Yuri Gorbachev (born December 29, 1948, in, USSR) is a Russian painter and sculptor.
Since 1991, he has lived in the United States and creates in his Manhattan studio in New York City. He has been called the "Russian Rousseau".
Over the last forty years Gorbachev's career has reached the highest level of international art. Yuri Gorbachev created his own unique technique of painting on canvas, using non-ferrous metals (gold, bronze), special varnishes and enamels, completely removing black from the palette.
Biography
Yuri Gorbachev's work is now represented in more than twenty museums worldwide including the permanent collections of The Russian National Museum, St. Petersburg, the Louvre, the Kremlin Museum, The National Museum, the Tsarskoye Selo, Palace of Alexander the Third, National Armenian Gallery, Martiros Saryan Museum, Yerevan, The Rudana Museum, Bali, The United Nations, The White House, the National Fine Art Museum of the Ukraine, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art and the Russian Museum of Kyiv.
Since his arrival in the United States Yuri Gorbachev has exhibited his work in more than two hundred and fifty one man shows worldwide. Former Christie's Auction House expert in Russian art, Maria Paphiti, calls Yuri Gorbachev the ambassador of Russia for world art.
For the past twenty years Gorbachev has traveled extensively; his artistic development moved from his naive style to his most recent intricate works. He uses a sophisticated technique with precious metals like gold and copper along with specially formulated lacquers over oil on canvas; he never uses black in his palette, leading art critics to call his style “Positivism”. In the last two years, he has developed a new technique, which highlights his paintings with enamel creating added texture and luster to his composition.
The complex technique developed over two decades, using ceramic techniques on canvas is unique and inimitable.
Mr. Gorbachev's work is represented in the personal collection of President William Jefferson Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; his painting was personally presented in Washington on July 22, 1996.
In 2011, Yuri Gorbachev was commissioned to design a new label for Stolichnaya Red Vodka, The label he created “Four Elements, by Yuri Gorbachev” was based on his painting of the same name. It is destined to become a collector's item and new icon for the brand. This is not the first time Yuri Gorbachev has worked with Stolichnaya. In 1994, “Stolichnaya” commissioned Gorbachev to design their annual Christmas “Holiday” advertisement, which appeared in hundreds of magazines around the world including Art & Antiques, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Time, American Photo, W, GQ, Elle among others. It was so successful that every year for the next four years he was commissioned to do a new image for the Holiday ad. Michel Roux, art collector and President of Carillon Importers, Inc. (distributor of Absolut and Stolichnaya vodka) was the person behind the creative advertising of Stolichnaya and Absolut. He used artists including Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Yuri Gorbachev for the famous Absolut Vodka ad campaigns, creating a tradition of using famous artists for vodka advertisements to promote the brands with cultural icons. Roux described Yuri Gorbachev as “…the Angel from Russia. He brings out whatever is good from there. The spirit, the subject matter, and the colors of his work-profound in their simplicity-exemplify what Russia is all about.”
Americans of culture recognize Russia through his art. His energy and enthusiasm for Russia and the Ukraine, where he spent the last twenty years of his life in the USSR before moving to New York, are expressed in his work and help viewers understand emotionally and intellectually the culture which fostered his great energy and talent.
Gorbachev began his career as a Russian ceramics artist making sculptures, bas-reliefs and painting on ceramic plaques, which are displayed in many Fine Art Museums and galleries around the world. He arrived in the United States from the former USSR in 1991 with little knowledge of the English language but with an abundance of his great talent and charisma. Famous for his fine art ceramics for twenty years in the USSR he dared to change his medium to oil on canvas. The result was a spectacular success.