Life after death
Despite the ups and downs of the past years, four of Yuri ’s five monumental compositions are still alive today.
Photograph of the sports hall of the Palace of Children’s and Youth Creativity in Vorkuta. 2016.
In 2017, Sportivnaya Pobeda, together with the Palace of Children and Youth Creativity in Vorkuta, celebrated its 50th anniversary.
“Monument in honor of the discovery of a diamond deposit in Yakutia” not only became a symbol of the city of Mirny and a favorite place of recreation for the townspeople, but was also included in the list of monuments of republican significance and is under state protection ( Krynina G.P., Ermolaev E.P., 1980). In 2018, the monument and the area around it were completely restored.
After the collapse of the USSR, the Palace of Culture of the city of Mary ended up abroad – in Turkmenistan – a country about which we now know practically nothing.
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B.Y. Kafengauz
And yet, I managed to find a photo taken in 2014 on social networks, with the comments: “Margiana” “our beloved, the very first House of Culture in the city!!!!” I was very happy, but did not calm down and in 2017 I contacted the Embassy of Turkmenistan with a request about the fate of my father’s work. In response, I received an invitation to the embassy and modern photographs of the Palace of Culture “Margiana” – that’s what it is called now. The bright panel “Spring of Turkmenistan” still adorns the building’s facade, although it is noticeable that the lower, most vulnerable part of the mosaic is in need of restoration.
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And only the Moscow work of Y. Kafengauz a did not stand the test of time. During the reconstruction of the building of the Metropol Hotel in Moscow, the “Central Railway Ticket Offices” disappeared, and with them the “Map of the Railways of the USSR and Europe”.
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B.Y. Kafengauz
For the first anniversary of my father’s death, our family prepared the album “Yuri Kafengauz. Painting. Graphics. Enamels. Monumental Art” (“Virtual Gallery”, Moscow, 2009). The publication is the most complete catalog of my father’s works, from the first steps of his professional activity to the last days of his life. The introductory article to the album was written by Liliana Brevern, the artist’s widow, a member of the Union of Writers of Russia; my parents were married 60 years. The presentation of the album-catalogue took place on April 13, 2009 in the Exhibition Hall of the Moscow Union of Artists (Starosadsky Lane, 5).
Beginning in 1956, my father regularly participated with his works in all collective Moscow, republican and all-Union art exhibitions. However, he constantly postponed his own personal exhibition, saying: “I still have something to work on.” As a result, the artist’s only personal exhibition during his 50 creative years took place only in 2004 in the Exhibition Hall of the Moscow Branch of the Union of Artists (MOSKh) on Kuznetsky Most.
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After the death of Yuri Kafengauz , seven more exhibitions of the artist’s creative legacy were organized in Moscow: in April 2009 (Moscow Union of Artists, Starosadsky Lane, 5), in January-February 2010 (S.I. Turgenev Library and Reading Room), in March-April 2010 (Moscow City Duma), in February 2011 (M.I. Rudomino All-Russian State Library of Foreign Languages), in March 2016 (State Institute of Art Studies), in April-June 2017 ( R. Goldman Jewish Cultural Center on Nikitskaya), in January 2025 (Gallery “on Chistye Prudy” in the Business Center of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation).
The works of Yuri are in the Museum of Moscow, the House-Museum of S.V. Gerasimov in Mozhaisk, the North Ossetian Republican Art Museum named after M.S. Tuganov in Vladikavkaz, the Enamel Museum in Kecskemet (Hungary), in private collections in Great Britain, the USA, Spain, France and Russia, as well as in the artist’s family.