Art News

Photography 1966-2011 by Boris Mikhailov on view at Berlinische Galerie

artwork: Ukrainian photographer Boris Mikhailov - Photo from his series 'Butterbrot' at the Berlinische Galerie in Berlin, Germany


BERLIN.- With a show of works by Boris Mikhailov, born in Ukraine in 1938, the Berlinische Galerie is acknowledging a major position in contemporary photography. Mikhailov establishes many links between documentation and conceptual art, and in so doing he has also made an important contribution to media theory in terms of the way we look at photography and the history of our responses to it. In the 1990s, “everyday” meant “existential”, “threatening”. When the Soviet Union collapsed, he turned his attention to the losers in this social transformation, taking portraits, displaying poverty and despair, and with that the consequences of the ruthless, repressive Soviet system. On view from 24 February until 28 May.