An exhibition of works by Francisco Infante opened in the Tretyakov Gallery

A new project - a large-scale retrospective of Russian artist and photographer Francisco Infante - has opened in the largest exhibition space of the Tretyakov Gallery. "Izvestia was among the first to evaluate the exposition.

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Everything in the field of vision is occupied by square prints of "artifacts" (Infante's own genre), "crucified" on metal strings and as if floating in the air. The viewer can move freely between the series of works, and does not even have to look at their titles: laconic labels are placed on the slats to which the strings are attached - on the side, near the floor. No further descriptions are intended.

The artist came to the idea of the "artifact" more than half a century ago. He supplemented the natural environment with man-made objects - geometric figures made of improvised materials, stretched fishing lines, strips of foil. The resulting installation was recorded on a photo. And it was the photo that was considered an "artifact".

In the New Tretyakovka "artifacts" of different years are intentionally mixed up. "Winter Squares" from 1977 (massive mirror constructions drowned in snow and seeming to be something alien) are neighboring with the cycle "On the River - Memory of Water" (2008): Infante admires the distorted reflections of colored lines in water ripples; from the famous "Suprematist Games" (1968), which transport Malevich's figures from cosmic nothingness to the real Moscow suburbs, we come to the series "In the Sky - Clouds" (2007-2008), where multicolored disturbances appear on the landscape background.

Infante's works, whether they are the latest "artifacts" or early abstractions, are about harmony. All his life he has been creating an ideal world in which the man-made organically combines with the natural, and the speculative turns out to be flawless and mathematically verified.

Read more in the exclusive material of Izvestia:

Art and Fact: At Francisco Infante's exhibition, art and nature are one and the same