Muse — The Pearl of Sergey Parajanov

The great masters of world cinema — Federico Fellini, Tonino Guerra, and Andrei Tarkovsky — admired the boundless genius of Sergey Parajanov. His imagination knew no limits: everything he touched became art, and every ordinary object transformed into a symbol, a metaphor, a living revelation.

During the years when Parajanov was forbidden to make films, he turned to collage. He called these creations his “compacted films.” Each one was like a film condensed into a single frame — full of motion, rhythm, and poetic imagery. Many of his cinematic scenes were first born as collages, their compositions already charged with cinematic energy and visual symbolism.

Parajanov was a master of epatage, a man from whom the world expected surprises — and he always delivered them, turning life itself into theater, everyday moments into performance, and friendship into art.

Actress Larisa Kadochnikova recalled these moments with deep affection:

“In 1978 Sergey secretly came to Kyiv, though he was officially banned from entering Ukraine. He slipped into a performance of Othello at the Lesya Ukrainka Russian Drama Theatre. When the audience recognized him, the entire hall rose in applause. It was a moment of joy and hope — as if change was in the air.

He gave me a bottle of wine and one of his collages, which he had begun while still in prison. In Kyiv, he hastily assembled it, using treasured items he had brought from his cell. He kept adding to it, always saying that the collage was not yet perfect.”

Their friendship continued for years.

“At my Creative Evening at the House of Cinema in 1987,” Kadochnikova remembered, “Sergey appeared once again — unexpectedly, as always — with gifts: a huge shell from Greece, jewelry, a silk shawl, beads. He was in a wonderful mood. After the event, we went to my home, and in a burst of inspiration, he asked to see all the memorabilia left from filming.

Every gift and artifact from Sergey found its way into collage — alive again in his art. Decorations brought from Colombia fit perfectly into the composition, as if destiny had placed them there.”

Parajanov once said:

“Amid the Soviet dullness, stagnation, and moss, in this sandy mud, a shell opened — and from it was born a beautiful pearl, the diamond purity of the mind.”

That pearl was his Muse — his art, his defiance, his vision. Even in the years of imprisonment and exile, he continued to create beauty from fragments — from scraps of glass, fabric, paper, and memory. His collages radiate a spirit of resilience and imagination, testifying to the power of creativity to overcome any confinement.

Parajanov’s art remains a living symbol of inner freedom — a universe where poetry, cinema, theater, and painting merge into one. Looking at his collages today, we can still feel the same breath that animates his films: the play of light and color, irony and metaphor, and the eternal search for beauty.
His art truly became that pearl — radiant, daring, and eternal.

Two Collections — Two Eras

This exhibition unites two remarkable collections, each reflecting a distinct artistic vision yet bound by a shared spirit of freedom and beauty.

The first part presents collages associated with Sergey Parajanov and Larisa Kadochnikova — works that embody the poetics of cinema, theater, and the artist’s personal mythology. These collages carry the memory of friendship, inspiration, and art created in defiance of constraint.

The second part features works from the Yuri Yurovsky Collection, representing different decades of the 20th century. These collages and compositions emerged from a different artistic environment but share the same creative pulse — the pursuit of harmony between image, time, and the soul. The Yurovsky Collection offers another dimension of experimentation, where material becomes philosophy and color becomes the breath of an era.

Together, these two collections form a dialogue — between masters, between generations, and between art and life itself.

Sergey Parajanov (1924–1990) was an Armenian filmmaker, artist, and collage master — one of the most original and visionary creators of the 20th century. Born in Tbilisi and educated at VGIK in Moscow, he gained international fame with Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965), now a classic of world cinema. Persecuted for his artistic independence, he spent years in imprisonment and exile. Deprived of film, he created hundreds of collages — dazzling expressions of his genius and imagination. His art remains a hymn to freedom, love, and beauty — against all odds.