Galerie Blue Square : galerie d'art russe contemporaine - contemporary russian art gallery - Paris

Naftali Rakuzin was born in Moscow in 1948 and spent his childhood surrounded by books and drawings as he watched his father, a book illustrator, at work. He then studied painting with Moses Chazanov from 1962 to 1964 and from 1965 to 1970 attended the Moscow Polygraphic Institute. Naftali Rakuzin immigrated to Israel in 1974 and moved to Paris in 1982 where he continues to live and work today.

2009
Sims Reed Gallery, London
pop/off/art, Moscow

2008
Bineth Gallery, Tel Aviv

2007
pop/off/art, Moscow

Jane Roberts Fine Arts, Paris

2006
Artspace Gallery, Jerusalem

2005
L'Association Philomuses, Paris

2004
Galerie Nabokov, Paris

2003
Librairie-Galerie "Art et Litterature", Paris

2002
Librarie Lardanchet, Paris

2001
L'Association Philomuses, Paris

2000
Artspace Gallery, Jerusalem

Centre d'Art et Culture de la rue Broca, Espace Rachi, Paris

Office in Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv

1999
Haifa Museum of Art

1997
Dianne Beal Contemporary Art, Washington, DC

1996
The Moscow Palette Gallery, Art-Manege 96, Moscow

1993
Grewal-Marine S.Gallery, Paris

1992
Paessaggio Gallery, Hartford Conneticut

1988
Schröder-Ebbers Gallery, Bersenbrück, Germany

2010
Born in the USSR - Made in France, Espace Blancs Manteaux, Paris

2008
Water, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

2007
New Angelarium, Moscow Museum of Modern Art

CIGE, China International Gallery Exposition (4^th Edition), Beijing, Bineth Gallery

19^th Annual Works on Paper at the 7^th Regiment Armory, New York

Jane Roberts Fine Arts, Paris

2006
My Parisian All-Stars, Bineth Gallery, Tel-Aviv

2005
The Beauty in the Book, The Israel Museum, Youth Wing, Jeruslem

2003
Paris Lives, Russian Stories: Works on Paper, The Emabassy of France, Washington, DC

6^éme Trienale mondiale de l'estampes Petit Format, Chamalieres, France

2000
Different readings, Art Gallery of Kiryat Tivon, Israel

1996
Here and There; Then and Now: Contemporary Artists from the Former Soviet Union, National Jewish Museum, Washington, DC

1995
Twenty Years of the Jerusalem Print Workshop, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem

1994
28^éme Prix International d'Art Contemporain, Monte-Carlo

Vallois Gallery, Paris

1991
Le Triomphe du trompe l'oeil, Grande Palais, Paris

25^éme Prix International d'Art Contemporain, Monte-Carlo

Mann Gallery, Paris

1990
Works on paper, Galerie Vieille du Temple, Paris

Chagall to Kitaj, Jewish Experience in 20^th Century Art, Barbican Art Gallery, London

1988
Künstler sehen das Weserbergland, Museum im Schloss, Bad Pyrmont, Germany

5 russes àToulouse, Centre Culturelle de l'Aerospatiale, Toulouse

1985
London Art Fair, James Mayor Gallery

Bibliothèque Royal Albert I, Bruxelles

New York Public Library, New York

Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Museum of Modern Art, Haifa

Museum of Modern Art, Tel Aviv

National Center of Contemporary Arts, Moscow

Chicago State University, Chicago

Museum of Modern Art, New York

Kunstverein für Rheinland und Westphalen, Düsseldorf

Morat-Institut für Kunst und Kunstwissenchaft

Freiburg im Breisgau

"The effect is stunning. examining the carefully reproduced reproduction of a reproduction, we find ourselves in the end face to face with reality itself, which we could not have arrived at by any possible means."

"Indeed, Rakuzin's work is essentially work on one enormous book, the subject of which, developing unhurriedly at fist, gradually becomes more and more engrossing."

Erik Bulatov, "On the Paintings of Naftali Rakuzin", March 1992, in: Naftali Rakuzin, Library of the Artist, pop/off/art gallery, Moscow, 2007.

"Books are intriguing to me both as subject and as an object. A book for me is a window, or a frame through which I look at the world. Painting books is definitely my obsession. When I enter a library, especially an art library, I feel as if I am an impressionist painter looking for an object to paint."

"The most significant change in my paintings over the years is that in the past I treated the books as forms, almost abstract volumes. This gradually altered and today I find that my main interest is in the letters and the titles of the books.

"I feel that my works are a kind of self portrait, which I have been painting over and over for many years now. (...) When you enter a house and you take a look at the library and the books in it, you get an idea of the nature and the interests of the people who live in this house.(...) The choice of the books and the artists who enter my works is not a fortuitous choice, that's for sure. Above all I choose and monographs of artists I like. It is my personal library, and hence my relationship with the books is intimate too."

Naftali Rakuzin interviewed by Rodi Bineth and Sheera Weiss, in: Naftali Rakuzin, The Book of Art, Bineth Gallery, Tel-Aviv, 2008.

"These are not a painter's typical reflexive still lifes: not atelier scenes, with brushes and palettes heaped on a workbench, half-finished canvases leaning against the wall. Rakuzin paints instead the source rather than the instruments of his art, but already made his own in those lateral cadences of color that orchestrate his compositions. The history of art comes before us bound for visual uptake and variation."

Garrett Stewart (University of Iowa), '"Rakuzin's Books, Case by Case" in: Naftali Rakuzin, The Book of Art, Bineth Gallery, Tel-Aviv, 2008.