Natural History | Triumph en

NATURAL HISTORY

Anton Kuznetsov

27.10.2017 – 26.11.2017

ММОМА (Gogolevsky 10), Moscow

Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA) and Triumph Gallery present a solo exhibition of Anton Kuznetsov called Natural History. The exhibition takes place as a part of Modern Art Support Program by MMOMA and is included in a parallel program of the 7th Moscow International Biennale of Contemporary Art.

The series Natural History consists of 14 paintings, each painting is a novel about flats and their inhabitants, narrated with no beginning or ending. Interiors of the Soviet khrushchyovkas, showing housing as a second human’s skin, created as a life stream with its regularities and coincidencies. Kuznetsov’s concept of the house is a continuation of its owner: equipping his housing, personbases on their own needs and thus, the interior reflects their preferences.. Lifes of the flat’s inhabitants are full of a daily routine, and the objects growing into the flat’s walls, form a common structure. A banality of uprooted flats with their interiors is diluted with surrealistic elements, transferring the atmosphere of distant dreams of a gloomy everyday life of Soviet citizen.

Researching khrushchyovkas, Kuznetsov, on the one hand, reminds us of the socializing role of blocksduring the Khrushchev Thaw period, when a lot of poor Soviet citizens, who huddled together in huts, were provided with an "own corner". On the other hand, thoseold fading interiors with missing characters demonstrate a prosaic reality of the great socialistic plans. The researcher’s impartial point of view is quite understandable from the title that goes well with an effect of involvement that Kuznetsov perfectly attains due to complex compositions and delicate coloring: illustrative descriptions of anold masters school, based on the artist’s nostalgic feelings. "Those flats’ interiours are almost gone by now, but as I see them, they turn me back to my childhood. They keep silence and insignificant moments inside them, where I find eternity" — says project author Anton Kuznetsov.