscow and the new Russia. These paintings will be exhibited for the first time.
Night Razgulyai is the final part of the Comeback project, launched in 2007, which the artist says strives to relate to the new Russian reality and a new era that has just begun to declare itself. He started work on Night Razgulyai. in 2013, before moving to Tel Aviv, and returned to Russia for several months in 2016 to complete the piece. 'This exhibition is about saying goodbye to Moscow — the Moscow I loved which has always been my muse — and which I lost,' reflects the artist.
Biography
· Born in Moscow on February 10, 1949.
· 1966–1972 — student of the Moscow Architectural Institute. After graduation, he combined work in design organizations with classes in graphics, and then painting (since the late 1970s).
· 1979–1988 — architect and designer of the Monumental Artfund Combine of the USSR.
· Since 1976, he has been exhibiting works in basements on Malaya Gruzinskaya Street, where New York dealers and collectors noticed them in the fall of 1985.
· Since 1987, the artist’s paintings have been exhibited in the USA, then in Western Europe and the USSR (Russia).
· Since the late 1980s, he has been writing prose. His novellas and short stories were published in the magazines Ogonyok, Oktyabr, Znamya, Literary Review, Novy Mir and others. In 1993, he began to act as a publicist and essayist.
· In 1995, he suspended painting studies.
· In 1997, for the story Uncle Adik he received the literary prize of the Znamya magazine. The collection of articles New and non-new Russians in 2000 and the novel Story of an Illness in 2002 were on the shortlist of the Andrei Bely Prize.
· Since the late 1990s, he has been creating installations, photography and video art. Winner of the Silver Camera Award in the categories ‘Architecture’ (2002) and ‘Faces’ (2004).
· In 2007, he resumed painting studies, starting the project Comeback which included the cycles Trolleybus, Razgulyai, Metro Again, My Yard, Dog’s Life, Kazansky Station and others. In 2013–2016, he worked on the cycle Night Razgulyai.
· In 2015, he emigrated to Israel, where he created The New World project using purely digital technologies.
· Lives in Tel Aviv.
Faibisovich’s works are included in the collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow, Russia), the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (Moscow, Russia), the Multimedia Art Museum (Moscow, Russia), the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Great Britain), the Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation (Aachen, Germany), the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University (New Brunswick, USA), the Museum of Art in Łódź (Poland), the Kunsthalle Emden (Germany), as well as in private collections in the UK, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Russia, the USA and other countries.
Exhibition curator: Danila Bulatov
Exhibition time: June 21 — September 23, 2022
Location: new space of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center
Age limit: 12+
The project was implemented with the support of businessman and founder of the SAFMAR Charitable Foundation M.S. Gutseriev:
With the support of:
Information partners:
In the 1980s everyday, ‘random’ images of the capital and its inhabitants were the artist’s main theme, but each decade demands new optics and stylistic approaches, in line with the latest technology. Shooting his compositions on photo film in his early career, Faibisovich returned to painting at the start of the 21st century after a 12-year hiatus, shooting on a mobile phone, to record the most prosaic stories, anticipating the modern totality of the digital environment, which absorbs things once peripheral and hidden from our curious eyes.
His mastery lies in the closeness of a gaze which is able to discern and highlight the extraordinary in the most banal aspects of everyday life. Semyon Faibisovich may be strongly associated with the term ‘photorealism’ but his works stem not from photography, rather from the impression of real life set within a photo frame. Ranging from documentary photography to semi-abstract painting, Faibisovich’s works defy simple definition.
He presents a multifaceted portrait of the modern city. In the series of works Trolleybus, Kazansky Station, My Yard, Metro Again, Faibisovich offers images of homeless people and beggars, migrants and impoverished pensioners, ordinary workers and street traders. However, his presentation of the common man arises not from an ideological agenda, but from a desire to tell the truth, to capture life as it is. At the same time, it’s a reality which is artistically transformed, by the key positioning of human figures within the space of the canvas, and ultimately by the scale afforded to nondescript images which lends them an occasionally epic quality.
The central part of the show consists of works from Night Razgulyai. Created in 2013 and 2016, this cycle of paintings is Faibisovich's visual poem dedicated to the new Moscow and the new Russia. These paintings will be exhibited for the first time.
Night Razgulyai is the final part of the Comeback project, launched in 2007, which the artist says strives to relate to the new Russian reality and a new era that has just begun to declare itself. He started work on Night Razgulyai. in 2013, before moving to Tel Aviv, and returned to Russia for several months in 2016 to complete the piece. 'This exhibition is about saying goodbye to Moscow — the Moscow I loved which has always been my muse — and which I lost,' reflects the artist.
Biography
· Born in Moscow on February 10, 1949.
· 1966–1972 — student of the Moscow Architectural Institute. After graduation, he combined work in design organizations with classes in graphics, and then painting (since the late 1970s).
· 1979–1988 — architect and designer of the Monumental Artfund Combine of the USSR.
· Since 1976, he has been exhibiting works in basements on Malaya Gruzinskaya Street, where New York dealers and collectors noticed them in the fall of 1985.
· Since 1987, the artist’s paintings have been exhibited in the USA, then in Western Europe and the USSR (Russia).
· Since the late 1980s, he has been writing prose. His novellas and short stories were published in the magazines Ogonyok, Oktyabr, Znamya, Literary Review, Novy Mir and others. In 1993, he began to act as a publicist and essayist.
· In 1995, he suspended painting studies.
· In 1997, for the story Uncle Adik he received the literary prize of the Znamya magazine. The collection of articles New and non-new Russians in 2000 and the novel Story of an Illness in 2002 were on the shortlist of the Andrei Bely Prize.
· Since the late 1990s, he has been creating installations, photography and video art. Winner of the Silver Camera Award in the categories ‘Architecture’ (2002) and ‘Faces’ (2004).
· In 2007, he resumed painting studies, starting the project Comeback which included the cycles Trolleybus, Razgulyai, Metro Again, My Yard, Dog’s Life, Kazansky Station and others. In 2013–2016, he worked on the cycle Night Razgulyai.
· In 2015, he emigrated to Israel, where he created The New World project using purely digital technologies.
· Lives in Tel Aviv.
Faibisovich’s works are included in the collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow, Russia), the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (Moscow, Russia), the Multimedia Art Museum (Moscow, Russia), the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Great Britain), the Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation (Aachen, Germany), the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University (New Brunswick, USA), the Museum of Art in Łódź (Poland), the Kunsthalle Emden (Germany), as well as in private collections in the UK, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Russia, the USA and other countries.
Exhibition curator: Danila Bulatov
Exhibition time: June 21 — September 23, 2022
Location: new space of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center
Age limit: 12+
The project was implemented with the support of businessman and founder of the SAFMAR Charitable Foundation M.S. Gutseriev:
With the support of:
Information partners:
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