Ilya Kabakov

Ilya Kabakov is an American- Russian conceptial artist born in 1933 in the Ukraine. conceptial art is a concept or idea that is more important than the sculpture or the painting materials being used. Conceptial art is dependant on the text that surrounds the art. It emerged in the 1960′s. Ilya graduated from an art institute in 1957 and his sole means of support was illustrating childrens literature.
 
In 1985 Ilya completed “The Man Who Flew into Space From his Own Apartment”. Between 1983 and 2000 Ilya completed 155 installations around the world. Installations are three dimensional artforms that transform a viewers perception of space. Ilya’s installations speak about the hard living conditions in 20th century Soviet Union as well as around the world.

January 13, 1990 | SUZANNE MUCHNIC, TIMES ART WRITER

Soviet artist Ilya Kabakov has arrived in Los Angeles with a big load of garbage. Getting the trash out of Moscow wasn’t easy. Soviet customs officials didn’t understand why he wanted to export the accumulated debris from his studio, and they feared that it might actually be valuable. As it turns out, the officials were right. The aluminum cans, broken combs, match boxes, keys and wads of paper that Kabakov transported to the United States are symbolically valuable art materials.