Ilya Lvovich Tabenkin
Born in 1914 in the city of Mozyr. In 1932, he entered the Moscow Art School in memory of 1905. In 1949, he graduated from the Moscow State Academic Art Institute named after V.I. Surikov. Since 1923, he lived and worked in Moscow. Died in 1988.
Works in collections
His works are held in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, and private collections in Russia, the USA, the UK, Italy, Germany, and Finland.
Exhibitions and auctions
1968: The Group of Sixteen. Group exhibition of Moscow artists. Central House of Artists, Moscow; 1977: The Group of Sixteen. Group exhibition of Moscow artists. House of Artists on Kuznetsky Most, Moscow; 1979: Exhibition of I. Tabenkin and S. Mirenskaya. Exhibition Hall of MOSKh, Moscow; 1983: Solo exhibition. Palace of Culture, Vilnius, Lithuania; 1985: The Group of Sixteen. Group exhibition of Moscow artists. House of Artists on Kuznetsky Most, Moscow; 1988: Sotheby's auction, Moscow; 1988: Ars Sovietica-88, Helsinki; 1990: Russian Avant-garde and Contemporary Soviet Art, Moscow; 1991: Ilya Tabenkin. Gallery 'Today', Moscow; 1991: ART EXPO-91. International Art Fair, Tokyo; 1991: ART MYTH 2. Moscow International Art Fair. Central Exhibition Hall 'Manege', Moscow.
Critic
Schiller said that wisdom leads to a 'narrow circle.' The art of I. Tabenkin is also a 'circle,' for some a 'narrow sphere,' but it is a magical 'circle,' where the symbolic figures, conventional draperies, like the 'veil' in the Temple, carry sacred meaning, due to the mysterious apprehension of mass, weight, gesture, and place. 'Art—as the resolution of the riddle of the nature of good and evil'—this was the thought that preoccupied the artist. His paintings are not detached from the world, they are the fruit of a soul that has suffered much. It is a form of high tragedy, when harmony emerges from suffering. Lev Tabenkin.
Bibliography
Catalog of the group inter-sectional exhibition of Moscow artists, 1977, Moscow; Exhibition catalog. Painting. Graphics. 1979, Moscow; Catalog of the group exhibition of works by Moscow artists. Painting. Monumental art. Sculpture. Graphics. 1985, Moscow.
