Michail Grobman

The recorded working language is Russian and Hebrew. The field of work recorded is painting and poetry. Work by Michail Grobman is recorded in the collections of Bar-David Museum of Art and Judaica and Museum Ludwig. Distinctions recorded are Dizengoff Prize.

Michail Grobman was born in Moscow on 21 September 1939, to an engineer's family. During his school years, he went by the pseudonym Michel Afinsky. In 1956–1958, he studied at an evening school and worked as a mason at a construction site, where he began a friendship with the poet and dissident Vladimir Gershuni (1930–1995), who influenced the formation of Grobman's political views. In 1957, at the exhibition of the 40th anniversary of Soviet art in the Central House of Art Workers, he was arrested. He was released the next day. In 1959, Grobman's first solo exhibition took place at the Leningrad Vera Mukhina Higher School of Art and Design, and in 1965, at the House of Artists in Moscow, where Grobman's works on Jewish themes were exhibited, which was an almost unbelievable event for that time. In 1965, he published a cycle of poems in the American literary almanac “Airways” under the pseudonym Mikhail Rusalkin. Later, this pseudonym was lost, and for the second time in this publication, Grobman was published as G.D.E. In 1967, he was admitted to the Artists' Union of the USSR. In 1971, he emigrated to Israel and lived in Jerusalem. In 1975, together with friends and students, he organized the group of Israeli artists "Leviathan", published the magazine of the same name. Grobman lived in Tel Aviv from 1983 onwards, where he died on 23 November 2025, at the age of 86. Grobman's works are in the Tretyakov Gallery and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow), the State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg), the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, the Pompidou Centre (Paris), etc., and in private collections in Israel, the USA, Germany and Russia.

• 1939 – Born in Moscow. • 1960s – Active member of The Second Russian Avant-Garde movement in the Soviet Union. • 1967 – Member of Moscow Artists Union. • 1971 – Emigrates to Israel and settles in Jerusalem. • 1975 – Founded the Leviathan group and art periodical (in Russian). • 1983–2025 – he lived and worked mainly in Tel Aviv.

• 2007 – Last Skies, Loushy & Peter Art & Projects, Tel Aviv (cat. text: Marc Scheps) • 2006 – Creation From Chaos to Cosmos, Bar-David Museum of Fine Art and Judaica, Kibbutz Baram (cat. text: Sorin Heller) • 2002 – The Last Sky, installation, Tsveta Zuzoritch pavilion, Belgrad (cat. text: Irina Subotitch) • 1999 – Michail Grobman: Works 1960–1998, The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg (cat. texts: Evgenija Petrova, Marc Scheps, Lola Kantor-Kazovsky, Michail German) • 1998 – Picture = Symbol + Concept, Herzliya Museum of Art, Herzliya (cat. texts: Lola Kantor-Kazovsky, Marina Genkina) • 1995 – Password and Image, University Gallery, Haifa University (Leaflet) • 1990 – Michail Grobman, Tova Osman Gallery, Tel Aviv • 1989 – Michail Grobman, Tova Osman Gallery, Tel Aviv • 1989 – The Beautiful Sixties in Moscow (Jointly with Ilia Kabakov), The Genia Schreiber University Art Gallery, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (cat. text: Mordechai Omer) • 1988 – Michail Grobman: Künstler und Sammler, Art Museum, Bochum, Germany (cat. text: Peter Spielmann) • 1987 – Messiah, installation and performance in the streets of Jerusalem (cat.) • 1985 – Khlebnikov 100, performance in the streets of Acre, Jerusalem, Tiberias and Tel-Aviv • 1984 – Michail Grobman, Zvi Noam Gallery, Beit Levik, Tel Aviv • 1977 – Michail Grobman, Spertus Museum, Chicago • 1977 – Performance in Judean desert • 1973 – Michail Grobman, Negev Museum, Beer Sheva • 1973 – Michail Grobman, Beth Uri and Rami Museum, Ashdot Yaacov (cat.) • 1972 – Michail Grobman, Nora Gallery, Jerusalem • 1971 – Michail Grobman: Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv (cat. text: Haim Gamzu) • 1966 – Michail Grobman, Projects Engineering Institute, Moscow • 1965 – Michail Grobman, Artists House, Moscow • 1965 – Michail Grobman, Energy Institute, Moscow • 1965 – Michail Grobman, History Institute, Moscow • 1965 – Michail Grobman, Usti-nad-Orlicy Theatre, Czechoslovakia (leaflet text: Dushan Konetchni) • 1959 – Michail Grobman, Mukhina Art Institute, Leningrad

• "Moscow Diaries", New Literary Observer, vol. 84, 2007 – in Russian • Last Sky – Poems, New Literary Observer, Moscow, 2006 – in Russian • "Poems and Articles", Symbol We: Jewish Anthology of Russian Literature, New Literary Observer, Moscow, 2003 – in Russian • Leviathan: Diary 1963–1971, New Literary Observer, Moscow, 2002– in Russian • "Leviathan. Manifestos", Zerkalo, vol. 19–20, 2002 – in Russian • Military Notebooks – Poems, Leviathan Publishers, Tel Aviv, 2002 – in Russian • "about Vladimir Jakovlev", Vladimir Jakovlev: Zivopis, Grafika, catalogue of the exhibition, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, 1995 • "The Enigma of Isaak Levitan", Isaak Levitan, 1860–1900: Sketches & Paintings, Exhibition Catalogue, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, 1991 • "About Malevich", Avant-Garde – Revolution – Avant-Garde: Russian Art from the Collection of Michail Grobman, Exhibition Catalogue, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, 1988 • "About Malevich", The Avant-Garde in Russia 1910–1930: New Perspectives, Exhibition Catalogue, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1980 • Leviathan, newspaper of modern art and literature, nos. 1–3 (1975–1980) – in Russian