PARIS.- Thaddaeus Ropac are deeply saddened by the passing of Ilya Iosifovich Kabakov. Surrounded by his family, he died peacefully last night at the age of 89.

A loved and greatly admired artist and philosopher, he was a true pioneer in the field of concept and installation art. In 1983, Kabakov completed his first ‘total installations’ and is considered the creator of the genre.

Born in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, in the former USSR he emigrated to Austria in 1987 and later settled in the United States. Beginning in 1989, he began to work with Emilia Kanevsky (née Lekach) and they married in 1992. Their works, delving into human fears, insecurities, and dreams, themes of utopia, life under totalitarian suppression, and the history of art, are invariably suggestive of the possibility of a brighter future.

Together, they are the recipients of numerous awards, including both the Chevalier and the Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres from France (1995 and 2014) and the Oskar Kokoschka Prize from Austria (2002). They have also received honourary degrees from the Bern University, Moscow Art Academy, the Sorbonne, Paris, and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

Their artistic legacy is housed in public and private collections all over the world and their collaborative art project The Ship of Tolerance was awarded the prestigious Cartier Prize for the Best Art Project of the Year in 2010 and has been shown in venues across the globe, including the Venice Biennale (2007), since its first inception in Siwa, Egypt, in 2005.