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Svetlana Kopystiansky
Description
- Svetlana Kopystiansky
- The Story, 1987
- oil on canvas
- 59 1/2 by 43 1/2 in.
- 151 by 110 cm
Provenance
Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner
Exhibited
Literature
Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky, Berlin: DAAD/Berlinische Galerie, Museum für Moderne Kunst; Munich: Kunstraum, 1991
Svetlana Kopystiansky, Shadow of Gravitation, The Art Institute of Chicago and Büro Orange Siemens AG/Kulturstieftung Siemens, 1996
Condition
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."
Catalogue Note
The basis of many of Svetlana Kopystiansky's works is a literary text. She draws from a range of texts, both classic and contemporary, including Russian novels, short stories, and plays. In every case what is most important is that the text is "found"—it was written by someone other than the artist and then rewritten by hand by Kopystiansky. Her text-based works are connected to the tradition of OBERIU, a group of Leningrad-based absurdist writers of the 1920s-1930s known for their embrace of total irrationality, irony, and black humor.
Born in Voronezh, Kopystiansky was a member of the Moscow unofficial art scene beginning in 1978, participating in apartment exhibitions and rare public exhibitions of nonconformist art. Since 1988 her work has been featured in major exhibitions of Russian contemporary art in the West as well as major international exhibitions, including the Sydney Biennial, 1992; the Sao Paolo Biennial, 1994; the Istanbul Biennial, 1995; the 2nd Johannesburg Biennial, 1997; the Lyon Biennial, 1997; the Sculpture Project, Münster, 1997; the Liverpool Biennial, 1999; Places in the Mind, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2001; and Documenta 11, Kassel, 2002.
Solo exhibitions of Kopystiansky's work have been held at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (1994); The Art Institute of Chicago (1996); the Sprengel Museum, Hannover (2002); the Lisson Gallery, London (2002 and 2006); and the Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel (2005), among other venues. Her works are represented in the permanent collections of major museums, including The Whitney Museum of American art, The Tate Modern, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Art Institute of Chicago.