Ilya Kabakov Russian (1933-2023) Windows, 1974

Ilya Kabakov (1933–2023)

Windows, 1974

Ink, watercolor and pencil on paper

24 x 31.5 cm (9 1/2 x 12 3/8 in.)

Signed and dated lower right in Cyrillic: И. Кабаков 74

A rare early original drawing by Ilya Kabakov, executed in 1974, during the defining years of Moscow Conceptualism and the Soviet nonconformist movement. Belonging to the important Windows / Окна series, this composition transforms the motif of the window into a metaphor for psychological space, restriction, and the fragile boundary between interior life and the outside world.

Here, Kabakov introduces a striking accumulation of wing-like forms pressing inward from the edges, creating a sense of quiet tension and poetic ambiguity. The empty central field becomes an active conceptual space—an essential element of the artist’s early visual language.

Works on paper from Kabakov’s early 1970s period are especially desirable for their direct connection to the emergence of his mature conceptual practice. Kabakov later became the leading figure of Moscow

Conceptualism and one of the most internationally celebrated artists to emerge from Soviet unofficial art.

Provenance: Alexander Glezer Collection.

Condition: Very good condition. Framed, under glass.