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Eugene Abeshaus
Eve and the Snake in the Garden of Eden

1977

About the Item

Hand-Colored Etching Ed. 11/89, signed middle in Hebrew, l.l. in English. EUGENE ABESHAUS Leningrad, Russia, b. 1939, d. 2008 Eugene Abeshaus (also spelled Evgeny Abezgauz, Евгений Абезгауз in Russian; 1939–2008) was a Jewish artist who worked in Russia (then USSR) and Israel. Born in Leningrad to a typical intelligentsia family, Abeshaus was educated as an electrical engineer but soon abandoned this career and enrolled in the Mukhina School for Applied Art. By the time of his graduation from the famous “Mukha” (Fly in Russian), he had already developed a critical stance towards the official Soviet art dominated by the Communist ideology and began exhibiting at semi-underground exhibitions. This was culminated by his taking part in a famous 1975 exhibition at the Nevsky Palace of Culture. Abeshaus was fired from his job and censured by the official press – which however admitted his "artistic taste, a good sense of color and form". Soon afterwards, Abeshaus set up, together with several Jewish artists, the Alef Group and became its leader. The group’s first exhibition in November 1975 was held at Abeshauses’ small apartment. According to the Alef Manifesto written by Alec Rappoport, “We are trying to conquer the influence of small-town Jewish art and find sources for our work in deeper, wiser, and more spiritual European culture, and from it build a bridge to today and tomorrow". In May 1976, some of Abeshaus’s works, clandestinely sneaked out of the country, were exhibited at the Berkeley Art Museum to much critical acclaim. Later in the same year, following some political bargain between Leonid Brezhnev and President Jimmy Carter, Abeshaus and his family were finally permitted to leave the USSR for Israel. Since then Abeshaus lived and worked in Ein Hod, a picturesque artists’ village near Haifa founded by Marcel Janco. His works were exhibited at numerous exhibitions, including dozens one-artist shows, in Israel, USA, Europe and, after the collapse of the USSR, in Russia. His ultimate acceptance and recognition there was culminated in a sensational memorial one-artist exhibition staged in 2009 at the famous Russian Museum in St.Petersburg - an exceptional honor for a modern artist.
  • Creator:
  • Creation Year:
    1977
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 28.25 in (71.76 cm)Width: 13.25 in (33.66 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    Measurements include frame.
  • Gallery Location:
    Surfside, FL
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU38211365532

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His work is included in the permanent public collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Jewish Museum in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others. In 1976 David, erotic photographer Roy Stuart and Fredonia friend Richie Stotts formed a band called The Numbers, with David on bass. The group was a fixture in New York's early punk rock music scene, playing in clubs alongside punk pioneers Television, Blondie and the Ramones. David also played bass with punk innovators Jerry Nolan of The New York Dolls, Cheetah Chrome of The Dead Boys, Marky Ramone, Peter Gordon, David Van Tieghem and the free-improvisation noise music group Borbetomagus. In 1977, The Numbers were approached by impresario Rod Swenson, who was seeking musicians to form a backing band for singer Wendy O. Williams, whose radical persona he sought to exploit as punk music and performance art. 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In 2000, he developed the "Chortens" and "Populations" series, about which prominent art historian and critic Donald Kuspit writes: "They are enigmatic works, all the more so because of the way their innumerable details form singularly monumental, intimidating wholes. Dense yet delicate, awesome yet intimate, they convey the fragility as well as grandeur of sheer being. Layer upon layer of paint piles up like layer upon layer of coral, but the textural result is more epic, not to say startling, than any coral island, and virtually any other existing abstract expressionist painting (upon which they are stylistically founded)." In 2001, David developed bi-lateral neuropathy due to being poisoned by gases released by overheated beeswax used in the encaustic process. The disease left him with partial paralysis of his legs, slowing the production of his painting for a number of years. 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