- 105
Bela Levikova, b. 1939
Description
- Bela Levikova
- Avtoportret-87 (no kassa moguchee prirody) [Self-Portrait-87 (but the till is more powerful than nature)], diptych
signed with artist's initials in Cyrillic on each canvas l.r., titled in Cyrillic and dated 1987; further signed and titled in Cyrillic on reverse of each canvas and dated 1987
- oil on canvas
- each canvas 149.5 by 115cm., 58½ by 45¼in.
Provenance
Habsburg, Feldman, Inc., New York, Soviet Contemporary Art: The Property of the Kniga Collection, Paris, 5 May 1990, Lot 59
Exhibited
Madrid, Arte Contemporáneo (ARCO), Galerie de France, Art Contemporain Soviétique, February 1988, illustrated Ex.Cat. p.39
Catalogue Note
Bela Levikova belongs to the Moscow group of conceptual artists. She began her artistic career in 1965 with works dedicated to what the artist refers to as 'The Struggle of the Two' and whilst still studying at the Moscow State University for a degree in Theory and History of Art. According to Levikova, she has always been fascinated by meanings and this is the theme she explores in the majority of her works: "Matisse shook me with an unexpected power to organize apart from meaning...
Malevich shook me with both meaning and organisation..."
Her paintings, and, in particular, those from the series titled Combining of the Extremes, to which Self-portrait belongs, are based on Levikova's own experiences: self-change, struggle and denunciation of personal ambition, of false virtue. Her art is concentrated on bringing together opposites and on exploring the visions that guide people's minds.