Witten, Märkisches Museum, Solo Exhibition:Igor Ganikovsky, 1996
Literature
Hans-Peter Riese, The Red House Contemporary Russian Art from the Bierfreund Collection, Wienand, Cologne, 2000, pp. 36 & 96-97 (illustrated)
Catalogue Essay
Born in Moscow in 1950, Igor’ Ganikovskij was actually a 'late bloomer' as an artist. It is difficult to classify Ganikovskij's painting as belonging to any one of the conventional Moscow styles of nonconfirmist painting. Ganikovskij comments: 'I try to depict what is invisible through that which is visible.' What he means at any rate with 'the invisible' is not a metaphor for something abstract, but rather a philosophical category. Ganikovskij’s images are informed, to a great degree, by his Judaism, and since they are arranged in cycles, they can be read like the Torah. The iconography of his painting, which is difficult to interpret, is rooted in this cultural sphere, but it is also open to other religious influences, to which the painter consciously subjects himself. His late choice of profession and his reclusive nature not only kept him from becoming a part of the typical dissident circles in Moscow, but also from being influenced by the dominant stylistic tendencies. (The Red House Contemporary Russian Art from the Bierfreund Collection, Wienand, 2000, p.226)