Boris Efimovich Groys (born 19 March 1947) is an

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

, media theorist, and philosopher. He is currently a global distinguished professor of Russian and Slavic studies at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

and senior research fellow at the

Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design The Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG) is a state art college founded in 1992 in Karlsruhe. It focuses on media art, communication design , product design , exhibition design and scenography, art research and media philosophy wit ...

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

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 ...

. He has been a professor of

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

art history Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

, and

media theory Media studies is a discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history, and effects of various media; in particular, the mass media. Media Studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but mostly ...

at the

Center for Art and Media The ZKM , Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (until March 2016: ZKM Center for Art and Media Technology), a cultural institution, was founded in 1989. and since 1997 is located in a listed industrial building in Karlsruhe, Germany, a former muni ...

in Karlsruhe and an internationally acclaimed professor at a number of universities in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, including the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

and the

Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...

London.

Biography

Groys was born to Russian parents in the Soviet sector of Berlin, the capital of

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

. He attended high school in Leningrad (known since 1991 as

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

) and from 1965–1971 studied mathematical logic at the University of Leningrad, subsequently working as a research fellow at various scientific institutes in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. From 1976-1981 he served as a research fellow at the Institute of Structural and Applied

Linguistics 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 ...

at the

University of Moscow M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

. In 1981 he emigrated from the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

to the

Federal Republic of 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 between ...

, where he pursued various scholarships. He earned a Ph.D. in philosophy at the

University of Münster The University of Münster (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public university, public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over ...

, Germany. During his time in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, Groys participated in the unofficial cultural scenes of Moscow and Leningrad, publishing in ''37'', ''Chasy'', and other

samizdat Samizdat (russian: самиздат, lit=self-publishing, links=no) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the document ...

magazines. In 1979 he published the essay “Moscow Romantic Conceptualism” in the art magazine ''

A-YA ''A-YA'' (''A-JA''), Cyrillic: a-Я — журнал неофициального русского искусства (English: Magazine of Unofficial Russian Art), was an underground Russian art revue. ''A-YA'' was illegally prepared in the So ...

'', in which he coined the term applied to the art movement “

Moscow Conceptualism The Moscow Conceptualist, or Russian Conceptualist, movement began with the Sots art Often referred to as “Soviet Pop Art”, Sots Art or soc art (russian: Соц-арт, short for Socialist Art) originated in the Soviet Union in the early 1 ...

.” Groys is a pioneering theorist in reflection on socialist art and

postmodern art Postmodern art is a body of art movements that sought to contradict some aspects of modernism or some aspects that emerged or developed in its aftermath. In general, movements such as intermedia, installation art, conceptual art and multimedia, ...

, without evaluating either. Western thinkers such as

Clement Greenberg Clement Greenberg () (January 16, 1909 – May 7, 1994), occasionally writing under the pseudonym K. Hardesh, was an American essayist known mainly as an art critic closely associated with American modern art of the mid-20th century and a formal ...

had criticized socialist art, especially

socialist realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...

, for being mass art and made it an aesthetic taboo. Groys re-evaluated socialist art production, challenging the norms of aesthetics by pushing a thesis based on

Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish mys ...

in the very interpretation of politics, claiming that

modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

had survived in the "total artwork" (

Gesamtkunstwerk A ''Gesamtkunstwerk'' (, literally 'total artwork', translated as 'total work of art', 'ideal work of art', 'universal artwork', 'synthesis of the arts', 'comprehensive artwork', or 'all-embracing art form') is a work of art that makes use of al ...

) of

Stalinism Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...

. This thesis is charged with having pushed a new generation of thinkers into re-evaluating the Socialist aesthetic heritage (among others Miško Šuvaković, Marina Gržinić, and Ana Peraica) recognized as the discourse of post-socialist art. Groys is a member of the Association Internationale des Critiques d'Art (AICAO), and has served as a fellow of numerous institutions including International Research Center for Cultural Studies (IFK) in Vienna, Austria,

Harvard University Art Museum The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

, and the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

. In 2001 he served as director of the

Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien) is a public art school in Vienna, Austria. History The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 as a private academy modelled on the Accademia di Sa ...

. From 2003 to 2004 he headed the research program ''Post-Communist Condition'' in cooperation with

Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe The ZKM , Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (until March 2016: ZKM Center for Art and Media Technology), a cultural institution, was founded in 1989. and since 1997 is located in a listed industrial building in Karlsruhe, Germany, a former muni ...

and the Federal Cultural Foundation of Germany.

Selected publications

Groys has written over 150 articles on modern and contemporary art and Russian art and intellectual history in several languages. His books include *''Russian Cosmism'' (2018) *''In the Flow'' (2016) *''Introduction to Antiphilosophy'' (2012) *''The Communist Postscript'' (2010) *''History Becomes Form: Moscow Conceptualism'' (2010) *''Going Public'' (2010) *''Comrades of Time'' (2009) *''Art Power'' (2008) *''The Total Enlightenment: Conceptual Art in Moscow 1960-1990'' (2008) *''

Ilya Kabakov Ilya Iosifovich Kabakov (Russian: Илья́ Ио́сифович Кабако́в; born September 30, 1933), is a Russian–American conceptual artist, born in Dnipropetrovsk in what was then the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union. He worked ...

: The Man Who Flew into Space from His Apartment'' (2006) *''Dream Factory Communism'' (2004) *''The Total Art of Stalinism'' (1992) *'' Igor Sacharow-Ross: Apotropikon'' (1991) Groys has also published ''Thinking in Loop: Three Videos on Iconoclasm, Ritual and Immortality'' (DVD, 2008). The videos were produced between 2002 and 2007. Each of these videos combines a theoretical text written and spoken by the author with film footage fragments taken from different movies and film documentations.

Curatorial activities

Groys has curated numerous exhibitions, including *''Fluchtpunkt Moskau'' at Ludwig Forum (1994 Aachen, Germany) *''Dream Factory Communism'' at the Schirn Gallery (2003-2004 Frankfurt, Germany) *''Privatizations'' at the KW Institute of Contemporary Art (2004 Berlin, Germany) *''Total Enlightenment: Conceptual Art in Moscow 1960–1990'' (2008-2009 at Kunsthalle Schirn in Frankfurt, Germany, and Fondacion March in Madrid, Spain) *''Medium Religion'' with

Peter Weibel Peter Weibel (; born 5 March 1944 in Odessa, USSR) is an internationally known Austrian post-conceptual artist, curator and new media theoretician. He started out in 1964 as a visual poet but soon jumped from the page to the screen within the sen ...

at the

, (2009 Karlsruhe, Germany) *Andrei Monastyrski for the Russian Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale, 2011 *''After History: Alexandre Kojève as a Photographer'', 20 May–15 July 2012 at BAK Utrecht (NL)

References

External links

Groys´ NYU homepageBoris Groys facebookpage

Research and projects

Boris Groys at Former West by BAK UtrechtBoris Groys at Center for Art and Media Karlsruhepage HfG Karlsruheannouncement Sternberg Press/e-fluxe-flux

Lectures and interviews

2010 Silberberg Lectures at Institute of Fine Art NYU, New YorkLectures at Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design ''in German language''Aesthetic Responsibility. Frieze Art keynote lecture, LondonBAK research lectures. Russian Avantgarde Revisited
{{DEFAULTSORT:Groys, Boris 1947 births German art critics Living people New York University faculty Frank Jewett Mather Award winners Russian expatriates in Germany Soviet art historians Soviet male writers 20th-century German male writers German people of Russian descent People from Berlin Academics of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna