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Centaur: The Life and Art of Ernst Neizvestny

Albert Leong

€ 107.85

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Description for Centaur: The Life and Art of Ernst Neizvestny Hardback. A chronicle of the life and work of Ernst Neizvestny, the great Russian sculptor and philosopher of art who survived the Soviet police state to become a folk hero to his people. The volume is based on research in the Soviet archives and on interviews with Neizvestny and his family and friends. Num Pages: 480 pages, 75 photographs, bibliography, index. BIC Classification: 1DVUA; 3JJ; ACX; AFKB; AGB. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational; (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly; (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 260 x 185 x 28. Weight in Grams: 944.
Preserving art, freedom, and human dignity in the age of the totalitarian state was one of the great challenges of the twentieth century. In Centaur, Slavic scholar Albert Leong chronicles the life and work of the greatest living Russian sculptor and philosopher of art. Based on extensive research in the formerly closed Soviet archives, exclusive interviews with Neizvestny, his family, and friends, Centaur tells the amazing story of a visionary artist and World War II commando officer who narrowly escaped death on the battlefield, successfully defied Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and the KGB to create acclaimed works of monumental art. Forced ... Read more

Product Details

Format

Hardback

Publication date

2002

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield United States

Number of pages

480

Condition

New

Number of Pages

480

Place of Publication

Lanham, MD, United States

ISBN

9780742520585

SKU

V9780742520585

Shipping Time

Usually ships in 15 to 20 working days

Ref

99-15

About Albert Leong

The late Albert Leong received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and was professor emeritus of Slavic languages at the University of Oregon. A specialist on modern Russian culture and the leading Western authority on Ernst Neizvestny, he compiled and translated Neizvestny's Space, Time, and Synthesis In Art: Essays on Art, Literature, and Philosophy.

Reviews for Centaur: The Life and Art of Ernst Neizvestny

Albert Leong has written an outstanding book on the life and oeuvre of Ernst Neizvestny. Centaur is both thrilling in its narrative and fundamental in its analyses. Ernst Neizvestny is a gigantic personality of our time. I am proud to have been close to him for decades witnessing his quest for independence and outbursts of his genius.
Vassily Aksyonov, ... Read moreauthor of Generations of Winter Centaur: The Life and Art of Ernst Neizvestny is the first full biography of the most prominent and artistically accomplished sculptor and memorial-builder of the Soviet era. [Leong] excels at placing Neizvestny in the context of Soviet political and cultural history, and examining how he was misunderstood initially in the United States because of cold war stereotypes. Centaur is a serious and worthy consideration of the vexing moral and philosophical issues underlying the career of a courageous artist who (like Andrei Sakharov, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Mstislav Rostropovich) confronted the evil of the Soviet system mano a mano.
Harlow Robinson
The New York Times
Centaur describes an artist whose life, work, and reputation are almost mythic in nature. Ernst Neizvestny is a visionary and pragmatist—the ultimate survivor. Author Albert Leong distills encyclopedic research to provide a synthesis of a complex era and a compelling individual.
Alison Hilton, Georgetown University This is a book for those interested in the details of 20th-century Russian art with its social and political ramifications.
CHOICE
Albert Leong's detailed, and highly documented account of the numerous twists and turns in Neizvestnii's long, complex, and highly diverse artistic career to date offers some fascinating insights into the problems faced by the monumental sculptor in the latter half of the twentieth century and beyond. Sadly, Albert Leong died shortly after the publication of Centaur. May the book long serve as a suitable epitaph for a man whose passion, dedication, and enthusiasm for Neizvestnii's work is inscribed within each and every word of this text.
Seer
Ernst Neizvestny answered the official demands for optimistic 'depiction of life in the life's forms' with his tragic and highly symbolic grotesques. Albert Leong's sensitive study shows Neizvestny as a child of his time as well as a true heir to the Russian early 20th century avant-garde, with its peculiar quest for the synthesis of art, philosophy, and religion.
Lev Loseff
Dartmouth College
Centaur is a truthful and beautiful work of art in its concept, subject, and design.
Slavic and East European Journal
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Centaur: The Life and Art of Ernst Neizvestny

Albert Leong

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