Sergei Parajanov Off Camera: Collages, Assemblages, and Objects

The Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection of Soviet Nonconformist Art holds one of the world’s largest and most complete collections of collages, assemblages, and drawings by Sergei Parajanov (1924–1990). He is often recognized as one of the most significant postwar Soviet film directors, known for such films as Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, Kiev Frescoes, The Color of Pomegranates, The Legend of Suram Fortress. In recent years, a retrospective of his films including the major works toured the United States. However, Parajanov’s accomplishments as a visual artist have yet to be fully appreciated. Throughout his career, he pursued a range of visual art media and practices in conjunction and dialogue with the filmmaking.

Parajanov was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, to Armenian parents, and his works reflect the multicultural atmosphere of Tbilisi. He began creating assemblages during the fifteen years he was blacklisted and prohibited from making films. His films were censored and confiscated, and he was arrested several times. Ranging from his prison collages, to his millinery and embroidering talents, to sketches and drawings, the Zimmerli’s exhibition of these holdings reveals the richness and diversity of this aspect of the artist’s oeuvre and its relationship to his filmmaking.

Curated by Irena Popiashvili, guest curator