Artwork information
- Author
- Jury Rupin
- Project
- Act
- Name
- Act XIV
- Year
- 1973
- Medium
- gelatin silver print, solarization
- Dimensions
- 24x18 cm
- Provenance
- The photographer's private archive
- Catalog number
- RUPJ-11(1973)
- Inscription
-
on the verso side: stamp of Vremia group in the upper left corner, stamp “Творческая группа ВРЕМЯ / TIME”, circled figure “5” in the upper right corner; below – title “Акт XIV” (in red), stamp with inscription “СССР, 310003, г Харьков-3, А. Я. 185, РУПИН ЮРИЙ К. | USSR 310003, Charkov-3, P. O. Box 185, RUPIN JURIJ K.”, inscription in the lower right corner – “246/MF”.
- Key words
- bicycle, forest, girl, nude photography
About the artist
Act XIV
Jury Rupin (1946, Lyman, USSR–2008, Vilnius, Lithuania)—photographer, one of the members of the Vremia photographic group from Kharkiv. Got his first photocamera in 1958. In 1961–1965 attended the Slovyansk Chemical-Mechanical Technical College. Served in the military in 1965–1968, after which graduates from the Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute (1969–1974). Enrolled in the regional photo club at the Trade Unions’ Amateur Arts House around 1970–1971 (his name is absent in the journal of photoclub from 1965–1969). At that period meets future members of Vremia group.
In his practice of 1970s Rupin favoured experimental photography and photographics. He was the few first Kharkiv authors to master colour photography, both for commercial purposes and for art photography, amplifying the dramatic effects of images. Despite nude imagery was tabooed in the Soviet Union, it is this genre that mostly draws the master’s attention. Both male (Sauna series, 1972), and female body allows him to create images of the most abstract notions (“Anxiety, 1973) in the traditions, shaped up within international photography salons. His most bold graphic experiments tend towards abstract language (“Birch trees”, not dated).
According to his autobiographic novel Photographer’s Diary, published in the late 2000s together with other literature works by the author, his photocollage “Night” (1974) was the reason for the dismissal of the photoclub in 1975 or 1976. In 1979-1985 studies the History of Art at the IYu Repin Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. In 1989 moved together with his family to Vilnius and opened first private gallery “MRK” in Tallinn, Estonia, which worked for three years (1990-1993). In the 1990s abandoned art photography and focused on managing the stock photoagency “Rupincom” (1994-2001).
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Photo credit — Alexander Sliussarev, 1980.