De Stijl Inspiration

Can Russian artists of my generation avoid being inspired by Constructivism and its sister movement, De Stijl?  Probably not.  Around 2001 Rietveld and other De Stijl-ers – Mondrian, Van Doesburg, Vilmos Huszár – inspired me to produce a series of abstract drawings and sculptures.  Only a few are displayed here:

"Submerged Symmetry and Surface Chaos"  2005, ink on paper, 21 x 12 inches.  "Space Filled with Moving"  2005, ink on paper, 21 x 12 inches.  "A Strong Dose of Myself"  2004, ink on paper, 16 x 21½ inches.  "This Drawing Is Dancing in Its Father’s Skin"  2005, ink on paper, 22¾ x 20 inches.  "Naked and Fiery Forms"  2004, hardwood, 22 x 45 x 5 inches.  "The Edge of the Image"  2004, hardwood, 46½ x 39 x 5 inches.

The series was accompanied by the following statement:     

I favor a compound approach to all visual problems that occupy me.  By compound I mean multiform – I present my solution to a given problem in as many forms or through as many means as are available to me.  These may be painting, printmaking, sculpting...  The meaning of each completed piece is deferred until other pieces, materially and thematically linked to it, are completed.  They form the understructure upon which their meaning could rest.  Not able to describe a piece outside of its progressing context I hesitate whenever I am asked for an “artist’s statement”.  I cannot “state” my art’s meaning; its current subject, however, can be “stated” – it is rectilinear geometry. 

Dmitry Borshch