Alexander Reichstein (born 1957 in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

) is a Russian-Finnish

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

and designer. His work focuses on art for children through interactive exhibition projects,

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

s and

book illustration The illustration of manuscript books was well established in ancient times, and the tradition of the illuminated manuscript thrived in the West until the invention of printing. Other parts of the world had comparable traditions, such as the Persi ...

Biography and work

Alexander Reichstein was born into a Russian-Jewish family. His father Alexander D. Reichstein was a

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

for the

German language German ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and Official language, official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Ita ...

and his mother Elena Mikhelevich was a

translator Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

and

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

. In 1974 he graduated from Children's Art School No. 2 in Moscow. From 1974 to 1977 Reichstein worked as an artist in a Moscow film studio. Between 1977 and 1981 he drew illustrations for Moscow publishers. In 1981 he married the linguist Ekaterina Protassova. The couple have two children. From 1976 to 1982 Reichstein studied print media design and illustration at the ''Moscow Polygraphic Institute'', today's ''Moscow State University of Printing''. During his studies he specialized in the illustration of

children's books A child (plural, : children) is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers ...

. He then worked for various Moscow publishers, where he designed and illustrated books for children and adults. From 1982 he worked for three years as

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

at the Russian art publisher ''Iskusstvo''. Porosenok Petr

In 1990 Reichstein went with his family to

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. From 1991 to 1993 Reichstein completed an internship at the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Helsinki. There he held two two-year

visiting professorships In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...

, first in 1992 and again in 2006. Reichstein conducts workshops, happenings, exhibitions and installations and gives art courses in Finland. On behalf of museums, he is responsible for the exhibition design, for example in 2020 for the 75th anniversary of the Moomins figures by the Finnish-Swedish writer Tove Jansson at the National Museum of Finland. He also llustrates children's books for international publishers. They Were Here1

Reichstein is also active as a

Light artist Light art or The Art of Light is generally referring to a visual art form in which (physical) light is the main, if not sole medium of creation. Uses of the term differ drastically in incongruence; definitions, if existing, vary in several aspec ...

. In 2016 he created his work ''They were here''(also referred as ''Mystical Guests''), which was first shown in Helsinki and then also in other countries such as

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, France, Poland, the Netherlands,

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

and

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

. In 2019 Reichstein took part in the Berlin Festival of Lights with the light art works ''They were here'', ''Time to Fly'' and ''Metamorphoses'', which were shown in the Erholungspark Marzahn in the Marzahn district. In 2021 he took part in the ''FestungsLeuchten'' light art festival at Ehrenbreitstein Fortress in

Koblenz Koblenz (; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz''), spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multi-nation tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman mili ...

with his light art installation ''They were here''.

Main works

Reichstein had a breakthrough in the public perception of his art in 2004 with the interactive exhibition ''Bestiarium Construendum'', which is one of his major works. It was first shown at the

Amos Anderson Art Museum Amos Rex is an art museum named after publisher and arts patron Amos Anderson located in Lasipalatsi, Mannerheimintie, Helsinki, Finland. It opened in 2018 and rapidly reached international popularity, attracting more than 10,000 visitors in a mat ...

in Helsinki. It is a hands-on exhibition made of large building blocks, which are shaped like parts of the human body and animals. These include lions, crocodiles, fish and horses. Because of their color and surface, the parts look antique and appear like relics of bygone cultures. The museum visitors can, by piecing together the building blocks, create sculptures of mythical creatures. File:Bestiarium Construendum.jpg, The individual parts of the interactive exhibition ''Bestiarium Construendum'' File:Bestiarium Construendum3.jpg, Several created figures File:Bestiarium Construendum1.jpg, Figure assembled from the individual parts File:Bestiarium Construendum2.jpg, Another composite figure Another major work is ''Mare Nocturnum'', a sculpture installation on the

mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in u ...

of the deep sea. It was first seen on a former

water tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system, distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towe ...

in Kotka in 2002, and it was also seen in the

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

s of the ''

Retretti Retretti was a major art museum in Punkaharju, Finland. It was unique in that most of its exhibition space was underground. The man-made caves total and reach a depth of . There was a souvenir shop and a restaurant in the premises. Retretti Oy w ...

Art Center'' in 2004. The installation consists of three-dimensional figures made from wire mesh which are sprayed with a color that fluoresces blue in

UV light Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation i ...

at night. The figures are three-dimensional and include

mermaid In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Asia, and Africa. Mermaids are sometimes asso ...

s, merfolk, hippocamps and tritons moving in the underwater world. In 2005 he created ''Alma Terra'' in the form of a 40 square meter model patchwork

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

made of

fabric Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

. Children can play with and crawl on it. The landscape is reminiscent of that which in Russia is revered as

Mother Earth Mother Earth may refer to: *The Earth goddess in any of the world's mythologies *Mother goddess *Mother Nature, a common personification of the Earth and its biosphere as the giver and sustainer of life Written media and literature *Mother Earth ...

, and which is also known in the mythologies of other countries.

Classification

According to Finnish art historian and journalist Marjatta Hietaniemi, Alexander Reichstein helped expand Finnish children's culture over the years. He introduced interactivity and made it an artistic genre. In addition, he brought Eastern European influences into Finnish children's book illustration. She rates Reichstein's style in varying ways. Reichstein reproduced and adapted those styles from history to fit how he needed for a work or an exhibition. This is the case with the ''Bestiarium Construendum'' project, for example, using

archaic Greek Archaic Greece was the period in Greek history lasting from circa 800 BC to the second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC, following the Greek Dark Ages and succeeded by the Classical period. In the archaic period, Greeks settled across the M ...

, with the installation ''Mare Nocturnum'' using the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

, and with the project ''Princess for One Day'' using

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

and

Rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

styles.

Book illustrations (selection)

* 1997 ''Gondwanan lapset'' (swedish: ''På en ö i havet'') (Author:

Alexis Kouros Alexis Kouros (born 1961, in Kermanshah, Iran) is an Iranian-Finnish writer, documentary-maker, director, and producer. His first book, ''Gondwana's Children'', won the Finlandia Junior award in 1997. His first film was the 2000 documentary, ''W ...

) * 1997 ''Tupsu, the squirrel who was afraid'' (Author:

Melody Carlson Melody Carlson (born March 2, 1956) is an American author. She has written over 250 books for women, teens and children, including the '' Diary of a Teenage Girl'' series. Biography Carlson was born March 2, 1956 in San Francisco, California. Sh ...

) * 1998 ''Mina & Bär'' (Author: Sabine Jörg) * 1999 '' Parzival auf der Suche nach dem Gral'', Reseal of Wolfram von Eschenbach, (Author: Marit Laurin) * 1999 ''Rodolfo kommt'' (Author: Udo Weigelt) * 2000 ''The Eagle & the Wren'' (Author:

Jane Goodall Dame Jane Morris Goodall (; born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall on 3 April 1934), formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English primatologist and anthropologist. Seen as the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best know ...

) * 2002 ''Porosenok Petr'' (Author: Lyudmila Petrushevskaya) * 2015 ''När månen skrattade'' (Author: Milena Parland)

Publications

* Alexander Reichstein: ''Ihmeotuksia & Ihmemuutoksia (Curious Creatures & Changes)'', Salo/Vaasa, 2007, ISBN 978-952-99735-6-9 * Alexander Reichstein: ''Selected exhibitions & installations'', Helsinki, 2019, ISBN 978-952-94-2264-7

Awards

* 1997: Finlandia Junior, young talent award for books for children and young people * 1998: Topelius-anniversary medal * 2008: Finnish State Prize for Children's Culture * 2016: Prize from the Swedish Literary Society in Finland''Légendes des pays du Nord. 24 novembre 2018 - 17 février 2019, Palais Lumière Evian''
/ref>

Bibliography

* ''Alexander Reichstein skapar konst för lek och drömmar'' in: ''Opsis Barnkultur'', 2/2017, S. 35–38 (swedish)

External links

Homepage
of Alexander Reichstein

Alexander Reichstein
at

Artnet Artnet.com is an art market website. It is operated by Artnet Worldwide Corporation, which has headquarters in New York City, in the United States, and is owned by Artnet AG, a German publicly traded company based in Berlin that is listed on t ...

Alexander Reichstein
at ''Best of Light Art in Finland''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reichstein, Alexander 1957 births Russian children's book illustrators Living people Soviet artists Artists from Moscow Russian emigrants to Finland Finnish artists 20th-century Finnish Jews 21st-century Finnish Jews Finnish people of Russian-Jewish descent