Theodor Tezhik was born in Elektrostal (Russia) in 1946 and lives in Prague. In 1989 he was the first Russian to paint on the Berlin Wall. His painting “The Big Kremlin’s Wind” shows the soviet president Gorbachev flying into a crowd of people above the Kremlin in Moscow. The painting addresses the role the Kremlin played in the fall of the Wall.
The artist completed his colourful work “The Big Kremlin’s Wind” in only two days. It depicts a blustery storm whirling people into the air and causing the towers of the Kremlin in Moscow to bend. The later Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev is shown hanging upside down in the air. The phrase “Tempus fugit” (“Time flees”) along the upper edge is a reminder of the role the Kremlin played in the fall of the Wall and of how suddenly the political circumstances can change – as shown at the time in both East Germany and the then Soviet Union.
Tezhik graduated from the Moscow College of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1970 and worked as a set designer for theatre and film. He became known for his fantastical set sculptures and inventive use of visual metaphors. He has also produced music videos for bands and acclaimed stage productions as artist-in-chief of the International Theatre Olympics in Moscow as well as author and director of various plays for the festival.
