Themes of theater, architecture and music in the latest multimedia
installation from the veteran Russian American duo
For more than three decades, the Russian-born, Long Island-based artists
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov (born 1933 and 1945, respectively) have been
widely known for their large-scale installations and paintings that
merge reality and myth to create hypertheatrical environments. They
often accomplish this by integrating the visual culture of the former
Soviet Union from the 1950s to '70s--from dreary communal apartments to
propaganda art and its highly optimistic depictions of Soviet life--into
the lexicon of art history. In doing so, their work addresses universal
themes of utopia, fantasy and hope, as well as fear and oppression.
Accompanying the exhibition at Dallas Contemporary, this clothbound
volume features their most recent body of work, which resembles an
outdated and rundown museum, incorporating never-before-seen paintings,
interactive works and installation.