Viktor Pivovarov

Viktor Pivovarov is one of the founders of Moscow Conceptualism art movement. He was born in 1937 in Moscow. He studied at the Kalinin Industrial Art School (1951– 1957) and graduated as a book illustrator and designer from Moscow Polygraphic Institute (1957–1962). For several years he worked as an illustrator, primarily of children’s books. He began working in easel drawing in 1967 and easel painting in 1980.  Pivovarov works on thematically related conceptual cycles and his works are a poetical dialogue with other artists, poets, writers he illustrates. Many cycles are infused with autobiographical and Surrealistic elements, dreams, and Dadaist absurdity, imbued with irony and the self-irony of mystification. In 1982, Pivovarov emigrated to Prague, where he now lives. He has written books about the art of the 1960s — 1980s in Moscow: “Agent in Love” and “Gray Notebooks.” The first major retrospective of Pivovarov was held at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow in 2004, followed by one at the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. In March 2016 two big shows of Pivovarov were organized at the Garage Museum of contemporary art and at Pushkin State museum of fine arts in Moscow, and in 2017 Pivovarov's works were displayed at the show Kollektsia! at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.