Artists

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		TER-OGANYAN Avdey Stepanovich

Biographical information: 1961 born in Rostov-on-Don
1978-82 studied at Rostov Art School
1988-90 member of Art or Death group
1991-93 curated Tryohprudny Lane Gallery (with K. Reunov), Moscow
Since 1994 curated Vperyod ("Forward!") Gallery
1995-98 run the project of "School of Contemporary Art"
1998 the law suit is initiated against him after the Art Manege-98 exhibition
1999 asked for a refugee status in Czech Republic
2002 obtained a refugee status in Czech Republic
Lives and works in Prague and Berlin
Collections where works are held: State Tretjakov Gallery, Moscow.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
Museum of Fine Arts, Rostov-Don.
Christian Keesee Collection, Oklahoma City Art Museum, USA
Private collections of E.Nutovich, V.Ovcharenko, N.Brilling, M.Guelman, Moscow
Participation in exhibitions and auctions: SOLO EXIBITIONS:

1980
Youth Center, Rostov-on-Don

1981
City Psycho Neurological Hospital, Rostov-on-Don

1991
Bad Painting (with V.Sitnikov). M. Guelman Gallery, Moscow

1992
Still Life with the Candlestick. M. Guelman Gallery, Moscow
L.H.O.O.Q. Tryokhprudny Lane Gallery, Moscow
Selected New Works. Tryokhprudny Lane Gallery, Moscow
Towards the Object. Tryokhprudny Lane Gallery, Moscow
Forward. Tryokhprudny Lane Gallery, Moscow

1993
Some Problems of Restoration of Contemporary Art Works. Tryokhprudny Lane Gallery, Moscow

1996
The Sun in Goblet. M. Guelman Gallery, Moscow

1998
Get Out of Art! M. Guelman Gallery, Moscow

1999
Ten Years in Art. National Center of Contemporary Art, Moscow
Painting by A. Ter-Oganian from M. Guelman Gallery Collection... M. Guelman Gallery, Moscow

2000
Gallery Vperyod. Club "V Jeleni", Prague

2003
Abusive painting. M. Guelman Gallery, Moscow

2004
New Works. M. Guelman Gallery, Moscow

2006
School of Avant-gardism. M. Guelman Gallery, Moscow
Telefonrechnung. "Vpered!" Gallery, Berlin
Voices (with A. Bouldakov). Audio ready-made. "Vpered!" Gallery, Berlin
Avdey Ter-Oganian. Retrospective. Stavanger

GROUP EXIBITIONS:

1988
Provincial Avant-Garde. Public toilet in Gazetny Lane, Rostov-on-Don
Zhupel. Exhibition Hall of the Union of Artists, Rostov-on-Don

1989
Exhibition with no Name, because Everything is Bad. "Yunost" Hotel, Moscow
Italy Has a Shape of a Boot. Exhibition Hall on Queue, Rostov-on-Don

1990
Great Magicians of Art. Peresvetov Pereulok, Moscow
For the Cultural Rest. "Kashirka" Exhibition Hall, Moscow
To Pinocchio`s Mother. ChP Gallery, Moscow

1991
Charity. Triohprudny Gallery, Moscow.
Sale exhibition. Triohprudny Gallery, Moscow.
Agasfer. Palace of Youth, Moscow.
Sea of Vodka. Triohprudny Lane Gallery, Moscow.
Novechento. L-Gallery, Central House of Artists, Moscow.
Meandr. Triohprudny Gallery, Moscow.
Not a Fountain. Triohprudny Lane Gallery, Moscow.
Mamka-Kosmos. Propeller Gallery, Moscow.
At Saturday`s Evening. Lenin`s Museum, Lvov, Ukraine.

1992
Moscow Romanticism. Central Artists House, Moscow
All Moscow. Tryohprudny Lane Gallery, Moscow
0.10. Tryohprudny Lane Gallery, Moscow
Dead Calm. UKV Gallery, Kiev
Depressing Pictures. Tryohprudny Lane Gallery, Moscow
Industrial Waste. Center of Contemporary Art. Plastov Muzeum, Moscow
Sorting out Relations with Arms. Tryohprudny Lane Gallery, Moscow
Neo- Academy. Tryohprudny Lane Gallery, Moscow
The Dwarfs. Tryohprudny Lane Gallery, Moscow
Humanitarian Aid. Tryohprudny Lane Gallery, Moscow; Institute of Contemporary Art, London
Landscape. Velta Gallery, Moscow
Artist and Book. Peresvetov Lane, Moscow
Form and Content (with K.Reunov). Triohprudny Gallery, Moscow.
Questions of Art. L-Gallery, Moscow.
For Abstractionism! Triohprudny Gallery, Moscow.

1993
Скромные ученики великого мастера. Трехпрудный переулок, Москва
VII съезду народных депутатов России посвящается. Галерея М. Гельмана, Центральный дом художника, Москва
In the Tower, in the Gallery, in the Street./ В башне, в галерее, на улице. Stuki Hotel, Лодзь
Мы жили в те годы. Трехпрудный переулок, Москва
6th Asian Art Biennale/ VI азиатская художественная биеннале... Dakka, Бангладеш
Футуристы выходят на Кузнецкий. Кузнецкий мост, Москва

1993
Modest Pupils of the Great Master. Tryohprudny Lane,Moscow
Dedicated to the VII th Congress of People´s Deputies. Guelman Gallery, Moscow
In the Tower, in the Gallery, in the Street. Stuki Hotel, Lodz, Poland
We Lived in Those Years (2nd project).Tryohprudny Lane Gallery, Moscow.
6th Asian Art Biennale. Dakka, Bangladesh
Futurists Coming to Kuznetskij. Kuznetskij Most, Moscow.

1994
Depositary. Exhibition rooms in Soljanka St., Moscow
Fluchtpunkt Moskau. Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany.
Exibition in May. 20 Artists House at Kuznetsky Most, Moscow
The Artist Instead of His Work. Central Artists House, Moscow
The Month of Photography in Bratislava. Slovakia.
Reproduction – mon amour. Centre of Contemporary Art, Moscow
Free Trade Zone. TIRS. Regional Studies Museum, Art Museum, Odessa
Cetinski Biennale II. Cetine, Montenegro
Marginal Zones of Art. Contemporary Art Festival.Art Museum, Sochi
Exchange II/Datcha. Almere, Flevopolder, Netherlands

1995
Exercise. Center of Contemporary Art, Moscow.
Reproduction – Mon amour. Copenhagen Contemporary art center Nikolaj, Denmark.
Kunst in verborgenen. Nonkonformisten Russland 1957-1995.
Collection of contemporary art, Tsaritsino Museum. Willhelm-Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen – am – Rhein, Documenta-Halle, Kassel.
Staatliches Lindenau Muzeum, Altenburg, Germany.
Moscow – Yerevan. The Problem of the Art. Museum of contemporary Art,Yerevan, Armenia.
New Russian Art. Painting from Christian Keesee Collection.Oklahoma City Art Museum.
Art Belongs to the People. Center of Contemporary Art. Shop windows, Moscow.
On the Home. 100 Profsoyuznaja St., Moscow
5 Years of Marat Guelman Gallery. Artist´s House at Kuznetsky Most, Moscow
Einbliecke (Werkstatt Moskau II). Galerie im Marstall, Akademie der Kunste
Am Hanseatenweg, Kunstlerhof Buch, Berlin, Germany.
Animation Cartoons (from Tsaritsino Museum´s collection of contemporary Art.). Kashirka Gallery, Moscow.

1996
Onzieme atelier du FRAC des pays de la Loire. Saint-Nazair
Werkstatt Moskau "Einblicke", Akademie der Kunste.,Berlin, Germany.
"Vperiod" presents performances of Moscow`s artists". Timishoara, Romania.

1997
History in Faces: Modern Russian Art 1956-1996, Municipal Exhibition Hall, Nizhny Novgorod; Museum of Fine Art, Samara
Art Moscow International Fair. Guelman Gallery, Central House of Artists, Moscow
The Latest Trends Section – Five Years. Russian Museum, St.Petersburg
History in Faces. (From Tsaritsino Museum`s collection of contemporary art). Samara, Perm, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg
Vodka. Guelman Gallery, Moscow
Forum of Art Initiatives, Maly Manege, Moscow
To Uryupinsk with Love. Uryupinsk museum of regional studies.
3rd Biennale of Contemporary Art. Cetin, Montenegro.
Art-Manege international fair. New Academy of Fine Arts.
School of Perfomance. VTO, Moscow.
Portative Museum. Soros Center of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Ars-Forum Gallery, Yaroslavl.

1998
Human Rights. Saharov Museum, Moscow
Barricade. Action on Bolshaja Nikitskaja Street, Moscow
Biennale Gumri, Armenia
Motherland. Samara Art Museum.
Get out of Art! Guelman Gallery, Moscow.

2001
Kolmo k Ose 2. Home of Arts, Opava, CZ
Check In/Check Out, Experimental Space NOD, Prague
Workshop-Art Moscow 01, Central House of Artists, Moscow
Le Fou Dedouble. Central House of Artists, Moscow. Central Exhibition Hall, N.Novgorod. District Art Museum,
Samara. Museum of Fine Arts, Ekaterinburg. Chaleau d`Oiron, Oiron, France.
Vodka. Guelman Gallery, Kiev, Ukraine.
Russian Painters to Andy Warhol. Guelman gallery, Moscow

2002
Contemporary Russian Painting, New Manege, Moscow.
Ex Patria. Art Car Museum, Houston, USA.
Silence! Space of Art Experimentation Vytah, Prague.
Instead of Art. Zverevsky Center of Modern Art, Moscow.

2003
Art Moscow International Fair. Guelman Gallery. Central House of Artists, Moscow.

2005
Russia 2. M. Guelman Gallery Special project within the framework of 1 Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art
Portrait of a Face (together with I. Kitup). M.Guelman Gallery at M`ARS Centre for Contemporary Arts, Moscow

2006
Russia! S. Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
Russia 2. Bad News From Russia. WHITE BOX, New York
Art Moscow. M. Guelman Gallery booth, Central House of Artists, Moscow
Moscow World Fine Art Fair. Central Exhibition Hall (Manege), Moscow
Autobiographical notes: No information available
What the critics say: Eugenia Kikodze (Guelman Gallery) on Avdei Ter-Oganian

The name of Avdei Ter-Oganyan is known in Russia beyond the sphere of art. At the turn of the centuries his name was on the lips of the most opposed layers of our society: ultra right chauvinists and human rights activists. The subject of heated debates was an action by the artist that parodied "iconoclasm": he chopped up cheap copies of icons with an axe. Currently, Ter-Oganyan is a political refugee living in Prague. However, his return to his art has been achieved. Presently, Ter-Oganyan is developing a method he thought up at the beginning of the 1990s – copying famous Modernist paintings under the guise of a provincial master. The series "Abusive Painting" is a new interpretation of Modernism. The naive sincerity of the provincial Avant-garde yields to harsh Modernist orthodoxy. The myopic vagueness of an image is replaced by tendentiously pretentious optics, with the aid of which the true meaning of the picture appears on the surface of the canvas in textual form.
It would probably be most right to call this series restoration – or even, restitution of Modernism, insofar as the point at issue concerns immanent final non-conformity, programmed violation of all universally accepted depictive canons. Gutter curses on the surface of museum masterpieces are revealed as sympathetic inks, in the flame of the artist`s love of bright modernist Utopia

Аndrey Yerofeyev (Tretjakov Gallery): "Avdey Ter-Oganyan" ("Segodnya" Sept, 1993)

Ter-Oganyan came up with the idea to incarnate this metaphor in life – to expose the encaustical painting by Jasper Jonhs to the autumn rain in Moscow. Of course, it was no use asking the owner of the world-famous painting, Mr. Leo Castelli, to lend it for the purpose. The only chance was to copy the work. For our artist all those precious escapades of contemporary art – viable only in the physiological solution of the museum space – are really "new classics", not only passionately loved, but also extremely distant and alien.
Ter-Oganyan`s involuntary profanation of Jasper Jonhs` masterpiece is not an attempt to deflate or subvert the master, but a consequence of almost classical naivety and good sense, an understanding of art as in the times when it was not yet an appendage to the personality or a symbol of the artist`s position or any kind of "challenge", but when art just depicted the gods and beautified the cities.

Kirill Postoutenko (MainView) on performance "Desecration of Holy Objects" (Avdei Ter-Oganian Against the New Russian Idolatry):

The materiality of the photograph does not belong to the icon; therefore, a redoubled (photographed) icon simply cannot be cut up or otherwise destroyed. Nevertheless, the horror that results from Ter-Oganian`s action is real: we can see how the blade of the axe penetrates the photograph`s body, destroying its physical presence. For the photograph`s reality belongs to the present: contrary to the miracle-working icon, the "photo-icon" has no history. Its impact is based on the uncertainties of our perception, which is prone to confuse simulacra and real things.

Nikolai Palazchenko on Avdei Ter-Oganian

Avdey Ter-Oganyan is the main hooligan of late 20th century Russian art. A person with the appearance of a “drunk Hitler”, unscrupulous in sexual intercourse and artistic relations, who made impudent plagiarism, scandal, and the breach of all possible ethics his main way of life. Having started with an exhibition at which he lay drunk in a corner of the gallery, he continued his career by publicly chopping up icons, which resulted in a criminal case and emigration. The “Enfant Terrible”, as he was assumed to be, has become the favorite of curators, collectors, and museum experts, because he belongs to the most important category of 20th century painters – those who have made a masterpiece from their own lives.
Bibliography: No information available

* - This information has been provided by the Soros Center for Contemporary

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