MOSCOW.- The Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents a solo exhibition of Alexander Burganov “The Magic Realism”. The major retrospective of the celebrated master of monumental art, which includes his sculpture, graphics, tapestry, shows one of the forms of “new realism”.

The artists of the 20th century working in this direction have sought to realize their ideas as plausible and convincing using the method of realism. Thus, the viewer has got acquainted with the metaphysical realism performed by Giorgio de Chiriko and Carlo Carra, the magic realism of karel willink and later with its American variation by Andrew wyeth and Edward Hopper.

Burganov’s idea of magic realism, that became a key concept of the project at MMOMA, is a combination in a single art space of the “images of life in the forms of life itself” with the current picture of the world. The author reveals new contexts of reality, images which are on the brink of reality and fantasy. The magic in works by Burganov is an eternal clash of good and evil, beauty and ugliness, the spiritual and vile and his realism is based on the cold classic beauty. The exhibition will focus the viewer on one of the branches of the sculptor’s “new realism”.

The sculptural works on display can be divided into two sections. The first one shows radical surrealistic methods. For example, “the Letter” composition represents a female torso topped with a blazing open envelope. “the sphinx” depicts two medieval chimeras having one lovely female face and symbolizes a dialectical relationship of Beauty and ugliness. In the other section there are no paradoxical connections of objects: here the storylines, like in a waking dream, contain a hidden symbolism and romantic alienation. “the Cell” composition metaphorically depicts a human soul trapped in a body cell. The exhibition in MMOMA aims to show one of the peculiarities of the plastic language of Alexander Burganov – the creation of his own reality in the world full of contradictions. The blurring of boundaries of the usual space is a principle theme of the exposition explaining why the artist has not joined any group of creators declaring certain priorities in art.

Alexander Burganov (born in 1935 in Baku) is a sculptor, graphic artist, author of literary works (“killing a Chicken”, “Caprichos”) and researches in the theory of fine arts.

He graduated from S. Stroganov Moscow State Academy of Arts and Industry, created an original direction in Russian monumental art – “Burganov School of Composition”.

The works by Alexander Burganov are in The State Tretyakov Gallery, The pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, The State Russian Museum, Museum of Modern Art “Ludwig Forum”, The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Collection of fine arts of the un palace of nations and other state and private collections in Russia, France, the united States, Germany, Belgium.

Alexander Burganov creative workshop has the status of the state museum.