Yuri Kuper: Where Art Meets Theatre
Posted on April 5th, 2008 by Rossella Frigerio
Yuri Kuper’s unconventional works are collected by the likes of Lord and Lady Sainsbury, and have been exhibited everywhere from Tokyo to the MoMa in New York. The very best of his recent creations are currently on display at the refined Opera Gallery in London, and we recently caught up with this creative genius to discover a little piece of his world in which theatre and art collide…
1. What part of Moscow do you wish you could slip into your pocket and take with you everywhere you go?
It would be a place that does not exist any more: where I was born in the Prospetk Mira, which means the prospect of peace. It is in the center of Moscow.
It would be a place that does not exist any more: where I was born in the Prospetk Mira, which means the prospect of peace. It is in the center of Moscow.
2. Your current showcase at the Opera Gallery is a reflection of the influence of your past experience as a theatre set decorator in the 60s. Could you tell us a little about those years and how this is reflected in your current work?
I began to paint when I was 15 years old. Designing sets and costumes came later, in 1965 with Toot, Other and Major, by Erken, at the Sovremennik Theatre in Moscow. Then, fifteen years later in the 80s, I was introduced to the writer and theatre director Marcel Maréchal in Paris for whom I have created set and costume designs for Question of Geography, by John Berger and Nella Bielski, at the Théâtre de la Criée, Marseille. We worked on great projects such as American Buffalo, at both the Theatre Tristan-Bernard, Paris, and the Théâtre de la Criée. From then, I have frequently been working all over the world on set and costume projects such as Boris Godunov at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and McTeague (directed by Robert Altman), at the Chicago Lyric Opera in America. In fact being a theatre set decorator has as much influenced my career as an artist, as being an artist has influenced my career as a set decorator. I paint what I like and the way I like, but both of these activities are part of me. They certainly influence one another equally.
I began to paint when I was 15 years old. Designing sets and costumes came later, in 1965 with Toot, Other and Major, by Erken, at the Sovremennik Theatre in Moscow. Then, fifteen years later in the 80s, I was introduced to the writer and theatre director Marcel Maréchal in Paris for whom I have created set and costume designs for Question of Geography, by John Berger and Nella Bielski, at the Théâtre de la Criée, Marseille. We worked on great projects such as American Buffalo, at both the Theatre Tristan-Bernard, Paris, and the Théâtre de la Criée. From then, I have frequently been working all over the world on set and costume projects such as Boris Godunov at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and McTeague (directed by Robert Altman), at the Chicago Lyric Opera in America. In fact being a theatre set decorator has as much influenced my career as an artist, as being an artist has influenced my career as a set decorator. I paint what I like and the way I like, but both of these activities are part of me. They certainly influence one another equally.
3. If your art could be translated into music, it would sound like…
Blues
Blues
4. What are your future upcoming projects?
I have three exhibitions organized for spring and summer 2008: one showcasing sculptures at Galerie Vallois in Paris, another at the Gallery Minotaure in Tel Aviv and finally the Bouquinerie de l’Institut in Paris will showcase recent lithographs at the Salon de l’Estampe at the Grand Palais in Paris. I am also working on some set decorator projects for Carmen from Bizet in Rostov, Russia; Otello from Verdi in Perm, Siberia and another one coming in St Petersburg, Russia. Each project takes me about 3 to 4 months.
I have three exhibitions organized for spring and summer 2008: one showcasing sculptures at Galerie Vallois in Paris, another at the Gallery Minotaure in Tel Aviv and finally the Bouquinerie de l’Institut in Paris will showcase recent lithographs at the Salon de l’Estampe at the Grand Palais in Paris. I am also working on some set decorator projects for Carmen from Bizet in Rostov, Russia; Otello from Verdi in Perm, Siberia and another one coming in St Petersburg, Russia. Each project takes me about 3 to 4 months.
5. A true artist never…
Lies
Lies
Yuri Kuper at the Opera Gallery London, until 30th April 2008
134 New Bond Street, W1S 2TF
Photographs courtesy of Opera Gallery London. All artistic images © Yuri Kuper
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Filed under: Art & Design
I know Yuri in Paris and that photo of him is terrible…first as a representation of him and second it is a terrible photograph….there are hundreds od good photographers in Paris, why publish a snapshot when you could have an image that speaks volumes??
MHMS