Russian-American artist Ilya Kabakov dies at 89

PARIS: Russian-American artist Ilya Kabakov has died aged 89, his foundation said in social media posts. A “man who spent his life imagining utopia”, Kabakov “departed this world... surrounded by his loved ones, just shy of his 90th year,” the Ilya and Emilia Kabakov Foundation posted on Facebook Saturday night, without specifying where the artist lived or died.

“The family will hold a private funeral service followed by a public memorial service in several weeks,” the foundation added. They also asked that well-wishers donate to the “Ship of Tolerance”, a collective artwork started by Kabakov that aims to promote peace and understanding between nations.

The Pompidou Centre in Paris, where Kabakov exhibited his vast work “This Is Where We Live” in 1995, said he had been “essential for more than 70 years” and that it would hold an exhibition on him next year.

Born in 1933 in Dnipropetrovsk -- then in the Soviet Union but today known as Dnipro in Ukraine -- Kabakov painted and drew in Moscow from the 1950s to 1980s. His installations focusing on daily life in Russia and mocking the Soviet way of life garnered him international fame. Kabakov began working with trained pianist Emilia in 1989 and the two married in 1992, the same year they moved to New York.