Ilya Kabakov, internationally celebrated artist of the nineties, will speak about his work and life focusing on "The Boat of My Life. "Kabakov's paintings, stories, and installations are fantastic tales filled with irony and a profound sense of the absurd, in the tradition of Gogol's "Overcoat."  It is as though the very extravagance of these fictions serves as a form of resistance to the gray surface of events.

Kabakov's installation work "The Boat of My Life" addresses his flight from the Nazis to Samark and at the age of seven with his parents, his international exile, the persecution of a "Jewish national" within postwar Russia, and his emigration to New York in the spring of 1998 at the beginning of the Cold War thaw.

"The Boat of My Life" will be on exhibit for the first time in the United States at the Krannert Art Museum, from September 18 through November 1.

Hosted by: Art History Program

In conjunction with:  College of Fine and Applied Arts, School of Art and Design, Department of Economics, Afro-American Studies and Research Program, Drobney Interdisciplinary Program for the Study of Jewish Culture and Society, International Programs and Studies, Frances P. Rohlen Visiting Artists Committee, Lorado Taft Lecture Committee, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion Musicology Division, School of Music, Russian and East European Center Painting Program, School of Art and Design, Ford Foundation