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birthdate=bda|1966|1|5
location=city-state|Tashkent|Uzbekistan
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Igor Anvar Kufayev ( born January 5,1966), is a Russian British artist and yogi.
Life and work
Igor Kufayev was born in city-state|Tashkent|Uzbekistan, and classically trained in art from the age of 12.Fact|date=December 2007 In his teens he attended a private studio of an artist Shamil Rakhimov in his native town. Kufayev received his formal education at the Art College in Tashkent, and after two years of compulsory military service, resumed his studies at the Theater and Art Institute, at the department of Mural painting. In 1988 he was accepted as a student of a second year to the Academy of Arts [now Imperial Academy of Arts] in St Petersburg, Russia. Independently of his official program, he studied and painted directly from the masterpieces of western art, in the Hermitage Museum.Fact|date=December 2007
In 1990 Kufayev left Russia and moved to Warsaw, Poland. This was a formative time. An encounter with the art critic Andrzej Matynia lead to Kufayev's first solo exhibition, "Eternal Compromise",[ [http://www.igorkufayev.com/theme1.html igorkufayev.com] ] at the Monetti Gallery, Warsaw. He was invited to take part in the show "Meeting of Sacred Images", at the The National Museum of Ethnography in Warsaw, Poland.Fact|date=December 2007 He moved to London in 1991 and became a British Citizen in 1996. ]An early interest towards spirituality lead to his practice of Yoga with initiation in 1996 to Transcendental Meditation, founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. A few years later, in 2001, Kufayev underwent an advanced yogic technique TM-Sidhi program. In 2006, after five years of silent contemplation, he became active again, sharing his time between England and Uzbekistan, lecturing on art and spirituality.
Critiques
Robin Dutt wrote in "The Independent" on Kufayev::...Kufayev is one of a rare breed of artists who believe in going back to go forward... Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in 1966, he studied at the Tashkent School of Art, where his early love of drawing was honed and refined for four years. He had, in fact, been drawing professionally since the age of 12, and recognized as something of a prodigy... His zeal to perfect drawing technique led him to move to St Petersburg and The Academy of Fine Art and, independently of his studies, he began making numerous copies of the great Western masterpieces hanging in The Hermitage... The whole of his show, "Burnt Earth", is redolent of archeological finds - the secrets masquerading as treasures only a few feet under the surface. Blood and earth are unified in Kufayev's vision, emphasising our origins and our certain end... [Dutt, Robin. [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4660813.html] "The Independent", July 1, 1994, London. Retrieved from highbeam.com.]
Brian Sewell wrote::...How many know of Igor Kufayev, another driven painter, scrupulous draughtsman, intellect and imagination wrestling with seemingly equal force... [Sewell, Brian. [http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/article-890829-details/Your+choice+for+the+Turner+Prize/article.do '"Your Choice for the Turner Prize"] , "Evening Standard", 25 May 2001, London.]
External links
* [http://www.igorkufayev.com Official web site]
Notes and references
