The Russian Academy Of Arts

Timed to the 6oth anniversary of the master, the opening of a retrospective exhibition entitled The Price of Freedom and presentation of the first two-volume book by Ivan Lubennikov, the People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Arts, Professor of V. Surikov Moscow State Academy Art Institute will take place in the Central Artist’s House on October 21, 2011.

On show in the optical double-level space will be over 30 big canvases, sculptures and objects, installations, performance and a video material showing the process of his working on many major architectural objects.

The two-volume edition “Ivan Lubennikov. Works in Architecture. Painting. Book for Reading”, including information about ten architectural objects with comments of the author and leading architects, reproductions of his more than 150 paintings (Volume 1), as well as art and documentary prose (Volume 2), was published by Agey Tomesh/WAM (World Art Museum) under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Federal Agency for the Press and Mass Communications.

Ivan Lubennikov is one of the eminent modern artists-monumentalists, who created his unique style in the city architecture. He has been internationally recognized as a painter. His solo shows are annually held in France, Netherlands, Italy. Now we have an opportunity to see the first in Russia retrospective of his works. The exhibition has been titled after Lubennikov’s small still life where exist in harmony a dried, but free fish and a fish living in a comfortable aquarium. Practically the same is the price of freedom for an artist in today’s society.

Ivan Lubennikov is an author of many monumental works, some of which, unfortunately, have been destroyed during the last years of the Soviet power. Luckily, among Lubennikov’s works there are his “eternal” decorations for three subway stations in Moscow (Mayakovskaya (new vestibule), 2005; Sretensky Boulevard, 2007; Slavyansky Boulevard, 2008) and one subway station in Paris (Madeleine, 2009). The diversity of the artistic designs and techniques used for the stations – stained glass, Roman mosaic, forged metal and etched steel are the best proof of the author’s many-sided talent.

Works by Ivan Lubennikov are in collections of the State Russian Museum (S. Petersburg), the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts (St. Petersburg) and other state art museums. His paintings can be seen in well known collections: Peter Ludwig (Cologne), Henry Nannen, Alen Roger (Paris), as well as in private collections in France, Netherlands, Great Britain, the United States, Spain, Austria, Greece, Cyprus, Poland, Czech Republic, Japan, Canada, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Portugal, etc.

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