St.-Petersburg of “Black days”
The Exhibition "There once I walked ..." is a fresh approach of St. Petersburg sights by Yuri Cooper, who was born in Moscow, lives in New York, but loves the city on the Neva.
Yuri Kuper is renowned not only by the international art community, but also by the theatrical circles. His scene craft for “Boris Godunov” directed by Alexander Sokurov at the Bolshoi Theater was nominated to “The Golden Mask”. He is also the author of “Twelve paintings from the artist's life”, staged in the Moscow Art Theatre. No wonder that his St. Petersburg, on the one hand, is an autobiographical landscape, and, on the other hand, looks a lot like metaphysical decorations, full of fog, mist, water and beauty.
Yuri Kuper uses unique technique. He combines photography and oil painting featured with salt. The exposition is monochrome, the palette of the majority of the paintings is complex grey. “I love the light, not the color. It’s not that much of a collage. It is rather black and white silkscreen printing which I try to turn into painting. The atmosphere is what I worship in landscapes. And in the case of St. Petersburg it is, of course, the light and the air”.
“There once I walked ...” is a co-project of Erarta and The State Museum St. Isaac's Cathedral, which was donated by the artist his St.-Petersburg series. “We are always pleased to explore new spaces. And we are particularly happy that this exhibition is hosted by Erarta, one of the youngest and brightest museums, that rays out some kind of internal smile, — said Nikolai Burov, the director of The State Museum St. Isaac's Cathedral, at the opening ceremony. — A lot of people appreciate St.-Petersburg at ‘white nights’. But Yuri Cooper shows us the winter city, the city of ‘black days’. But his love and devotion can still be seen in these works. And we defiantly feel that after black days the white nights will come!”.
