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| Vitali Stesin |
Vitali Stesin was born in Moscow in 1940. After abandoning his studies in chemistry he started painting intensively in the early 1960s. Stesin received major artistic impulses as an autodidact restoring icons and through close contact with members of the unofficial Russian neo-avant-garde. His first drawings, watercolour paintings and sculptures were shown in apartment exhibitions in Moscow. In 1973 he immigrated to Israel, were his abstract oil paintings found increasing recognition throughout the art world. Since 1975 he has been part of several studio and group exhibitions in Geneva and Cologne. Today the artist lives and works in Vienna and Cologne.
The work of Vitali Stesin is almost unknown in contemporary art, although it should take a unique place in consideration to its meaning. His works can hardly be compared to any other artist, barely any analogy exists here. Over the past 40 years he developed his personal artistic style. His use of form, in which abstract symbols and concrete figures join together in a unique symbiosis, can be traced back to the European Constructivism and develops unique structures that appear to have an architectural touch. His drawings, watercolours, gouaches, and oil paintings testify a sensitive pictorial quality, which is being expressed through the condensed abstract use of form. Developing energy loaded fields of colour and form his works resemble organic microcosms, in which structures overlay each other beyond recognition and thereby evoke complex associations.
For the first time Stesin’s work will be presented in a comprehensive and representative show in the Ludwig Museum. An exhibition catalogue will be published in German and English.
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Der nichtendende Gedanke, öl auf Papier,
2002-2008, 73 x 102 cm |
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Geburtsstätte der wichtigsten Ereignisse,
Öl auf Leinwand, 1980-2001, 140 x 100 cm |
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Drei Herzen gingen im Weltraum spazieren,
Buntstiftzeichnung, 2008, 73 x 102 cm |
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Vitali Stesin, Fragen und Antworten,
60 x 80 cm, unbezeichnet
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