Semyon Faibisovich

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

New York, Phillis Kind Gallery, Semyon Faibisovich, 1990
New York, Museum of the Yeshiva University, Remembrance: Russian Post-Modern Nostalgia,2003-2004, p. 133, illustrated in colour

Semyon Faibisovich,Ed.,Semyon Faibisovich: Art of the 1980s, Moscow 2001, p. 31, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is richer and warmer in the original, with the wall colour tending more to a light orangey-cream, the brown of the jacket in the left part of the composition more to a reddish-brown and the blacks inside the door frame more to charcoal grey. Condition: This work is in very good condition. The canvas is slack. There is a fine white rub mark (approximately 30 cm. long) running along the bottom edge, right of centre. There is a fine light rub mark (approximately 30 cm. long) running in a curved line to the left of the hand of the boy carrying the bottles in the central part of the composition, continuing across the bottles. Two further smaller rub marks can be noticed upon close inspection to the reddish-brown jacket (approximately 15 cm. below the right shoulder) and to the back of the left leg of the character in the foreground on the right of the composition. There are a number of fine and stable tension cracks visible along the four extreme overturn edges. There are four irregularities to the canvas surface: one directly above the character with the reddish-brown jacket (approximately 10 cm. long), two 8 and 20 cm respectively to the left of the door's upper left corner, and one above the door frame to the left of the lamp; each with associated fine cracks. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultraviolet light.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

One of Russia's "Dissident painters" who worked outside of the official state controlled Soviet artistic system, Semyon Faibisovich is today regarded as one of Russia's most influential and acclaimed contemporary artists. "Semyon Faibisovich has a special role in the development of contemporary Russian art, for he was one of the first to use, along with a photo reporter's emotional distance, those techniques of American photorealism that were so popular in the US in the 1960s." (Time Magazine, 1989) Renowned for his sharp, ironic style of painting and the gritty realism of his motifs, his work depicts the paradoxes of Russia's newly-born democracy and the metamorphoses underway in the political, social and everyday urban life.

Originally a student of the Moscow Institute of Architecture, Faibisovich turned to painting in 1978 after seeing the work of the Photorealist artist Richard Estes at an American Art exhibition held at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. Like Estes' photorealist paintings of New York's streetlife which immortalised the ordinary and the everyday, Faibisovich's paintings similarly depict unembellished Soviet scenes; scenes which he would photograph on his daily bus journeys between the subway and his home. The proximity of his paintings to a contemporary, photographic existence projected onto canvas begs comparison to Gerhard Richter's grisaille photo-based paintings of the 1960s; works which took their inspiration from a variety of low art sources such as family photo albums and the mass media. Faibosovich's The Vodka Line similarly tackles a non-artistic subject and is executed with the impartiality of a photo journalist using a muted colour palette consistent with the main body of his work. Although depicting a past epoch, The Vodka Line has a timeless relevance to it. The atmospheric quality draws the viewer into the painting to the extent where he feels as if part of the scene in motion.

Despite the contemporary subject matter of Faibisovich's art, its roots are firmly planted in the traditions of Russian nineteenth-century realism with its matter-of-fact as opposed to analytical, portrayal of existence, finding "the aesthetic in the non-aesthetic and beauty in the banality of everyday life." (Time Magazine, 1989)