Ilya & Emilia Kabakov
©image: Roman Mensing
1933 - 2023
Born in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (), lives in US.
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov are ex-Soviet, American-based artists who collaborated on environments which fuse elements of the everyday with those of the conceptual. While their work is deeply rooted in the Soviet social and cultural context in which the Kabakovs came of age, their work still attains a universal significance.
Ilya Kabakov (1933-2023) was born in Dnipropetrovsk, the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union. He studied at the VA Surikov Art Academy in Moscow, and began his career as a children's book illustrator during the 1950s. He was part of a group of Conceptual artists in Moscow who worked outside the official Soviet art system. In 1985, he received his first solo show exhibition at Dina Vierny Gallery, Paris, and he moved to the West two years later, taking up a six months residency at Kunstverein Graz, Austria. In 1988 Kabakov began working with his future wife Emilia (they were to be married in 1992). From this point onwards, all their work was collaborative, in different proportions according to the specific project involved. Today, Kabakov is recognized as the most important Russian artist to have emerged in the late 20th century. His installations speak as much about conditions in post-Stalinist Russia as they do about the human condition universally.
Emilia Kabakov was born in Dnipropetrovsk, Soviet Union, in 1945. She attended the Music College in Irkutsk in addition to studying Spanish language and literature at the Moscow University. She immigrated to Israel in 1973, and moved to New York in 1975, where she worked as a curator and art dealer. Emilia has worked side by side with Ilya since 1988.
Their work has been shown in such venues as the Museum of Modern Art, the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Documenta IX, at the Whitney Biennial in 1997 and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg among others. In 1993 they represented Russia at the 45th Venice Biennale with their installation The Red Pavilion. The Kabakovs have also completed many important public commissions throughout Europe and have received a number of honors and awards, including the Oscar Kokoschka Preis, Vienna, in 2002 and the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, Paris, in 1995.
>Ilya & Emilia Kabakov , I. Kabakov - "10 Personagen" / "10 Characters" (Installation), 1988.Book, ink, paper, 28 x 21.5 cm, 239 p., language : Russian, German, English, publisher : Ilya Kabakov & Ronald Feldman Fine Art, New York, numbered edition (15/500)..
>Ilya & Emilia Kabakov , Ilya Kabakov "Que sont ces petits hommes?", 1989.Book, ink, paper, 22.5 x 34 cm, language : Russian, French, English, publisher : Galerie de France, Paris, ISBN : 2-902406-32-0, layout by Ilya Kabakov.
>Ilya & Emilia Kabakov , Ilya Kabakov - Ausstellung eines Buches, 1989.Book, ink, paper, 26 x 21.5 cm, 32 p., language : German, publisher : Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD, Berlin, ISBN : 3-89357-017-9, layout by Ilya Kabakov.
>Ilya & Emilia Kabakov , Ilya Kabakov - Schiff (Installation 1986), 1989.Book, ink, paper, 24 x 16.6 cm, 29 p., softcover leporello, language : German, authors : Claudia Jolles & Ilya Kabakov, publisher : Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich.
>Ilya & Emilia Kabakov , 10 Characters - Album 1-10, 1994.Book, paper, 10 x (52.5 x 37 cm).
>Ilya & Emilia Kabakov , Jan Fabre, A masterpiece on vertical piano (Homage to Walter Marchetti), 1996.Performance, 00:30:00.
>Ilya & Emilia Kabakov , Jan Fabre, A Meeting / Vstrecha (The Mystery of Art) (series), 1997.Drawing, colour pencil, watercolour and indian ink on paper, 14 x (34.5 x 27 cm).
>Ilya & Emilia Kabakov , Jan Fabre, A Meeting / Vstrecha, 1997.Performance, 00:35:00.
>Ilya & Emilia Kabakov , Charles Rosenthal, Im Park 1930, 1998.Installation, oil on canvas, wooden box, lamp, 77 x 132.2 x 16.4 cm.
>Ilya & Emilia Kabakov , Ilya Kabakov '16 Installaties/16 Installations', 1998.Book, ink, paper, 28 x 21 cm, 165 p., language : Dutch, English, publisher : Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen.
>Ilya & Emilia Kabakov , My Grandfather's Shed, 1998.Installation, wood, 210 x 240 x 325 cm.
>Ilya & Emilia Kabakov , In the Closet, 1998.Installation, drawings, wood, pictures, lamp, clothes, 190 x 60 x 60 cm.
>Ilya & Emilia Kabakov , August 20th, 1968, 2000.Installation, mixed media, variable dimensions.
>Ilya & Emilia Kabakov , Untitled, 2004.Print, silkscreen, 80 x 60 cm.
Exhibitions & Ensembles
> Exhibition: Angels of History – Moscow Conceptualism and its Influence. 17 September 2005 - 27 November 2005.
> Exhibition: Bernd Lohaus – Fremdkörper: works from the studio of Bernd Lohaus. Third presentation: Von der Wiederholung der Träume zur Realität. 30 June 2015 - 26 July 2015.
> Exhibition: EURASIA − A Landscape of Mutability. 08 October 2021 - 23 January 2022.
> Exhibition: Ilya Kabakov – 16 Installations. 17 April 1998 - 20 September 1998.
> Exhibition: Jan Fabre – Stigmata, Actions & Performances 1976-2013. 24 April 2015 - 26 July 2015.
> Exhibition: Le Pont. 25 May 2013 - 20 October 2013.
> Exhibition: Museum in Motion. 16 September 2022 - 08 January 2023.
No image
> Exhibition: Museum in Motion - Ilya & Emilia Kabakov. 16 September 2022 - 08 January 2023.
> Exhibition: Museum of Parallel Narratives. In the framework of L’Internationale. 14 May 2011 - 02 October 2011.
> Exhibition: The Collection. 28 April 2017 - 31 December 2021.
> Exhibition: The Collection XIV – Spring 2006. 25 February 2006 - 23 April 2006.
> Exhibition: The collection XVI – Attributen en Substantie. 25 August 2006 - 12 November 2006.
> Exhibition: The collection XVII – En Double . 25 November 2006 - 11 February 2007.
> Exhibition: The Collection XVIII – Encounter. 15 March 2007 - 13 June 2007.
> Exhibition: The collection XXI – Winter 2007. 01 December 2007 - 10 March 2008.
> Exhibition: The collection XXXIII – The Collection as a Character. 07 June 2013 - 22 September 2013.
> Exhibition: The collection XXXII – Personality Test + The Book Lovers. 07 December 2012 - 21 April 2013.
> Exhibition: The Melancholy of Resistance. 06 November 2010 - 03 January 2011.
> Exhibition: The Situation is Fluid. 25 January 2025 - 03 January 2027.
> Exhibition: Von der Wiederholung der Träume zur Realität (expo). 18 October 1991 - 23 November 1991.
No image
> Ensemble: An Architecture for Art - Ilya & Emilia Kabakov.
> Ensemble: ARCHIEF JEF LAMBRECHT.
> Ensemble: Artist Books.
> Ensemble: Audiodescriptie - De Collectie.
> Ensemble: Collectie Vlaamse Gemeenschap.
> Ensemble: ESTATE JEF LAMBRECHT.
> Ensemble: EUROPE AT LARGE.
No image
> Ensemble: kunstenaarsboeken uit de jaren '80 [artists' books from the 80s].
> Ensemble: M HKA_DEFAULT_PUBLICATIONS.
No image
> Ensemble: M HKA_DEFAULT_WORKS.
> Ensemble: NUCLEUS.
No image
> Ensemble: Total Installation.