Non-conformist artist, sculptor, and publisher of the famous magazine "A—Я" (1979-1986) on contemporary unofficial art, literature, and philosophy.

*1937

Igor Chelkovski

As Oscar Wilde once said, "An artist is someone who makes beautiful things." He put it simply and clearly. Art is free. It cannot be defined in any way. It seems like you can draw a circle and define that as art, but art will step beyond that and laugh at you. I never really thought about what style I work in or what to call it with some scientific term. I guess there were works where I tried to express what I wanted with a minimum of means. I create sculpture without preliminary drawings or sketches because it doesn't help at all. I immediately construct it from the material, then develop and complicate it. I bring it to completion.

Igor Chelkovski is a non-conformist artist, sculptor, and publisher of the renowned magazine "A—Я" (1979-1986) on contemporary unofficial art, literature, and philosophy.
In 1976, the artist emigrated to Paris, and in 1985, he was deprived of Soviet citizenship "for actions incompatible with Soviet citizenship."
Chelkovski's works combine plastic expressiveness and imagery. The artist's creativity has remained relevant since the 1970s when his style was formed, thanks to experiments with color, form, and materials within his artistic manner.
Chelkovski is known for his sculptural "objects" that can be scaled up to enormous sizes. One of the recurring motifs in his work is the graphic silhouettes of people, enlarged in volume, which organically fit into the urban landscape. Chelkovski creates reliefs with schematic representations of forested areas or urban spaces, balancing between painting and sculpture.
In 2020, the artist received the First Moscow Art Award in the category of "Visual Arts and Architecture."

His works are part of collections at the Centre Pompidou, the Russian Museum, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Ludwig Foundation Museum in Vienna, the Zimmerli Museum, and various other museums worldwide.

Selected Works

Sculpture
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Painting
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Graphics
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Panel
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Reliefs
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Ceramics