George Pusenkoff (Georgy Nikolaevich Pusenkov) is a German-Belarusian painter, graphic artist, installation artist and photographer, born in Krasnapollie in 1953. His work has moved from engagement with art-historical images towards abstraction, while examining painting and image-making in a media age shaped by computers.
Key facts
- Born: 1953
- Place of birth: Krasnapollie
- Citizenship: Germany
- Occupation: painter; graphic artist; photographer; artist
- Movement: abstract art
- Educated at: National Research University of Electronic Technology
- Has works in the collection: Museum Ludwig
How did Pusenkoff’s career develop?
Pusenkoff studied computer science at the National Research University of Electronic Technology in Moscow from 1971 to 1976, then studied graphics and painting at the Moscow Polygraphic Institute from 1977 to 1983. He began participating in exhibitions in 1984, in Moscow, elsewhere in the USSR and abroad.
During his years in the USSR, he was associated with Russian nonconformist art. He joined the artists’ association Ermitage in 1987 and the Moscow Gruppe 88 in 1988; he was also a member of the Moscow Union of Artists from 1987. He went to Germany in 1990 at the invitation of gallery owner Hans Mayer and has lived and worked in Cologne since then. His work locations have also included Moscow, London and Edinburgh.
What ideas shape his art?
Pusenkoff’s practice connects painting with questions about how images are made, seen and reproduced. Earlier works drew on appropriation, using recognisable references to art history. Since the 2000s, his work has increasingly turned towards abstract art, with colour, line and surface taking a central role.
Rather than treating familiar imagery as a neutral quotation, Pusenkoff uses it to consider the present. His references include works associated with Kasimir Malevich, Josef Albers, Robert Rauschenberg and Piet Mondrian. Repetition, vivid colour and images made available through media can evoke Pop Art, while his subject also includes painting’s place amid computer-generated imagery.
Computers are part of his working process, but the resulting work remains grounded in painting. Digital image-making and the visible structure of a picture inform his interest in the pixel and in the material character of images that can otherwise seem immaterial on a screen.
Which projects and collections are notable?
In 1993, Pusenkoff developed an installation for a room at the Tretyakov Gallery. A wooden wall covered the room’s long window frontage, creating a surface for paintings and smaller reproductions arranged in a pattern. The project made the relationship between the room, the window and the displayed images part of the work.
The installation The Wall was shown in the West for the first time in 2008, at the Kunstmuseum Bochum, as part of the exhibition La Condition Humaine. Pusenkoff was nominated for the Kandinsky Prize in 2008. His works are represented in the collection of Museum Ludwig.
- Museum Ludwig
Frequently asked questions
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An independent reference profile prepared by intart.org from public biographical records. intart.org is not affiliated with the artist, their estate or their galleries.
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