On 15 June 2023, the exhibition “In memoriam Ilya Kabakov. Prints in the Hermitage collection” opens in the General Staff building of the State Hermitage. It will present original silk-screen prints documenting projects from different years.

Ilya Kabakov was a leading representative of Moscow Conceptualism, a member of the late generation of Soviet artists who himself achieved worldwide recognition. Kabakov is widely known for being the creator of a new genre in the history of art – the total installation. In it, the artwork is not some individual object, but an integral space that absorbs the viewer into itself.

In their works, the creative partnership of Ilya Kabakov and his wife Emilia mythologize the routine, everyday, communal life of the USSR. The protagonists of their works are vulnerable romantics and forgotten artist-dreamers who dwell in the prosaic reality of the Soviet daily round.

One of the key motifs in the Kabakovs’ oeuvre is flight. For the artist, it is bound up with the theme of fleeing and rescue – either from the wrath of those in power or from harsh reality in general. An important role in the development of this theme is played by the image of the angel – a being that is not bound by state frontiers and free of earthly bureaucratic restrictions. In Encounter with an Angel, Ilya Kabakov reflects on the possibility of such a meeting in each person’s life. The concept presented in the sketch that can be viewed in the exhibition was implemented several times in the form of large-scale installations.