The Moscow Museum of Modern Art jointly with the Vellum Gallery are opening Moscow’s first personal exhibition of Ilya Tabenkin to mark the 100th anniversary since the artist’s birth.

      More than 100 works will be presented in the exposition, among them his abstract still life works that gained him fame in the 1970s-80s and earlier figurative paintings and papier-mache art objects.

      Ilya Tabenkin (1914–1988) was born in the Belarusian town of Mozyr. At the age of 17 he entered the 1905 Year Moscow Art School.

      In 1934 he was arrested for having sent artist colours to his friend imprisoned in a labor camp. The arrest was followed with prison, then camp, and finally exile. In 1943 having concealed his record of conviction, managed to enter the V. I. Surikov Moscow Art Institute that was in evacuation in Samarkand. Upon graduation Ilya Tabenkin worked for an art plant and joined the Union of Artists of the USSR.

      During that period the artist working in line with the traditional Moscow art school created landscapes that were contemplative pictures of Russian life.

      The artist gained recognition in 1988, when his works were selected by Sotheby's experts for participation in the well-known the Russian Art Auction in Moscow.

      Soon after that Ilya Tabenkin passed away. Now, quarter of a century after that, we are yet to discover his creativity.

      The exhibition will run from January 24 till February 23.