DESSINS DANS L'AIR

Igor Chelkovski (b. 1937, USSR) is a sculptor and artist whose practice has developed since the
early 1960s around abstraction, reduction of form and serial thinking. A key figure of the Soviet
nonconformist art movement, he has lived and worked in France since 1976.

Chelkovski’s work focuses on the exploration of form as a perceptual phenomenon rather than a
representation of an object. Engaging with universal motifs such as nature, the human figure and
the urban environment, he seeks to articulate movement, rhythm, vibration and spatial sensation
through minimal sculptural means.
Wood occupies a central place in Chelkovski’s practice and is treated as an equivalent of line
or brushstroke. His sculptures and reliefs are reduced to elementary structures in which rough
texture coexists with poetic abstraction. Motifs such as clouds, trees, vases and human figures
are repeatedly revisited over decades, allowing the artist to refine each image through variation
and reduction until it reaches formal clarity. Seriality functions as a method of thinking rather
than repetition, enabling a continuous re-articulation of form.
A key principle of Chelkovski’s sculptural language is the invariance of form in relation to scale.
Many of his works can be translated from intimate formats to monumental public sculptures
without loss of internal tension or expressive force. This approach underpins his engagement with
public space and large-scale installations.
Beyond sculpture, Chelkovski works in painting, drawing and relief, consistently extending his
investigations of perception across media. His practice may be described as phenomenological:
he observes not the object itself, but the way it emerges in consciousness and condenses this
experience into simple, structurally precise forms.
From 1979 to 1986 Chelkovski was the founder and editor-in-chief of the journal A–Ya, which
introduced Soviet unofficial art to an international audience.
His works are held in major museum collections, including the Centre Pompidou (Paris),
the Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), the Russian Museum (St. Petersburg), the Museum of Modern Art of the Ludwig Foundation (Vienna), the Zimmerli Art Museum (USA), and others.