Venice: Palazzo Zenobio – Maxim Kantor – Atlantis
exhibition. At Palazzo Zenobio, New York
Gallery Barry Friedman Ltd presented the exhibition Atlantis, paintings,
tapestries, and etchings by the contemporary Russian artist Maxim Kantor, on
until September 10. The exhibition is curated by Alexander Borovsky and Cristina
Barbano. Maxim Kantor is one of the most critically acclaimed Russian-born
artists. His position in contemporary art is unusual. He is recognized by the
art world not only as a painter, but also as a professional writer, essayist
and social commentator of an openly philosophical nature. The exhibition is
devoted to current and possible future crises of our world civilization. The
artist connects today’s crisis with Plato’s story of the sinking of Atlantis,
and the matrix of traditional anxieties of Western civilization. These
critical reflections on the fate of Western civilization that usually accompany
a moment of crisis are not only found in books but also in the work of Kantor.
Above: I can’t love the Motherland
on my knees – 2013 – lithograph on fabric.
Barry Friedman and Maxim Kantor
Maxim Kantor – Atlantis exhibition.
Self Portrait – 2011/2012 – oil on canvas.
Maxim Kantor – Atlantis exhibition.
Tower of Babel – 2005 – oil on canvas.
Maxim Kantor – Atlantis exhibition.
Atlantis III – 2013 – lithograph on fabric.
Maxim Kantor – Atlantis exhibition.
As Kantor writes, “The Ocean of Time has swallowed the ambitions of many
empires. Babylon and Egypt, the Mongol and Ottoman Empires, and the Soviet
Union have all sunk to the sea floor of history.” The artist thinks that the
current state of Western society corresponds to a historical low tide, after
which a large and menacing tide will inevitably follow. The metaphor of the sea
dominates in the exhibition. It conveys the movement of time through the
painting; for the artist, the sea is a representation of time that exists
according to its own laws.
Above. Ocean – 2010 – oil on canvas.
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