Dmitry Gutov
Dmitry Gennadievich Gutov (born in 1960) is a Russian artist and Art theoretician. He works in various media: drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, photography and video.
He painted and studied in an Art studio throughout his childhood. He was a psychology student at the Moscow Pedagogical Institute. In 1992 he graduated from the Department of the Theory and History of Art of the St. Petersburg State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, n. a. I.E. Repin.
Using his extensive knowledge in the field of Art history, calligraphy and literature, Gutov actively employs the technique of visual citation in his work. The artist appropriates recognisable images from the history of Art, Russian icon painting, oriental calligraphy, creating new "interpretations" of them in the form of large-scale spatial installations, paintings, graphics and metal sculptures. Text often holds a central place in his works – a quote from classical literature or a common phrase taken from life resonate and are relevant today.
Not only an artist, but also an art critic and lecturer, Dmitry Gutov is the author of many articles on the theory of Art and on the work of the Great Masters of the past. A separate area of Gutov's interests is researching the works of the Soviet philosopher and Art critic, Mikhail Lifshitz, who criticised modernism. In 1994, Gutov organised the "Lifshitz Institute" – a club of intellectuals who were interested in the communist view of Art.
He has had more than 40 solo exhibitions and taken part in 170 group shows around the world, including the Venice, Istanbul, Shanghai and Sydney Biennales, as well as DOCUMENTA and MANIFESTA.
The artist's works can be found in the collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the Centre for Contemporary Art Luigi Pecci in Prato, Italy, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and others.
