Exhibition of Vladimir Yankylevsky

April 11 – June 24, 2007

Place: Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, Moscow (ul. Kuznetsky Most, House 21/5, Entrance 8, entry from ul. Bolshaya Lubyanka).
Organizers: Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, State Russian Museum
Project idea: Ekaterina and Vladimir Semenikhin
Primary sponsor: Stroyteks Group of companies
Project sponsors: Whitehall Group of companies, Verysell Group of companies

From April 11 to June 24, the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation hosted "Moment of Eternity," a solo exhibit by Vladimir Yankilevsky, one of the leading masters of modern Russian art.

Vladimir Yankilevsky began showing his work in unofficial exhibits in 1962. His works were first presented at Moscow State University along with pieces by Ernst Neizvestny. The artist formed his original style in the 1960s when he developed the idea of the Triptych, the basic form used by the artist to embody the idea of man's place in the universe. In 1961, he created Triptych No.1. Classical.

In 1962, the artist participated in the famous Manezh exhibition where he presented Pentaptych No. 1. Atomic Station and other works. From this moment, the artist began participating in many exhibits in Czechoslovakia, Poland and Italy. The triptychs Yankilevsky created in the 1960s and '70s he managed to show publicly only after 10 to 20 years.

In the 1970s, Yankilevsky created the graphical cycles Anatomy of Feelings and Mutants. During this time, he met Shostakovich, to whom he had dedicated Triptych No. 4. A Being in the Universe (1964), Dina Vierny, a woman who played a big role in the artistic life of that time, and American collector Norton Dodge.

In 1972, the artist created his first object, Door, where painting and real objects unite paradoxically in the theme of the instantaneous and the eternal. This concept is developed even further in such monumental works as Pentaptych No.2. Adam and Eve (1980), Triptych No.14. Self Portrait. Memory of my Father (1987) and others.

The first retrospective exhibit of Yankilevsky took place in 1978 in Moscow. His first solo exhibit in the West opened in 1988 at the Bochum Museum in Germany, and then at Eduard Nakhamkin Fine Arts gallery in New York. In 1995, there was a large retrospective exhibit of the artist at the State Tretyakov Gallery.

In 1989, the artist began living and working in Germany and New York, and in 1992 he moved to Paris.

In the exhibit "Moment of Eternity", the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation presented Vladimir Yankilevsky's fifty-year-long artistic path. The exhibit included works of various years — from his early works of the beginning of the 1960s, to massive triptychs, pentaptychs, objects and graphics collected from the largest museums and private collections of Europe, America, and Russia.  The exhibit included more than 70 pieces by the artist.

The main mission was to bring together Yankilevsky's classic works — triptychs, pentaptychs and objects that are in museum-based and private collections, as well as to demonstrate the artist's modern works created over the last few years.

In collaboration with the State Russian Museum and Palace Editions publishing house, a catalog to the exhibit has been prepared which includes around 300 of the artist's works.

From July 12 to August 31, the exhibit was held in the Marble Palace at the State Russian Museum.