[spectre] Michail Tchernishov, ifa Gallery Berlin, Aug 23 - Oct 13, 2002

[Inke Arns]

[in case some of you spectres happen to be in Berlin .... greetings, inke]

Attack
Michail Tchernishov
Works, 1961 =96 2002

ifa gallery Berlin
August 23 =96 October 13, 2002
Opening: Thursday, August 22, 2002, 6 p.m.
Press preview: Thursday, August 22, 2002, 11 a.m.

http://www.ifa.de/a/a2/ea2tschernischow.htm


Michail Tchernishov (born 1945) was the youngest and at the same time the =
most original 
and most radical of the Russian avant-garde artists in the Moscow of the 1=
960s, who 
formed Russia's unofficial art scene.

In collaboration with the Gallery Marina Sandmann, the ifa-Galerie will sh=
ow the first 
retrospective of this artist who lives in New York today. His earliest wor=
k is dated from 
1961, a piece of framed Moscow wallpaper, to which he did not affix a sign=
ature. He 
always wanted to make "Zero-Art", as he calls it. He devoted to the explor=
ation of 
geometric forms and in his installations was especially concerned with Sov=
iet militarism. 
His radicalism and nonconformity led to various commitments to Soviet psyc=
hiatric 
asylums. Finally, in 1980, he was able to move to the USA because of a mar=
riage.

In 1988 in New York, he published the book "Moscow 1961-1967" in Russian, =
which 
presents his views on art and describes the states of mind in which he cre=
ated his works. 
By intensive, private studies in Soviet libraries, he acquired a deep know=
ledge of modern 
art, which inspired his autodidactic work. That this path has also been a =
path of social 
isolation and of confrontation with any =96 especially governmental =96 au=
thority, is not a 
pronounced issue of the book but becomes obvious through the circumstances=
, which he 
describes on the side. The Western reader will come to know of the untowar=
d conditions 
that such an aware mind had to face in "Moscow 1961-1967", partly with inc=
redulous 
astonishment =96 resulting in the higher an esteem of the artist and autho=
r Michael 
Tchernishov. For the first time in German =96 translated by Olga Radetskai=
a =96 this book will 
be published together with the exhibition and will be part of the catalogu=
e.

During his lifetime, Tchernishov examined military and governmental power.=
 The exhibition 
shows an installation that the artist puts under the theme of "Attack" =96=
 a theme that gains 
unexpected relevance in these days. The catalogue contains texts on the wo=
rks of Michail 
Tchernishov. A comprehensive compilation of pictures offers a survey of hi=
s work.

ifa gallery Berlin
August 23 =96 October 13, 2002
Opening: Thursday, August 22, 2002, 6 p.m.
Press preview: Thursday, August 22, 2002, 11 a.m.





Inke Arns
http://www.v2.nl/~arns


Out now:

Netzkulturen. Hamburg, 2002
http://home.snafu.de/inke/Netzkulturen

Neue Slowenische Kunst. Regensburg, 2002
http://www.v2.nl/~arns/Texts/NSK/abstract-NSK2002.html