Exhibition "The Konik Code" Automatic translate

The exhibition project "Konik’s Code" will introduce the work of Mark Aleksandrovich Konik (1938–2012), one of the founders of Soviet artistic design in the mid-twentieth century and a subtle, unique painter. The project consists of two parts. The main exposition, which includes about 130 works, will be located in Gostiny Dvor from March 27 to April 24, 2022. Also, some works can be seen from April 7 to April 29 at the VSEKOKHUDOHNIK gallery on Frunzenskaya Embankment.

Organizers - Exhibition Association VSEKOHUDHNIK with the support of the MosART Site.

Konik’s Code is a secret deeply hidden in the imaginative solutions of the master’s artistic projects and paintings. The works of Mark Konik, shrouded in mystery, will attract fans of incomprehensible riddles, who are trying to unravel the meanings inherent in them. Konik can rightly be called a representative of the "unofficial art" of the last third of the 20th century, which peacefully coexisted in the USSR with art recognized by the state. Representatives of this direction usually carried out art programs approved by the leadership, holding official positions in various institutions: publishing houses, artists’ unions, and the like. And they worked a lot “on the table”, “for themselves”. Such is the creative destiny of Konik.

Designer, stage designer, painter, teacher, art theorist Mark Konik devoted his life to the emergence and development of software environmental design in the USSR, that is, the design of public spaces. He took over from the Bauhaus school and VKHUTEMAS, traveled to Germany and studied the traditions of the Bauhaus on the spot. Konik for many years led one of the groups of the Central Educational and Experimental Studio of Artistic Design under the Union of Artists of the USSR, which was often called the "Senezh Group", since it was based in the House of Creativity of the Union of Artists of the USSR near Moscow.

The ideas and developments of the studio participants under the leadership of Konik, despite their innovative approach and ideological revolutionary nature, were in great demand in various parts of the Union, although most of the most outrageous projects for that time most often did not come to life. But what has come down to us is striking in its current relevance: the design of city squares, exhibition displays, museums and pavilions - what is called the "public environment". “The object that gives me the most impressions is still the city, as the stage of life, its workshop…”, Mark Konik wrote in his autobiography.

A characteristic sign of the times is that the designer Konik seemed to distance himself from the painter Konik: during the life of the author, his only solo exhibition was held, timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary.

Inspired by the works of Paul Klee, one of the pillars of surrealism (who was also a Bauhaus professor, the developer of the theory of color science) and the Suprematism of Kazimir Malevich, the artist-philosopher Konik encrypted, “encoded”, shifted the surrounding, often dull reality into the language of an expressive artistic image. More than 250 paintings created by him over a half-century period of creativity can be divided into several cycles: at the beginning is the "Asian" cycle (the artist was born and lived in Tashkent until the earthquake of 1968) - bright geometrized people-figures against the background of triangles and rhombuses - trees. And then - non-objective and figurative cycles, alternating in the legacy of the master. Geometrically calibrated urban landscapes and surrealistic compositions with garbage dumps, ruins of a collapsed civilization,

In Gostiny Dvor, mainly the works of the last two cycles will be presented, on Frunzenskaya you can see paintings of the "Asian cycle".

It will be a great surprise for modern viewers, connoisseurs and collectors to see the works of Mark Konik for the first time, most of which are undoubtedly museum-level.

Dates and venues:

Gostiny Dvor: March 27 - April 24, 2022. Free admission. From 12:00 - 21:00.
Moscow, st. Varvarka, 3, entrance 16, floor 2, room 268.

Gallery VSEKOKHUDOHNIK: April 7 - 29. Free admission. Every day, except Monday, from 12:00 to 21:00.
Moscow, Frunzenskaya embankment, 10 (entrance from the yard).