Exhibition "Around the Book." Painting, installation

The international project of two masters of modern art Naftali Rakuzin (Paris) and Alexander Reichshtein (Helsinki) is dedicated to a book whose subjectivity is rapidly becoming a thing of the past, and life is comparable to human life.

Squash Naftali. Photography today, oil on canvas, 73x116cm, 2011

The concept of the exhibition is based on the clash of artistic methods of two creators, united by a common background and theme (book), but belonging to different generations and living in different cultural environments of France and Finland.

For Rakuzin, the book is the main character and plot of the picture, for Reichshtein - an art space in which you can live, play and reincarnate.

Living for more than 30 years in the capital of painting, Naftali, Rakuzin is faithful to the stubbornness of Paul Cezanne and reveals the new potential of the picture, depicting the world of albums and books about art. The origins of his work are connected both with the French school of painting, and with his immediate environment - Moscow nonconformists who settled after leaving the USSR in Paris (Oscar Rabin, Eric Bulatov, Mikhail Roginsky). The artistic method of Rakuzin does not contain sarcasm or irony over Soviet life, as in the works of social art, but is connected with the heritage of the everyday culture of a particular group - the Soviet intelligentsia, for which books of the home library, especially art and species albums, were usually the only opportunity virtual displacement and marker of own identity.

Reichstein lives for 26 years in the design capital of Helsinki, where sometimes he still illustrates and designs books, but basically creates total museum installations arranged according to book laws and dedicated to books and book authors. The basis of his method is a look at the book as a design form endowed with unlimited potential for subsequent manipulations in the spirit of ready-made.

Rakuzin N. Literary Petersburg watercolor and colored pencils, 104x104cm, 2007

At the exhibition “Around the Book”, Alexander Reikhshetin creates a multidimensional labyrinth from volumes compiled specifically for the project. According to the artist, this is a metaphor for "a complex, full of meanings of the book world, a journey through which leads to the knowledge of himself…". Books that have become unnecessary, which are cramped on the shelves of their former owners, have developed in spirals, turrets and houses, becoming art objects endowed with diverse symbols.

The combination of Rakuzin’s paintings with Reichstein’s sculptural installation gives rise to new meanings and texts of culture, enhancing the perception of the works of both authors.

Moving through the book maze in front of paintings depicting books gives the static picture dynamic characteristics - the effect of a movie is the other way around. With multiple approaching and distancing, painting acquires the properties of kinetic sculpture, and the viewer becomes interested in viewing the exposition and in his own volumes on bookshelves.

The books used in the construction of the maze, visitors can take home on the day of the official closing of the exhibition 17. 04. 2016. The exhibition is held with the participation of the Agency. Art Ru.

Entrance to the museum: Liteiny pr., 53. The museum is open from 10.30 to 18.30, on Wednesday from 12.00 to 20.00

The cash desk closes an hour earlier. Cashier: 272-22-11, exhibition department: 272-58-95 Day off - Monday.