Hitler is back, and he's Russian. Anton Kuznetsov's exhibition in Pietrasanta.

Hitler is back. And he is Russian. He loves painting, the simple life, reads Pravda and plays with toy soldiers and airplanes, perhaps mindful of a sad past. This is the portrait of the dictator returned by Russian painter Anton Kuznetsov (Kazan, 1973), who, from Nov. 11, is exhibiting his works at the Ex Marmi space on Via Nazario Sauro in Pietrasanta in the exhibition Behind the wall, organized by The Project Space gallery and Tg residency.

It is an exhibition featuring 21 paintings by the Russian artist, who is exhibiting in Italy for the first time. “Anton Kuznetsov’s works,” explains curator Luca Beatrice, “start from the assumption that neither his body nor that of Eva Braun, was ever found. Hitler is still alive, and no one pays attention to a man who dresses like him, looks like a drop of water or perhaps is a pageant or masquerade double.”

“We can’t see his face but there’s not too much doubt it’s him,” Beatrice continues, “and we’re intrigued by the way he acts: playing with lead soldiers, reading Pravda that covers his face (Kuznetsov has transferred the action from the hypothetical Argentina to the even more improbable Russia, where, moreover, that smell of modernity works very well/modernism so well detailed in the interior decorations), organizes a night raid with model airplanes or a naval battle in the bathtub, takes the dog out (it could only be a German shepherd) greets someone, from a distance, always with his back to us. Hitler exists because we never wanted to send him away and because evil is much easier to portray than good just as a dramatic film has a much better chance of winning an award than a comic film in that making people laugh always arouses some suspicion or reservation. However, painting distances from reality, invents worlds, hypothesizes scenarios that however remain at a safe distance, inoculates not so dangerous doses and this is the reason why we look at Kuznetsov’s paintings with a certain serenity, even if it is apparent.”

Anton Kuznetsov graduated from the Surikov Art Institute in Moscow in 2003 and from the Institute for Contemporary Art and the Free Workshops School of Contemporary Art in 2011. He participated in the MuseumsQuartier art residency in Vienna (2014) and was nominated for the Sergey Kuryokhin Prize in 2015. Also to his credit are numerous solo exhibitions while his works are held in the collection of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, as well as in private collections and in the United States. An artist who, as stated by Irina Kulik author of the essay in the catalog, expresses a stylistic proximity to German painting of the early 2000s, specifically with the Leipzig School led by that extraordinary master Neo Rauch.

The exhibition, organized by The Project SpaceThe Project Space, Ex Marmi Via Nazario Sauro 52 Pietrasanta and Tg residency, is free admission open daily except Mondays, 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. For information, tel. 3334191734, e-mail: info@theprojectspace.it website: www.theprojectspace.it

Hitler is back, and he's Russian. Anton Kuznetsov's exhibition in Pietrasanta.

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.