Dmitry Gutov

 
Born in 1960 in Moscow
Graduated from Institute of Art, Sculpture and Architecture of the Academy of Arts, St. Petersburg
Lives and works in Moscow

 

Dmitry Gutov – the participant of the Biennale of Venice (1995), Manifesta (Rotterdam, 1996), Biennale of Istanbul (1992), Valencia (2001), Sao Paolo (2002), crucial exhibitions of the contemporary Russian art «Давай! Davaj!» (Berlin, Saltsburg, 2002), «MoscowBerlin» (Berlin, Moscow, 2003).

The artistic gestures of Dmitry Gutov range from intentionally minimalistic to large-scaled ones: the artist hanged 3 000 of badminton shuttlecocks into sky above the pioneer camp (in the frames of the project “About Transparency”, 1992), filled the white space of Regina Gallery and later on the hall of Gallery National du Jeu de Pomme, Paris with 20 tons of mud (project “Above Black Mud”, 1994 and 2000 respectively), captured on photo film his elderly parents playing football (“Mam, Dad & Champions League”, Guelman Gallery, 2002). In the mid 1990-ies D. Gutov founded the “Lifshitz Institute” inspired by his passion to the works of  Soviet-times aesthetician Mikhail Lifshitz, known as the “persecutor of all the avantguardistic in art”. The “Lifshitz Institute” became the strong and remarkable phenomenon on the Russian artistic scene and initiated Moscow artists for reflections and discussions on the bases of their work.

New series of painting presented at the exhibition “Everything I’ve Done Before the Age of 70 Doesn’t Count” at the Guelman Gallery is emphatically ascetic: simple subjects, graphic-styled performance, moderate emotionality. “When passing the age of 40 you discover that some mysteries of art are even further from you then when you were 20. At the same time the new – in comparison to juvenile – principle of creative working becomes apparent. It is related to another rhythm of living, to ability to withdraw and to what might be called psychotechnics. These nuances may not be visible from outside – you work during 3 years and the result is just a slight change of colour”.