Exhibition of Alexander Kosolapov "DTM"

The quintessence of Sotsart is a masterful installation of what an esthete and dogmatist perceives as "the embarrassment of an awkward situation." Since the time of the Dadaist Duchamp, this idea has become the leitmotif of the art of the self-referential, capable of critically comprehending its own context and forever parting with the chimera of aesthetic autonomy. The "Sotsart" method that appeared in the USSR included the embarrassment of the inertia of the political system, the squalor of the claims of the totalitarian state (which the USSR was) to be an arbiter in matters of beauty and taste.

Alexander Kosolapov is arguably the most sensitive director of combinations of various historical artifacts among the Sotsartists. He directs situations comparable in strength to the brewing scandals of the great Russian literature (Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky). Thinly and accurately constructed, these situations create a premonition of a crash and a storm, which are resolved in the soul, consciousness of the viewer. After all, radical in their anti-servility and ill-mannered rapprochement (the face of the Russian president, inscribed in the portrait of Leonardo’s Mona Lisa) help the viewer to free himself from his own lack of freedom, to overcome the dictates of authorities and fetishes. A consumer fetish today is not only the classics, but the art of Duchamp himself, the author of the first embarrassing collage: "Mona Lisa with a mustache."

In the new DTM exhibition, Kosolapov disposes of the legacy of Dadaism, avant-garde, Renaissance and pop art. DTM stands for Duchamp, Malevich, Tatlin. In his combinations, the artist moves these letters-memes-signs like chess pieces on a checkered field. Tatlin’s Tower to the Third International, Malevich’s Black Square, Fountain. R. Mutt "(urinal) Duchamp, Kalashnikov assault rifle act as gymnastic apparatus in the parade of female athletes. An intense but hidden erotic tension is created between the totalitarian collective body of athletes Leni Riefentstahl, Soviet athletes and avant-garde artifacts, which, like the Kalashnikov assault rifle, suddenly turn out to be a kind of toys, shells, souvenirs from a sex shop, symbols.

The erotic confusion between construction, total order and destruction continues in the chess setting on the board of plaster copies of the sculpture "A Woman’s Fig Leaf" by Marcel Duchamp.

The tension of the poles of life is also confusion in front of one’s own identity in the neopartist triptych What’s wrong with my skin. Reacting to the new racial unrest in the world, the artist portrayed himself as black. The skull inserted into the word LOVE connects Andy Warhol to the game, as well as the codes of the current street art. At the same time it refers to the well-known baroque allegory "vanity of vanities". Refined virtuosity in arranging themes uncomfortable for the consumer is the strongest quality of Alexander Kosolapov’s social art. The portrait "Putin - Mona Lisa" is not immediately revealed to us: in motion, in long contemplation of beautifully painted layers of painting. It is pertinent to recall the idea, cited by Susan Sontag in the book of essays "On Photography", that the artist draws analogies from the most dissimilar things. And, of course, the logic of a brave naked beauty,sensuality and sensitivity in the most vulgar matter and rhyme allows us to find parallels of Sotsart Kosolapov with Camp, a style described by Susan Sontag as a postmodern challenge to bourgeois consumption of the "beautiful".

Sergey Khachaturov

Alexander Kosolapov (b. 1943, Moscow) - Russian artist, painter, graphic artist, sculptor, one of the key figures in Sots Art. Studied at the Moscow Secondary Art School at the Art Institute. VI Surikov and the Moscow Higher School of Industrial Art. In 1975 he emigrated to the USA. Lives and works in New York. The works are based on an ironically radical combination of recognizable symbols and stereotypes of Soviet ideology and global mass culture. Playing with images, the artist debunks both Soviet political myth-making and capitalist commodity fetishism. Works in the collections of MOMA New York, the Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum and many others.

Personal exhibitions:

2017 - “Alexander Kosolapov. Lenin and Coca-Cola ", Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia
2016 -" Alexander Kosolapov. Icons: West and East ", Galerie Sébastien Bertrand, Geneva, Switzerland
2014 -" Alexander Kosolapov. Freedom of Vodka ", Galerie Sébastien Bertrand, Geneva, Switzerland
" Alexander Kosolapov ", Galerie Vallois Sculptures, Paris, France
2013 -" Selected Works - Alexander Kosolapov ", Galerie Sébastien Bertrand, Geneva, Switzerland
2011 -" Alexander Kosolapov - Sotsart ", Leonard Hutton Galleries, New York, USA
2010 - Alexander Kosolapov, Galerie Vallois, Paris, France
2007 - Mickey, Kamasutra and others…, Galerie Vallois Sculptures, Paris, France
2003 - Mickey - Lenin, gallery one work, Moscow, Russia
1997 - "Alexander Kosolapov", Galerie Karenina, Vienna, Austria
1994 - "Alexander Kosolapov", Galerie Vorsetzen, Hamburg, Germany
1993 - "New post-communist billboards or paintings from New Russia", Galerie Inge Baecker, Cologne, Germany
1991 - " Alexander Kosolapov ", Ruth Siegel Gallery, New York, USA
1990 -" Alexander Kosolapov ", Berman Gallery, New York, USA
1987 -" Alexander Kosolapov ", Galerie Anne Friebe, Cologne, Germany
1985 - Semaphore Gallery, New York, USA
1974 - Central Exhibition Hall, Kuznetsky Most, Moscow, Russia

Selected group exhibitions:

2016 - "Collection", Center Pompidou, Paris, France
2014 - "Post Pop: East meets West", Saatchi Gallery, London, England
2012 - "Breaking the Ice: Moscow Art 1960-8", Saatchi Gallery, London, England
“Russian Art of the New Millennium”, Main Galley, New York, USA
2011 - “Russian Turbulence”, Charles Riva Collection, Brussels, Belgium
“Museum of Parallel Narratives. Within the framework of L’Internationale ", MASVA, Barcelona, Spain
2010 -" Decadence now! Vision of Excess ”, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic“ BLITZ ”, Galerie ALFA, Paris, France
“ Glasnost: Soviet Nonconformist Art of the 1980s ”, Haunch of Venison, London, England
“ The Best ”, Galerie Nathalie Obadia invites Artfact, Belgium
2009 - “Through the past to the future”, Alexandre Gertsman Contemporary Art, New York, USA “Russian art of 1989-2009 from the Museum collection”, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia
“1989. End of History or Beginning of the Future? ”, Kunsthalle, Vienna, Austria
“ Thaw and Time After. Moscow Artists 8-8 "part: Perestroika 1986-1996", Galerie Sandmann, Berlin, Germany
"This vague object of art", Ca’Rezzoniko, Venice, Italy
2008 - "The religion of the medium", ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany
"This vague object of art ", Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria
" Total Enlightenment - Conceptual Art in Moscow 1960–1990 ", Fundación Juan March, Madrid, Spain
" Moscow - New York ", Thaw Chelsea Art Museum, New York, USA
“Auction house“ Sotheby’s ”, pre-auction exhibition 2007”, Moscow Center on Neglinnaya, Moscow, Russia
2007 - “Sots Art, Political Art in Russia. Second Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, special project, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
"Thaw, to the 15th anniversary of the Marat Guelman Gallery", Marble Palace, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
2006 - "Masters of Humor and Satire", Sloane Gallery of Art, Denver, Colorado, USA “Unlearn”, Plug In ICA, Winnipeg, Canada
“Art’s Meaning of Life. Rafik of Conceptual Artists of Russia and Eastern Europe (from artists’ workshops) ",
Ludwig Museum in the Russian Museum, Marble Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia
" Branding ", Center PasquArt, Kunsthaus d’art, Biel, Switzerland
"Revolution", Transit Art Space, Stavanger, Norway
2005 - "RUSSIA!", Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
"Russian Pop Art", Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
2004 - "Printed Light - the Vision of Photography and contemporary print ", National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
2003 -" Berlin - Moscow / Moscow - Berlin. 1950-2000 ", Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany" Meeting Place Moscow 1970 and the Time After ", Sandmann, Berlin, Germany 2002 -" Dangerous Games ", Sandmann, Berlin, Germany 2000 -" New Collection ", Kupferstift Kabinet, Berlin, Germany "2000+ art collection", Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia "Kosolapov, paintings", Museum of art, The Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA
1999 - "Art Underground", Albertina museum, Vienna, Austria
1998 - "Second Russian Avant-garde", Museum Moderner Kunst, Stiftung Worlen, Passau, Germany
"Pop Art, Sots Art", Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
1997 - “Cetinje Biennale”, Montenegro, Yugoslavia
1996 - “Here and There, Then and Now: Contemporary Artists from the Former Soviet Union”, National Jewish Museum, Washington, USA
1995 - “Art Underground”, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen am Rhein; Documenta- Halle, Kassel, Germany
"The Temporarily Obsessed: A Semi-Permanent Collection", The New Museum, New York, USA
1994 - "Before" Neo "and After" Post ", Lehman College, New York, USA
The Magic World of Mickey Mouse, Cuartel conde Duque, Madrid; Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona, Spain
1992 - "Sots Art", Lenin Museum, Moscow, Russia
"Ex USSR", Groninger Museum, Roningen, Netherlands
1991 - "From the Thaw to Perestroika", Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
"Art, Europe: Soviet Union. Ilya Kabakov, Alexander Kosolapov, Igor Makarevich ", Kunstverein Hannover, Hannover, Germany
Sezon Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
1990 -" Art = money? ", The Gallery, New York, USA
" Art and Advertising ", Center Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
"Object", Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
1989 - "Transit: Russian Artists Between East and West", Nakhamkin Fine Arts, New York, USA; Fine Arts Museum of Long Island; Central Exhibition Hall, Moscow; State Russian Museum, Leningrad, Russia
Art 20’89 Basel Switzerland, Galerie Inge Baecke, Cologne, Germany
Reagan: An American Icon, Center Gallery of Bucknell University, Lewisburg; Humphrey Fine Art, New York; Reading Public
Museum and Art Gallery, Reading, USA
1988 - Hommage - Demolition, Neue Galerie-Ludwig Collection, Aachen, Germany; Wilhelm-Hack- Museum, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany; Stadtisches Museum, Gelsenkirchen, Germany; Provinciaalmuseum Hasselt, Belgium; Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna, Austria

Works in collections:

State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
National Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow
Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria
Graphic Study, Berlin State Museums, Berlin, Germany National Jewish Museum
Bnay Briet Klutznik, Washington, USA
Duke State University Museum North Carolina, Durham, USA Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA Modern
Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Wilhelm Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen, Germany
Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Museum, Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
MOMA, New York, USA
New York Public Library, New York, USA
Museum of Contemporary Art, Passau, Germany
Graphic Studio, University of South Florida, Tampa, USA
Kolodsee Art Foundation, Highland Park, New Jersey, USA
Collection of Evelyn Weiss, Cologne, Germany
Collection of Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, USA
Morton Hornick Collection, New York, USA