Click on image for larger view Yuri Gorbchev was selected to paint the signature piece for the World Cup 2002 games that were played in Japan from March through the end of June 2002.

Born in 1948 in Uglovka, Russia, Yuri Gorbachev began his career as a Russian ceramic artist. Gorbachev studied ceramics in St. Petersburg and later received extensive training in painting and graphics in Odessa. He was classically trained in Soviet art academies and also acquired advanced degrees in philosophy and communication.

In 1991, while visiting the United States, Yuri Gorbachev's cousin, Mikhail Gorbachev, was overthrown during the fall of the Soviet Union. Fearing he and his family faced danger due to his success and his last name, YURI and his three sons immigrated to the US. He arrived with little knowledge of the English language but with an abundance of talent and charisma. After twenty years of working with ceramics, Yuri dared to change his medium to oil on canvas.

Recent reception for Yuri Gorbachev at Galleria Silecchia

Since 1994, Gorbachev has traveled extensively, and his artistic development has moved from his naïve style to his most recent intricate works. Today he uses a sophisticated technique with precious metals like gold and copper along with specially formulated lacquers over oil on canvas. Gorbachev's unique and complex technique, developed over almost a decade, uses ceramic techniques on canvas to create texture and rainbows of colors that glow amid lines of gold that is reminiscent of Russian Orthodox icons.

Yuri Gorbachev combines the history, mythology and cultural heritage of his homeland with references to Russian and Balinese Folk Art, African rock drawings and masks, while precisely defining every form, every kind of object, plant or human figure.

His paintings express mythological and theatrical themes with architectural elements, strong design and high emotion. Gorbachev's playful primitive images tell stories of rural life, preserving in clay, glazes and paintings, a strong sense of an entire civilization.

At the end of 1999, Yuri Gorbachev had a joint exhibition in Prague, Czechoslovakia with Marc Chagall. This highly successful exhibition of original paintings was enjoyed by thousands of viewers and collectors.

German publisher, Bertelsmann, is presently completing a major book about Yuri Gorbachev for worldwide distribution. The cover of this book will feature Gorbachev's most recent commission, an original painting for the 2001 World Cup.

In an article in the New York Times, journalist Carey Goldberg said of Gorbachev:

"There is no better interview subject than a man that just wants to make people happy. A man so brimming with energy that he repeats and re-repeats words of emphasis, a man with a mission so simple and sweet that it works for Americans and Russians and Indonesians alike. And there is no better art, to my taste, than art that radiates the same kind of joie de vivre so that it acts as a tonic to all those who see it, uplifting not only with its beauty but with an exuberance as potent as the blooming of northern plants in summer."

SELECTED MUSEUM COLLECTIONS
Louvre Museum Paris, France
Marseilles Art Museum Marseilles, France
Kremlin Museum Novgorod, Russia
Russian Culture Foundation Moscow, Russia
Moscow Culture Centre Moscow, Russia
Porcelain Museum St. Petersburg, Russia
National Art Museum of Penza Penza, Russia
Donezk National Fine Arts Museum Ukraine
Moscow Museum of Porcelain Ukraine
Kiev Republican Museum Ukraine
Ilyaichevsk Museum of Porcelain Ukraine
Ministry of Culture of the Ukrainian SSR Ukraine
Odessa East West Museum Ukraine
Odessa Literary Museum Ukraine
Stockholm Art Museum Sweden
Blackpool Art Museum England
Museum of Art Marseilles, France
Museum of Art Glasgow, Scotland
Museum of Fine Arts Gerona, Spain
Museum of Fine Arts Genoa, Italy
Museum of Fine Arts Oulu, Finland
Rudana Museum Bali, Indonesia
Seni Rupa Museum Jakarta, Indonesia
Norton Dodge Collection at Rutgers University New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
Duke University Museum of Art Durham, North Carolina, USA
Seagram's Company Museum, Absolut Vodka Collection Canada
Stolichnaya Collection, Carillon Importers Russia and USA
United Nations Collection New York City, New York, USA