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Ernst Iosifovich Neizvestny (russian: Эрнст Ио́сифович Неизве́стный; 9 April 1925 – 9 August 2016) was a Russian sculptor, painter, graphic artist, and art philosopher. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1976 and lived and worked in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. His last name in Russian literally means "unknown". American playwright
Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are ''All My Sons'' (1947), '' Death of a Salesman'' (1 ...
once described Neizvestny as an "artist of the East" who is regarded by Russians as an "expression of the country, of its soul, language, and spirit" and as a "prophet of the future" who represents the "philosophical conscience of his country."Официальный сайт Эрнста Неизвестного
Alexander Calder Alexander Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, his static "stabiles", and hi ...
, the American artist, once said to Neizvestny, "All my life I create the world of children, and you create the world of man."


Early life

Neizvestny was born 9 April 1925 in Sverdlovsk (now
Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg ( ; rus, Екатеринбург, p=jɪkətʲɪrʲɪnˈburk), alternatively romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( rus, Свердло́вск, , svʲɪrˈdlofsk, 1924–1991), is a city and the administra ...
) into a
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family. His father was a doctor; his mother, a scientist. Their surname, given originally to Neizvestny's great grandfather, derived from an early nineteenth century practice of taking very young Jewish boys from their families, baptising them in the Orthodox Church. During his teens, he went to the Sverdlovsk School № 16. There, he was on friendly terms with another student named Vladimir Vinnichevsky, who later on became a serial killer. In 1942, at the age of 17, he joined the
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...
as a volunteer. At the close of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, he was heavily wounded and sustained a
clinical death Clinical death is the medical term for cessation of blood circulation and breathing, the two criteria necessary to sustain the lives of human beings and of many other organisms. It occurs when the heart stops beating in a regular rhythm, a condit ...
. Although he was awarded the
Order of the Red Star The Order of the Red Star (russian: Орден Красной Звезды, Orden Krasnoy Zvezdy) was a military decoration of the Soviet Union. It was established by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 6 April 193 ...
"posthumously" and his mother received an official notification that her son had died, Neizvestny managed to survive. In 1947, Neizvestny was enrolled at the
Art Academy of Latvia The Art Academy of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Mākslas akadēmija) is an institution of higher education and scientific research in art, located in Riga, Latvia. The neo-Gothic brick building is located on Krišjānis Valdemārs Street, next t ...
in
Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the ...
. He continued his education at the
Surikov Moscow Art Institute The Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (russian: Московское училище живописи, ваяния и зодчества, МУЖВЗ) also known by the acronym MUZHZV, was one of the largest educational insti ...
and the Philosophy Department of the
Moscow State University 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 ...
. His sculptures, often based on the forms of the human body, are noted for their
expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it ra ...
and powerful plasticity. Although his preferred material is bronze, his larger, monumental installations are often executed in concrete. Most of his works are arranged in extensive cycles, the best known of which is ''The Tree of Life'', a theme he has developed since 1956.


Confrontations with Khrushchev

In November 1962 Neizvestny was invited to contribute to an exhibition organised by the Moscow Union of Artists. There was tension between this body and the Academy of Fine Arts, and part of the point of the exhibition was to try to demonstrate that the Academy had too narrow a definition of what constituted art. The exhibition drew large crowds, but the organisers were was ordered to close it after a few days, and transfer the exhibits to a building near the Kremlin, which was visited by
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
, accompanied by a large entourage, and a film crew. He shouted that the exhibits were "Dog shit!", and picked out Neizvestny as the person he believed to be in charge. Neizvestny told him: "You may be Premier and Chairman, but not here in front of my works. Here I am Premier and we shall discuss as equals." As they continued to argue, someone in Khrushchev's entourage called Neizvestny a homosexual, but 'after excusing himself to Minister of Culture Yekaterina Furtseva', Neizvestny replied: "Give me a girl right here and now and I'll show what sort of homosexual I am." At the end of the session, Khrushchev told him: "You are the kind of man I like. There's an angel and a devil in you. If the angel wins, we can get along together. If it's the devil who wins, we'll destroy you." On 15 December, Neizvestny was among 400 guests invited to hear Khrushchev speak at Moscow's House of Receptions. Khrushchev reputedly intended to be conciliatory, but went off script and pointing at one of Neizvestny's statues and demanded: "is that a horse or a cow? Whatever it is, it makes an ugly mockery of a perfectly noble animal." Pointing at another he said: "If that's supposed to be a woman, then you're a faggot. And the sentence for them is ten years in prison." He went on to compare looking at Neizvestny's work to being in a toilet looking up while someone else was sitting on it. Despite these insults, in 1975, four years after Khrushchev's death, his family commissioned Neizvestny to design the monument over his grave at the
Novodevichy Cemetery Novodevichy Cemetery ( rus, Новоде́вичье кла́дбище, Novodevichye kladbishche) is a cemetery in Moscow. It lies next to the southern wall of the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular touris ...
.


Art career

Other well-known works he created during the Soviet period include ''Prometheus'' in Artek (1966). Much of his art from the Soviet era was destroyed before he was forcibly exiled to America. Neizvestny's talent for large monumental sculptures was again recognized when in the late 1980s six Taiwan cities commissioned the New Statue of Liberty to be built in Kaohsiung harbor. Like the original in New York, it was planned to be 152 feet tall. Several models were built. At least one about five feet tall, and approximately 13 smaller bronzes, each slightly over 18 inches, sold to clients of Magna Gallery in San Francisco. Although the authorized maximum number of signed and numbered castings was 200, far fewer were actually cast and sold, in part because the monument was never built in Taiwan. The reasons are largely political and are described in Albert Leong's bio of Neizvestny, referred to below. During the 1980s, Neizvestny was a visiting lecturer at the
University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc Nike, Inc. ( or ) is a ...
and at
UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...
. He also worked with Magna Gallery in San Francisco and had a number of shows which were well-attended in the mid to late 1980s. This gallery also asked him to create his suite of five original graphics, "Man through the Wall," to mark the end of Communism at the end of the 1980s. Magna Gallery was closed at the end of 1992. During this time, Neizvestny worked diligently to get his dream "Tree of Life" monumental sculpture funded and built. Several small versions or spinoffs based on the theme were built, but the enormous monumental version that Neizvestny dreamed to build, inside which people could walk, has not been built although it has been fully conceptualized, planned out and detailed by the artist as a labor of love. In 1996, Neizvestny completed his Mask of Sorrow, a tall monument to the victims of Soviet purges, situated in
Magadan Magadan ( rus, Магадан, p=məɡɐˈdan) is a port town and the administrative center of Magadan Oblast, Russia, located on the Sea of Okhotsk in Nagayev Bay (within Taui Bay) and serving as a gateway to the Kolyma region. History Maga ...
. The same year, he was awarded the
State Prize of the Russian Federation The State Prize of the Russian Federation, officially translated in Russia as Russian Federation National Award, is a state honorary prize established in 1992 following the breakup of the Soviet Union. In 2004 the rules for selection of laureates ...
. Although he lived in New York City and worked at Columbia University, Neizvestny frequently visited Moscow and celebrated his 80th birthday there. A museum dedicated to his sculptures was established in Uttersberg, Sweden. Some of his crucifixion statues were acquired by John Paul II for the
Vatican Museums The Vatican Museums ( it, Musei Vaticani; la, Musea Vaticana) are the public museums of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of ...
. In 2004, Neizvestny became an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts.Состав РАХ
A biography of Neizvestny was written by University of Oregon professor Albert Leong in 2002 entitled: ''Centaur: The Life and Art of Ernst Neizvestny''. Another book about Neizvestny is ''Art and Revolution: Ernst Neizvestny, Endurance, and the Role of the Artist'', written by British art critic
John Berger John Peter Berger (; 5 November 1926 – 2 January 2017) was an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. His novel '' G.'' won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism '' Ways of Seeing'', written as an accompaniment to the ...
in 1969.


Awards and decorations

*
Order of the Red Star The Order of the Red Star (russian: Орден Красной Звезды, Orden Krasnoy Zvezdy) was a military decoration of the Soviet Union. It was established by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 6 April 193 ...
(1945) * Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", third class * Order of Honour *
State Prize of the Russian Federation The State Prize of the Russian Federation, officially translated in Russia as Russian Federation National Award, is a state honorary prize established in 1992 following the breakup of the Soviet Union. In 2004 the rules for selection of laureates ...


Bibliography

* N. V. Voronov, ''Ernst Neizvestny''. Moscow, 1991.


References


Further reading

*


External links


Studio of Ernst Neizvestny website

Sculptor Ernst Neizvestny

Russian Art Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neizvestny, Ernst Soviet sculptors Soviet Nonconformist Art Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Arts 1925 births 2016 deaths Moscow State University alumni Soviet military personnel of World War II 20th-century male artists Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 3rd class Recipients of the Order of Honour (Russia) State Prize of the Russian Federation laureates Jewish sculptors Soviet Jews Russian male sculptors