The Birth of Igor Makarevich from Jasper Johns

This work is one of the dedications to the artist Igor Makarevich, whose work is often referred to by Jan Ginzburg. The most famous project in this series is the «Closed Fish Exhibition. Reconstruction« — homage to the classics of Moscow conceptualism Elena Yelagina and Igor Makarevich (Moscow, Voznesensky Center, 2020)

Before us is a kind of birth of the artist Igor Makarevich from the artist Jasper Johns. The work of D. Jones, according to J. Ginzburg, had a strong influence on the artistic practice of Igor Makarevich. In some periods, you can find similar works among them, some kind of "roll call".

In this collage, J. Ginzburg wants to draw the viewer's attention to how an artistic tradition is built, how one artist can influence another, and how one day a new artist is literally "born" from another.

The composition illustrates the 3 stages of the artist Igor Makarevich's life: birth, life and death. On the left, we see the birth process, in agony. Next, a character who has just been born, embodying the artist's life path, is a figure of a wanderer with a rewound head — a fragment of the famous sculpture «Wounded» by Vadim Sidur is used as the head here. And in the lower right corner there is a fallen figure, symbolizing the departure and death of the artist.

*Igor Makarevich is a Soviet and Russian conceptual artist, member of the Collective Actions group. In paintings and installations, he builds the author's mythology, mixing Soviet totalitarian realities, fairy-tale characters, and motifs of the late Malevich.