Floating Worlds and Future Cities: Lazar Khidekel, Suprematism

Floating Worlds and Future Cities: The Genius of Lazar Khidekel, Suprematism, and the Russian Avant-Garde YIVO Institute for Jewish Research 15 West 16 Street, New York, NY 10011 SUNDAY 21 APRIL 2013 | 3:00PM SYMPOSIUM, EXHIBITION OPENING & RECEPTION 3:00pm Symposium 5:00pm Exhibition Opening & Reception Exhibition on view through June 30 “Floating Worlds and Future Cities" will present the comprehensive exhibition in the United States of the work of the great Russian Avant-garde artist, architect, designer and theoretician, Lazar Khidekel (1904-1986). Lazar Khidekel worked closely with Marc Chagall, El Lissitzky and Kazimir Malevich in Vitbesk in the years 1918-1922, where he became an important proponent and theoretician of the avant-garde movement known as Suprematism and a founding member of the UNOVIS group (Affirmers of New Art), which included other notable Russian and Jewish artists such as Kazimir Malevich, El Lissitsky, Nina Kogan and Ilya Chashnik. This exhibition and accompanying symposium and catalog will explore Khidekel’s biography and work, the Jewish contribution to the Russian avant-garde, the glory of Vitebsk (“the Paris of the East,” as it was known during this period), and focus on Lazar Khidekel's role in the transition of Suprematism from painting to architecture, cosmic urbanization, and radical yet environmentally conscious city planning of the future. Curated by Dr. Regina Khidekel, the exhibition will include paintings, drawings, period photographs, UNOVIS documents, publications and letters drawn from the Khidekel Family Archive, as well as architectural models. Works of Lazar Khidekel were shown in the U.S., Europe and Russia, including solo exhibitions in Magnes Museum in Berkeley, 2004, and in Haus Konstruktiv and The Leuenhof, Zurich, 2010-2012. Lazar Khidekel’s manifesto “AERO. Articles and Projects”, Vitebsk, 1920, has been included in the “Timeline” of the Haus Konsstruktiv's “COMPLETE CONCRETE” exhibition on the 100 years of development of constructivist, concrete and conceptual art and its effect on the present. About the Symposium Speakers: Dr. Jonathan Brent, Executive Director, YIVO Institute Opening remarks Dr. Maria Kokkori, Research Fellow, The Art Institute of Chicago Khidekel and Malevich’s teaching philosophy and Vitebsk art school. Ginés Garrido, Architect PhD, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University Fellow The Dream of Flight. On the gravity-defying nature of a new Landscape Infrastructure. Dr. Regina Khidekel, President, Lazar Khidekel Society Malevich, Khidekel and Vitebsk: Jewish Connections Professor Constantine Boym, Designer From the Spoon to the City Dr. Mark Khidekel, Architect The development of Russian Avant-garde Ecological themes to solve Architectural challenges of the 21st century postindustrial civilization. The exhibition catalog sponsored by the Lazar Khidekel Society ABOUT YIVO: Founded in 1925, the YIVO Institute is headquartered in New York City, and is the world’s premier teaching and research institute devoted to East European Jewish Studies with specializations in the Yiddish language, literature, and folklore; the Holocaust and the American Jewish experience. www.yivo.org ABOUT LAZAR KHIDEKEL SOCIETY: Founded by the family of Lazar Khidekel and a group of distinguished art historians, museum specialists, and art supporters under the auspices of the RACC in New York, the Lazar Khidekel Society aims to sustain and preserve Lazar Khidekel's legacy in art, architecture, and design, and to advance through research, publications and exhibitions, the recognition of Lazar Khidekel (1904, Vitebsk – 1986, Leningrad), as one of the titans of the Russian Avant-garde, particularly the Suprematist movement, that laid the foundation for art and architecture of the 20th and 21st centuries. More about Lazar Khidekel’s works: www.lazarkhidekel.com, Lazar Khidekel Society: http://russianamericanculture.com/Mission.php Contact the Lazar Khidekel Society at: [email protected] or 646-831-0554