Vladimir Kupriyanov

The collection of the artist

Graz, Forum Stadtpark, Mittelrussische Landschaft, 1991
Berlin, Haus am Waldsee, Photoarbeiten 1981-1995, 1995
St. Petersburg, Russian State Museum, Pre-History, 1998
Gubkinski, Museum of the North, Middle Russian Landscape. 1986-1998
Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Visual Art Center, The Missing Picture. Alternative Contemporary Photography from the USSR, 1990
Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, Face à l'Histoire 1933-1996, 1996
Moscow, State Historical Museum, Berlin Moskva - Berlin Moscau 1950-2000, 2004

Camera Austria, no.39, 1992, , pp. 12-21
Flash Art, no.166, October 1992, pp. 70-72
New York Times Weekend, April 13, 1990
IMAGO 1996, no.26, pp.54-60
Exhibition Catalogue Face à l' Histoire 1933-1996, Paris, 1996, pp. 583-584

The work has been printed on a fine cream canvas. There are a few light creases in places, notably the corners of the sheets and handling marks. In some corners, the canvas has lifted slightly from the backing. The prints are each held in a white painted slip frame. Unexamined out of frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

 

Kuprianov's work is concerned primarily with finding an authentic language, a search which led him to photography - not artistic photography with its refined techniques of embellishing the image, but plain documentary photography which uses an idiom that begins and ends with the subject shown in and of itself. Documentary photography vividly brings out the technological aspect. Kuprianov never imitates other visual techniques; on the contrary, even his formal experiments are meant to reveal the bearer of the image - the emulsion. Due to this he is able to profit from the essence of photography as something founded in pure being.

The dimension of being is not only at the root of Kuprianov's art, but it becomes the subject of his images as well. His poetics embrace chaos and order, the fragment and the whole, death and resurrection, the subjective and the universal. The subject is the phenomenon of life for itself. Kuprianov's poetic positiveness is expressed in his restoration of the right to give value to life, the right to pathos.

 

Viktor Misiano