Alexander Ney an internationally respected artist with works in museums in Europe, Russia, and the United States has created a very special series of pieces while at a studio in upstate New York.
Ney says about the Horse “When I was making these works I was respecting the closeness of human and horse relation. Barely a hundred years ago the horse was an integral part of society without which would be impossible to imagine. All great leaders throughout history had horses they loved and respected and relied upon.”
The Wall Street Journal said recently, “keep an eye on the works of terra cotta sculptor Alexander Ney” describing his works as having a striking archaic yet modern quality. Ney’s works, defined as being more of an international nature than American or European, have been creating excitement at Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Bonham’s and other respected auction houses.
His multi-faceted creative process is so unusual, that it appears to fall outside the boundaries of any one culture, and does not subdue itself to the frameworks of prevailing traditions and currently fashionable tendencies.
Notable shows and exhibits include:
Andre Emmerich Galleries in NY, Kuntshaus Bregenz Germany, Les Dissidents Russe, Chateau de Vascoeuil, France, Bowles/Hopkins Gallery
San Francisco, La Colleccion de Jean-Jacques Gueron:1960 – 2000 in Centro de Cultura Castillo de Maya, Fundacion Caja Navarra in Pamplona Spain and many other shows and museums in Russia, Europe, Japan and the US.
Ney’s sculptures were displayed for eighteen years in the windows of Tiffany’s in NY, Boston and Atlanta during the tenure of legendary window designer Gene Moore.
Ney’s work is difficult to classify, by virtue of its diverse and striking originality adapted to principles of universally timeless aesthetics, it remains easily accessible to audiences of a wide variety of cultures, but at the same time is deeply philosophical. The artist’s oeuvre is the result of his intense study of ancient civilizations and contemporary world cultures. Traces of influences from the ancient ceramics of the Asias, totems of African origin, ceremonial masks and artifacts of Native Americans, and the pioneering art of the Mesopotamian and early Egyptian eras, are but a few of a wealth of historical sources that can be examined in understanding Ney’s unique modern fusion. Occasionally, his work also seems to pay tribute to the achievements of the cubism and suprematism movements, and appears to alternatively draw certain inspiration from the creations of Ney’s immediate cultural predecessors Pablo Picasso and Jean Dubuffet. Born in Leningrad in 1939, Alexander Ney as a child survived the Blockade of World War II. Towards the end of the 1950’s, he completed studies at the School of the Academy of Fine Arts in Leningrad and at the School of Moscow’s V.I. Surikov Institute , additionally continuing his education at the I.E. Repin Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. While in school, Ney’s salient individuality and progressive viewpoints produced a profound impression on his fellow classmates. Wrote Alexander Kosalapov, in A-Ya: Contemporary Russian Art Magazine, about Ney: Even in school, where I first observed him, Ney’s work was full of individualistic ideas and did not easily conform to academic tradition. He wasn’t a rebel or modernist. Simply, in formulating his artistic aim, he trusted only his head and heart (something very rare at that age). He had his own, perhaps even classical artistic consciousness. He was more interested in texture than structure, in line more than plane.
Consequently his work is full of contemplation meditation of these aspects. He sought support for his ideas in early historical cultures. Here Ney is like a deep-sea diver recovering the marvelous treasure trove of past civilizations.
In Moscow, this month of August 2009, an exhibition celebrating his 70th Anniversary and his 50th Anniversary of his professional career is open at The National Centre of Contemporary Arts as a joint venture with the American Embassy in Moscow.
Wrote Georgy Golenky, Senior Critic from The State Russian Museum’s Department of Contemporary Art, Ney finds a personally and aesthetically convincing means of reconciling the various artistic orientations of the twentieth century – mimesis and non-objectivity. The artist actively introduces hyperbole and grotesque into the process of the imitation of the forms of reality. His terracottas are in essence, sculptures. In form, however, they are works of applied art. They embody the charm of an enigmatic, magical, elegant and precious object; something belonging to an unknown, vanished civilization.
For more information contact: Cynthia Bradford, Spa Fine Art,
phone: 518.587.2411 email: [email protected].
Spa Fine Art is honored to present Ney’s Saratoga collection of horse portraits.
Spa Fine Art Gallery 376 Broadway Saratoga NY 12866 (518) 587 2411
