Yuri Kuper (B. 1940)

Box & Glass, circa 1994

oil on canvas with plastic and paper

65 1/2 x 104 in.

166.4 x 264.2 cm.

Acquired on February 27, 2025 at Angel Art 2025 Auction to Benefit the Project Angel Food Fire Relief Fund: Hosted by Bonhams

The most successful Russian artist who has achieved recognition in the West, Yuri Kuper has to his credit more than 110 solo exhibitions in prestigious galleries around the world, including Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris; Galerie Jan Krugier, Ditesheim & Cie., Geneva; Serge Sorokko Gallery, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Paris and London; Galerie Yoshii, New York, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow; Musée de Toulon, Paris, Sainsbury Centre, Norwich; Bouquinerie de l'Institut, Paris; Kiyoharu Shirakaba Museum, Hokuto; Musée Ueno-no-mori, Tokyo; and Musée de Chokoku-no-mori, Hakone.

Well known for his magnificent representations of metal and organic material, Kuper prefers to paint objects that are covered with the patina of time, as if withered and decayed, but, like an autumn leaf, gloriously fading. The more they mark time, the more they become timeless for Kuper, that is, the clearer their intrinsic aesthetic value... And if things are symbols for Kuper in themselves and in the wider sense of the symbols of the artist, his still lifes symbolize the loneliness and isolation of the artist in the world—loneliness, freely given to him by his creative genius.

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