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Translation of Time XVI, Giotto Projekt.
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The painter Evgeni Dybsky was born into a Russian-Jewish family in 1955 in Romania and grew up in Moscow where he also studied at the school of art and the Surikow art institute. His first trip to Italy in 1988 was to Padua to the frescos of the Cappella degli Scrovegni all’ Arena in Padua, also commonly known as the Arena Chapel or Scrovegni Chapel which contains a fresco cycle completed by Giotto in 1305. Since 1990 Evgeni Dybsky has been living in Germany and Italy. Since 1996 he does not only work in Cologne and Milan but also in Moscow. In Germany he has only just relocated from Cologne to Berlin.
In the 1980s Dysbky ranked among the most important painters in Moscow - at a time when unofficial art distanced itself from the official art of traditionalists and socialist realists: in a process of emancipation he concerned himself with landscape art, conceiving the topos of landscape both in a direct and a metaphorical sense: the breaking down of his compositions into large colour fields led to a simplification of the respective motive to its basic elements and thus to abstraction. When painting since then he has not only used oil paint on canvas or hardboard as materials, but also acrylic paint, tempera, modelling paste, emulsion, even plaster, synthetic fibres and hair.
Since 1992 Dybsky has combined his paintings in a collection that he called Translation of Time and that he numbered consecutively with Roman numerals. Literally speaking, Dybsky’s art is not to be understood as a Translation of Time as the fourth dimension - after space as the third dimension. Instead, to Dybsky it was originally a metaphor that he had found intuitively and that all of a sudden turned into reality. In the same manner in which his collage-like materials protruded from their frames and suddenly integrated the space around them, another aspect was added to his paintings: When Dybsky concerned himself with Giotto di Bondone’s frescos in the Scrovegni Chapel, he created paintings, drawings and aquarelles that form part of his collection Translation of Time. For the first time the Ludwig Museum presents the new series, which by now has reached the number XVI, with the paintings being subnumbered with Arabic numerals.
What gave Dybsky the reason to concern himself with the Giotto’s frescos in Padua? Already as a student Dybsky loved Giotto and he owned a high-quality volume with illustrations of the frescos - the Hungarian reprint of the original version in Italian published by Rizzoli.
In 1988 he saw the originals for the first time and ever since then he has been travelling to Padua regularly - usually when he is on his way to Venice - he often yanked his friends off the train because he was so desperate to revisit the chapel. In 2005 he went there last to see the results of the restauration that had been completed just then - and he was utterly disappointed:
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Translation of Time XVI, Giotto Projekt.
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“You really must not use the word “originals” [anymore, author’s note] for what I’ve seen: the restaurators disfigured the feeling of time and the magic of the frescos... A Russion proverb crossed my mind: “It’s only a step from love to hate”. Not only has the chapel become a tourist attraction where you have to endure educational mini-films before the sightseeing whilst queuing but now you’re also only allowed to contemplate the “originals” for 30 minutes.”
This experience was the reason why he re-painted the frescos in his manner and why he began “the direct dialogue with Giotto - il mio Maestro preferito”, taking into account the many years spent in Italy and the many visits to the chapel in the past 20 years.
“I started to combine my painting structures with the fresco fragments. I still own the monography about Giotto. So I produced a short series of the studies of Giotto’s fragments. Recently I had the idea to reconstruct the works in the chapel, basically to reconstruct what I loved about these frescos. On canvasses having their original size I began to sublimate “my Giotto from Padua”. ... I do not know whether I can or want to “reconstruct” all of the frescos in the chapel: This will depend on whether I can discover something new for myself in this “reconstruction of love”...”
Giotto, Adoration of the Magi and Lamentation
Giotto di Bondone is considered the first in a line of great artists who contributed to the Italian Renaissance. He lived from 1266 to 1337. After 1320 he had a workshop in Florence, and in 1334 he was appointed master builder and surveyed the construction of Florence cathedral. He didn’t live to see the Campanile finished that was named after him. Giotto was friends with the two greatest littérateurs of the 14th century, with Boccacio and Dante Alighieri. He is mentioned in their works Decamerone and Divina Comedia.
Giotto’s masterpiece is the fresco cycle in the Cappella degli Scrovegni all’ Arena in Padua. It contains over 100 scenes of the lives of Mary and Jesus. Especially to the story of the Passion of Christ he dedicated numerous scenes that were created between 1304 and 1306. Giotto takes credit for having given his figures a very natural and vivid appearance, for having integrated these figures into architectural elements and for having used the colour blue extensively for the first time. Thus Giotto overrode the iconographic norms of Byzantine painting and prepared for the central perspective of paintings with very realistic presentations of the bodies and gestures of the figures. Ground lapis lazuli which Giotto used for his fresco cycle was imported from “beyond the sea” and was therefore very expensive. In Padua it creates an extraordinary effect in the colour of the skies.
Hegel wrote: “It was Giotto who geared to the Present and to Reality... The Secular gets more space and expansion...” And with his reflection about Giotto - il mio Maestro preferito Evgeni Dybsky establishes a connection between his early landscape art and his latest cycle, with his art almost becoming concrete again…
A catalogue about the exhibition is published by Kettler:
Evgeni Dybsky. Giotto Projekt – work in progress, 56 pages, 15 Euro.
With contributions by Evgeni Dybsky, Christiane Morsbach, Beate Reifenscheid
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Translation of Time XVI, Giotto Projekt.
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Translation of Time XVI, Giotto Projekt.
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Translation of Time XVI, Giotto Projekt.
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Translation of Time XVI, Giotto Projekt.
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Opening hours
Tue to Sat: 10.30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sun and holidays: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
We are open on Easter Monday!
Admission
Adults 4€, concessions 2€
Children and teenagers: admission free
In addition to the exhibition we offer exciting and educational creative activities!
For example:
Giottissimo! - From Padua to Berlin!
Who was Giotto di Bondone? (part 1)
And why does Evgeni Dybsky want to “reconstruct” his frescos? (part 2)
Wednesday, 22 and 29 April: 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.
After the talk you are welcome to join us for a chat with a cup of tea in the restaurant Blumenhof.
With Rolf Ohly and Christine Morsbach
Admission: 4€ per Wednesday
Both dates can be booked separately, too.
No boredom during you Easter vacation!
Wednesday, 8 April 2009
Workshop I, for children aged six years +, 10.30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Thursday, 16 April 2009
Workshop II, for children ages eight years +, 10.30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Together with other little art lovers you can trace the footsteps of the artists Paul Schwer and Evgeni Dybsky. Discover their works! After that you will build rainmakers, kaleidoscopes, neon balls, spaceships, or you will create modern frescos like Evgeni Dybsky…
Fee: 12 € for each workshop, incl. materials
Registration starts now!
For further information and for the registration please contact:
info@ludwigmuseum.org and 02613-040416
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