SYLVESTER STALLONE: PAINTINGS • 1975 – 2013

Posted October 31, 2013 by artBahrain in Spotlight

The Russian Museum at St. Michael’s Castle
St Petersburg, Russia
28 October – 1 December, 2013

Finding Rocky. 1975
Mixed media on canvas and artist’s frame
92 x 82 x 6.5 cm
Signed “Sly 75” lower right. Private Collection

The State Russian Museum in St Petersburg and Galerie Gmurzynska, Zürich presents an unprecedented exhibition of Sylvester Stallone paintings in the first-ever display of his artworks in Russia. The exhibition held at St. Michael’s Castle, will present important works from Stallone’s almost 40 year passion for painting, spanning from the early 1970’s to the present, exhibiting over 30 works.

Stallone, an iconic actor and filmmaker has only recently begun to show his paintings, much to the acclaim of the art press, first with his showcase at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2009, followed by a retrospective at Galerie Gmurzynska, St. Moritz, Switzerland in 2011.

Untitled (Michael Jackson). 2010
Mixed media on canvas and artist’s frame
162.6 x 202.7 x 6.5 cm
Signed “Stallone ‘10” lower right
Galerie Gmurzynska

Renowned art critic and historian Donald Kuspit has praised Stallone for his style as an“expressionistic painter making surreally abstract pictures.”

Of the exhibition in Russia, Evgenia Petrova, Deputy Director of Russia’s leading museum, The State Russian Museum, says about Stallone’s work,

“Even if his works were to appear without his name they would undoubtedly arrest the viewer’s attention with their expressiveness, their rich and bright coloring and the meaning that is discernible in each painting.“

Behind theMind. 1991
Mixed media on canvas and artist’s frame
140.7 x 140.7 x 6.5 cm
Signed “Stallone ‘91” lower right
Galerie Gmurzynska

Galerie Gmurzynska commented on their previous two exhibitions with Stallone,

“These works represent almost 40 years of an artistic commitment to forge a personal vision in a world that has, for the artist, become immensely public.”

The exhibition marks the first time an American artist has been on display at The Russian Museum.

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