Lot Essay
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov are Russian-born, American-based artists that collaborate on environments which fuse elements of the everyday with those of the conceptual. While their work is deeply rooted in the Soviet social and cultural context in which the Kabakovs came of age, their work still attains a universal significance. Their installations speak as much about conditions in post-Stalinist Russia as they do about the human condition universally. In 1988 Ilya Kabakov began working with his future wife Emilia (they were to be married in 1992) and from this point onwards, all their work was collaborative. Today Kabakov is recognized as the most important Russian artist to have emerged in the late 20th century. Their work has been shown in such venues as the MOMA, the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Documenta IX, the Whitney Biennial (1997) and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, amongst others. In 1993 they represented Russia at the 45th Venice Biennial with their installation The Red Pavilion. The Kabakovs have also completed many important public commissions throughout Europe and have received a number of honors and awards, including the Oscar Kokoschka Preis (2002) and the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (1995).