Pace is pleased to present the gallery’s first exhibition of work by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov. Featuring seven paintings from recent series and the 2003 installation I Catch the Little White Man, Pace Gallery’s exhibition is part of a constellation of events celebrating the artists’ life and work throughout New York City this fall season. On September 27, the eighth edition of the artists’ conceptual installation, The Ship of Tolerance, premiered in Brooklyn as part of the DUMBO Arts Festival’s 17th edition. The new documentary by Amei Wallach, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: ENTER HERE, will make its U.S. premiere with a two-week run at New York’s Film Forum on November 13.
Widely regarded as Russia’s most celebrated artists, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov are recognized for their work internationally which extends beyond their years under the Soviet Union in an address of the human condition universally. Incorporating themes of memory and illusion, their work commonly plays with the concept of a dual reality.
With works made from 2010 to 2013, Pace’s presentation draws from four series. Three of these series: The Appearance of Collage, Vertical Painting, and Dark and Light fall into what the artist describes as “The Great Arc”. Categorizing his works from the 1970s to 2013 by meaning and aesthetic rather than chronology, Ilya divides “The Great Arc” of his work into four “Acts,” each with certain traits. At the beginning of the arc are white paintings with, as Kabakov describes, “small elements of reality.” In Act Two the elements of reality increase and by Act Three “reality covers the entire surface of the painting.” In Act Four “darkness” which the artist distinguishes from “black” begins to seep in, as seen in this exhibition with Kabakov’s Dark and Light paintings, and by the finale of Act Five “darkness covers the entire surface of the painting”.
Throughout the arc Kabakov relies heavily on the appearance of collage to create different relationships between “reality” and “darkness”. In her essay for the catalogue curator Kate Fowle describes the artist’s use of this technique and its significance, “Culled from magazines, postcards, and photos, the imagery in all the recent series is reminiscent of a bygone time, perhaps because of the palette that Kabakov adopts. In this way, the visual aspect of the work gives a sense of the perpetual history of quotidian life, but no indication of a particular moment.” Kabakov purposefully creates fragments which are ambiguous in place and time to encourage viewers to contemplate the stability of each scene and the stability of one’s own reality.
Drawing from Act Three, the exhibition’s The Appearance of Collage #12 (2012) and Vertical Painting (s) relish in the comfort of a canvas consumed fully by excerpts of reality. However, tension is created through composition. In Vertical Painting(s) #5, #9, and #12, each created in 2012, the composition is uniquely divided with the upper half twisted horizontally, across the upright, vertical lower, appearing as Kabakov describes as if it has been “ripped off by the wind and tossed to the side in strange tatters.” Distinguishing them from baroque works in which tense skies battle against grounding landscapes, Kabakov utilizes composition to instigate a sense of forewarning and challenge if reality has been revealed or is about to be whisked away.
As Kabakov’s “Great Arc” continues into the fourth act, the sense of play in regard to what is real continues in the artist’s use of the illusion of collage and is increased by contrasts in color palette. In Dark and Light #5 and #9 lighter scenes of “depicted reality” are interspersed by elements of “darkness.” The contrasts in tone question which scene is at the forefront and whether reality or darkness will prevail.
The concept of layered realities is continued throughout the exhibition in Painting With A Door #1 (2010). In this work the 2’ 3 15/16” x 5’ 8 1/2” in oil on canvas picture offers a literal “window” into a life behind closed doors. However, upon focusing on the larger scale wooden door (6’ 7 1/2” x 2’ 11 1/5”), a consuming curiosity of the unknown renders the picture obsolete and its explanation disconnected. The concept of a window into something further is present also in the artist’s 6’ 5 15/16” x 8’ 11 1/16” The Window Into My Past (2012).
In addition to recent paintings, Pace’s exhibition will include Ilya and Emilia Kabakov’s 2003 installation I Catch the Little White Man. The installation features a wooden cabinet spanning 5’ 4” x 2’ 8 1/2” x 7’ 7” high in which strings of white figures of men are illuminated behind glass.
Following his seminal albums from 1970-1975, the artist began experimenting with three-dimensional habitats for his characters. In the beginning, these installations were relatively restricted in scope before Kabakov’s emigration to the United States in 1987 provided him with greater artistic freedom and access to large exhibition spaces. By the mid-1980s, “total” installations consumed much of the artists’ practice.
Text by Pace Gallery
Image (left): courtesy Pace Gallery; © Ilya and Emilia Kabakov
