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two paintings of different shapes and sizes on a white surface
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34 - 34. * Eduard Arkadievich Steinberg (Russian, 1937–2012)
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Estimate €10,000 - €12,000
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Description
34. * Eduard Arkadievich Steinberg (Russian, 1937–2012) Composition (two paintings) signed with initials in Cyrillic and dated ‘1982’ (bottom right); also signed, dated and titled (on the reverse) oil on canvas 191 x 60 cm (75 3/16 x 23 5/8 in). Provenance Acquired directly from the artist in Moscow Collection of Eric Peschler, Switzerland Thence by descent to the present owner For Eduard Steinberg, a painting constitutes an organic whole in which diverse elements interact to create new meanings and rhythms. By choosing simple and clean geometric forms for his compositions, Steinberg drew upon the philosophy of Suprematism. His artistic language is rooted in the tradition of Suprematism, particularly in the work of Kazimir Malevich, Ivan Kliun and the late Wassily Kandinsky. Unlike Malevich’s worldview, however, with its sense of detachment, Steinberg’s art engages with questions of existence and the search for truth within the cosmos itself. He kept his distance from the ideas of the 1920s avant-garde, which were closely associated with politics and utopian thought. In his paintings, Steinberg created a unique world born of a contemplative understanding of the nature of art, where the interplay of colour fields gives rise to a profound religious mysticism. In the course of his artistic development, Steinberg went through several stages, moving from realism to organic forms, ultimately culminating in the triumph of geometry. The principal ‘protagonists’ of his abstract compositions are the circle, the square, the quadrilateral and the triangle. He frequently depicts these geometric forms only partially, as if they were extending beyond the edges of the canvas, thereby enhancing the spatial depth of the composition. Unlike the Suprematists and Constructivists, who favoured the stark contrast of black and white, Steinberg filled his abstract works with colour. In this work, a mystical drama unfolds: concise, sharply defined forms appear to be in motion, generating an inner tension intensified by chromatic contrasts and the interplay of complementary colours. Evgeny Shiffers wrote of the unique experience of encountering a Steinberg canvas: “Even when contemplating a single canvas, calmly and for a sufficiently long time rather than merely glancing at it, the canvas itself disappears, and what emerges is light, together with symbols floating within it: ‘sphere’, ‘cube’, ‘pyramid’, ‘horizontal’, ‘bird’, ‘cross’, and ‘vertical’.” (Evgeny Shiffers, The Ideographic Language of Eduard Steinberg, in The Astonished Space: Reflections on the Work of Eduard Steinberg (Moscow, 2019), p. 14. Steinberg’s pure painting, stripped of all superfluous elements, bears the imprint of the eternal: the image of the icon, spiritual experience, and a philosophy of the universe.
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About the sale The Eric A. Peschler Collection: Non-Conformist Art of the Soviet Era
Auction location
Auction time 10/05/2026 at 12:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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