Centaur: The Life and Art of Ernst Neizvestny

Preserving art, freedom, and human dignity in the age of the totalitarian state was one of the great challenges of the twentieth century. In Centaur, Slavic scholar Albert Leong chronicles the life and work of the greatest living Russian sculptor and philosopher of art. Based on extensive research in the formerly closed Soviet archives, exclusive interviews with Neizvestny, his family, and friends, Centaur tells the amazing story of a visionary artist and World War II commando officer who narrowly escaped death on the battlefield, successfully defied Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and the KGB to create acclaimed works of monumental art. Forced into exile to the West in 1976, Ernst Neizvestny returned in triumph to the Soviet Union in 1989 to design the first monuments in Russia to the countless victims of Stalinist political repression. Supplemented by 75 photographs, Centaur will engross specialists and general readers interested in biography, cultural history, art, architecture, politics, and Russian/Soviet studies. Visit the Ernst Neizvestny Studio Web site.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction: The Odyssey of a Russian Artist Chapter 2 Roots of a Russian Centaur Chapter 3 The Formation of an Artist in the Soviet Union Chapter 4 The Artist in War Chapter 5 Riga Chapter 6 Moscow Chapter 7 The Challenger Chapter 8 Art Intrigues Chapter 9 Confrontation with Khrushchev Chapter 10 The Years of Disfavor Chapter 11 Ernst Neizvestny, Monumentalist Chapter 12 Road to Emigration Chapter 13 Exile Chapter 14 Return to Russia Chapter 15 The Gulag Triangle Chapter 16 Mask of Mourning Chapter 17 Shelter Found

About the Author :
The late Albert Leong received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and was professor emeritus of Slavic languages at the University of Oregon. A specialist on modern Russian culture and the leading Western authority on Ernst Neizvestny, he compiled and translated Neizvestny's Space, Time, and Synthesis In Art: Essays on Art, Literature, and Philosophy.

Review :
Albert Leong has written an outstanding book on the life and oeuvre of Ernst Neizvestny. Centaur is both thrilling in its narrative and fundamental in its analyses. Ernst Neizvestny is a gigantic personality of our time. I am proud to have been close to him for decades witnessing his quest for independence and outbursts of his genius. Centaur: The Life and Art of Ernst Neizvestny is the first full biography of the most prominent and artistically accomplished sculptor and memorial-builder of the Soviet era. [Leong] excels at placing Neizvestny in the context of Soviet political and cultural history, and examining how he was misunderstood initially in the United States because of cold war stereotypes. Centaur is a serious and worthy consideration of the vexing moral and philosophical issues underlying the career of a courageous artist who (like Andrei Sakharov, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Mstislav Rostropovich) confronted the evil of the Soviet system mano a mano. Centaur describes an artist whose life, work, and reputation are almost mythic in nature. Ernst Neizvestny is a visionary and pragmatist-the ultimate survivor. Author Albert Leong distills encyclopedic research to provide a synthesis of a complex era and a compelling individual. This is a book for those interested in the details of 20th-century Russian art with its social and political ramifications. Albert Leong's detailed, and highly documented account of the numerous twists and turns in Neizvestnii's long, complex, and highly diverse artistic career to date offers some fascinating insights into the problems faced by the monumental sculptor in the latter half of the twentieth century and beyond. Sadly, Albert Leong died shortly after the publication of Centaur. May the book long serve as a suitable epitaph for a man whose passion, dedication, and enthusiasm for Neizvestnii's work is inscribed within each and every word of this text. Ernst Neizvestny answered the official demands for optimistic 'depiction of life in the life's forms' with his tragic and highly symbolic grotesques. Albert Leong's sensitive study shows Neizvestny as a child of his time as well as a true heir to the Russian early 20th century avant-garde, with its peculiar quest for the synthesis of art, philosophy, and religion. Centaur is a truthful and beautiful work of art in its concept, subject, and design.