Ilya Kabakov was born in Dnepropetrovsk in 1933. In 1951 he graduated from the Moscow Secondary Art School and in 1957 from the Surikov Art Institute. Kabakov worked as an illustrator of children’s books and in 1965 joined the Union of Artists. He was a member of the Sretensky Boulevard Group together with Bulatov, Shteinberg, Yankilevsky, and Pivovarov. In 1975 he took part in the Twenty Moscow Artists show.
In Kabakov’s Conceptualist works the goal of his art is to demonstrate the relativity of all absolutes, to frustrate any cultural or political continuity, and to question the petrified norms of any propaganda. The artist’s reflections penetrate the traditional genres of art and demythologize their symbolism. Since 1981 Kabakov has been working on a series of installations. He is one of the most prominent Russian Conceptualist artists on the international scene and regularly exhibits at museums and artistic centers throughout Europe and the United States. He lives in New York City.
