Genia Chef

November 16, 2011 at 4:00 PM

Russian American Cultural Center is proud to be a part of the book project of the artist Genia Chef who has been longtime affiliate of the RACC, including his participation in the ground-breaking 1998 exhibition curated by Regina Khidekel "It's the Real Thing" Soviet Sots Art and American Pop Art at the Weisman Art Museum.

The book Glory of A New Century explores the oeuvre of the Russian international artist Genia Chef published in conjunction with the exhibition at the Ludwig Museum in the Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

"The wonderful worlds created by Genia Chef remind us once more of the universal earthly dream and the coming awakening. This dream of mankind, which seems to have been photographed by the artist, is so very tranquil, beautiful and attractive that you don't wish to ever wake up. In this genuinely artistic dream everything is equal: the deerbeetle and the tropical orchid, Leo Tolstoy, the marble Graces, Hitler and Rasputin, the ruins of cities, the homeless dog, and even the old shoes of the artist himself". - Vladimir Sorokin, Moscow, 2011

"The pedestals of so-called heroes from history totter in the vast expanses of these landscape panoramas. Sharp irony shows through the play with historical epochs, which presages the ambivalent perspectives that touch on these new interconnections. The quality of painting, which is on the level of the Old Masters, further reinforces the persuasiveness of these works. Here ideology is not proclaimed; instead monuments are overturned, and the clay colossuses of cruelty, willfulness and power are subjected to ridicule". - Renee Schipp, Italian Culture Institute, Berlin, 1997

"Chef drives history into the unfamiliar subjunctive mood. Here everything is possible, because the artist stopped the moment and abolished time. In his paintings history has turned into a scrap heap — a warehouse of superannuated idols. Here, lured by the artist into eternity, they have all become not contemporaries, but neighbors. Under the weight of centuries of history they have been pressed into a white dwarf — a mysterious object that changes the parameters of our reality". - Alexander Genis, Radio Liberty, New York, 1995

"The first thing you notice about Genia Chef's work is that it is stunning. Even good-quality reproductions only hint at the brilliant intensity and fine detail of the paintings, and the draftsmanship is exquisite. Many of the works seem to emit light from the surface of the panels on which they are painted". - Jerry Croghan, American Artist, 1995

"In many respects, Genia Chef exemplifies a new type of an International Russian artist. His looks and soft manners evoke some familiar stereotypes of pre-revolutionary intelligentsia, yet Genia’s peripatetic lifestyle reflects a newly found freedom of global mobility”. - Constantin Boym, Metropolis, New York, 1993

"This is an accomplished artist with clearly defined goals. He blends together the ideas and artistic techniques of East and West in the unique aspiration of creating a new social order and the rebirth of beauty. In this sense he defines his painting as post-historical". - Francesc Miralles, La Vanguardia, Barcelona, 1989

More Information: http://www.rusmuseum.ru/eng/museum/complex/mram_palace/