Dictionary Of An Artist. The Drawings Of Viktor Pivovarov

Exhibition is open to the public from Wednesday 18 January until Thursday 9 Feb 2012, 4pm to 7pm, Monday to Friday

The first ever exhibition in the UK by Viktor Pivovarov, one of the founders of Moscow Conceptualism, and entitled “Dictionary of an artist” opens on 17th January at Pushkin House in London. The opening of the exhibition will be followed by a conversation with the artist conducted by Professor Sarah Wilson from the Courtauld Institute of Art.

This exhibition represents Pivovarov’s works on paper and comprises three series of drawings.

The first series is entitled “Stroll on roller-skates” and has a conceptual and playful character. Images in this series are consistently present in Pivovarov’s work, being a classic representation of his style, and so make up his artistic dictionary.

The second series of works is entitled “Poet in a snow-covered city” and was produced soon after the artist emigrated to Prague. The theme of desolation and loneliness, of winter, snow and dreams runs through this series. This reflects the situation of the artist. Pivovarov had lost his circle of friends and this translates through his works as a loss of his original stylistic features. It seems to him as though he is loosing his artistic language. One of the central images in this series becomes an individually portrayed head, and as the artist himself points out, this symbolises the rupture between “intellect and body” . Intellect, suffering in a similar fashion to the body, is abandoned and unwanted.

The third series bears the title “Kissing a tree” and comprises of works from different years, featuring a change in technique. These works are linked by the expressive artistic language and tension in the motives, which strip bare the depths of one’s physiological life.