Painter, graphic artist, author of objects and installations. In 1943 he entered the Leningrad art school of the Academy of Arts, which was temporarily located in Samarkand. As a child Kabakov had been evacuated there during World War II. In 1951–1957 he studied at the Graphics Department of the Surikov State Institute of Fine Arts in Moscow. For thirty years he earned a living making paintings for children’s books. I.I. Kabakov devoted the first decade of his work mainly to nature painting and experiments in the spirit of Cezannizm. At the same time he was fond of impulsive Abstract painting and Absurd rebus-type images. The development of his original concept reflects a transition from traditional art to an expression of new paradigms of art. Kabakov was the first Russian artist to question the language of self-contained plastic signs and abandon the concept of a picture in favour of conceptual objects, where visual elements were combined with manmade objects and citations, which sometimes turned into literary stories. Kabakov first came up with that type of work in 1965; later it became the formula of art-object. Kabakov made a great deal of impact on the work of contemporary artists. He was in effect responsible for the birth of a new type of Russian artists, so much so that imitating them was almost considered a must for success in Moscow’s avant-guard movement. Since 1992 Kabakov has been working abroad, mainly in Germany and the USA. He has created large installations, for major museums and exhibitions in which he seeks to comprehend and interpret the Soviet era. Today he is one of the world’s most famous artists.