Yuri Kuper (1940 - ) – Biography
Yuri Kuper’s work is deeply linked to time, the passage of time and the marks it leaves on things. He is a member of the group Mémoires, a group of artists formed in the late 1960s. His objects, as well as the space in which he places them, have an aged, stained, eroded material in shades of ochre evoking rust or ashen black-grey. In them is concentrated the memory of the past time, of their life. Kuper captures with great delicacy and sensitivity the soul of things.
He studied at the Moscow Academy of Art. In the late 1960s, he became a member of the USSR Union of Painters and exhibited regularly. He is renowned for his book illustrations and set design skills. In 1970, he designed the sets for Leonid Zorin’s play *The Copper Grandmother* (dedicated to an episode in Alexander Pushkin's life) for the Art Theater (MKHAT). The creation was not completed due to opposition from the public authorities of the time. This had a profound effect on him.
Kuper left Russia for Israel in the early 1970s. He then moved to London and Paris. He also spent time in the United States. He was greatly impressed by the freedom, absence of censorship and difference in values of the Western world compared to what he had experienced in Russia. In Paris, in the early 1980s, he managed to establish collaborations with major galleries such as Galerie Claude Bernard, Galerie Jan Krugier- Ditesheim & Cie, Galerie Vallois and Bouquinerie de l'Institut (now Galerie de l’Institut). At the time, his painting was in a dreamlike, poetic vein, in the continuity of surrealism. His meeting with the American photographer John Stuart was a major turning point in the orientation of his artistic approach. Stuart encouraged him to paint the objects in his environment. This Kuper did through the prism of the passage of time. Time shapes the life of objects, giving them depth and thickness. His highly personal and immediately identifiable aesthetic is based on the aged, eroded and worn materials of everyday objects, in settings that evoke feelings of melancholy and solitude.
His painting practice goes beyond the canvas. He created ceramics and jewelry, as well as costumes and scenery for theatrical productions. Abroad, he designed the performances of such directors as Robert Altman (Robert Altman) and Marcel Marechal (Marcel Maréchal). In 2007, Kuper worked on his opera *Boris Godunov* in 2007, Georges Bizet’s *Carmen* in 2008, Gioachino Rossini’s *Othello* in 2008-2010, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s *Nutcracker* in 2013. He also created a tapestry and lithographic book illustrations, including Alexander Pushkin's play *Mozart and Salieri* (1830), (Paris, Edition Philippe Moreno, 2010); and *The Book of Job*, Saint Petersburg, Rare Books, 2010; and *Swan Lake*, published by the same company in 2014.
- He studied at the Moscow Academy of Art.
- In 1970, he designed the sets for Leonid Zorin’s play *The Copper Grandmother* (dedicated to an episode in Alexander Pushkin's life) for the Art Theater (MKHAT).
- Kuper left Russia for Israel in the early 1970s.
- He moved to London and Paris.
His work appears in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, and the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, among others. In 2020, his solo exhibition was on view at the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno in Florence, Italy.
Source: Serge Sorokko Gallery
