Naftali Rakuzin’s "The library of the artist" is the first solo exhibition of this author in Russia. It introduces to the viewer the art of this recognised artist, living in the West for a long time, whose works are in many significant museums and private collections all over the world. On show are approximately 20 works from the last fifteen years, which represent the art of Naftali Rakuzin comprehensively. The main subject of Rakuzin’s art is books; he has been representing them for already many years in painting and graphics, they stand on shelves or lie open on a table. Books meticulously depicted, nothing has been altered in their appearance – the author does not try to lend to the objects any special expressiveness, to deform them, to add to them significance, or monumentality. But this unsophisticated subject acquires the significance of the remarkably capacious metaphor of Art itself – since Naftali portrays books on Art: his own library, "The library of the artist".

The book for him is just such a window into the world as are pictures, and an important symbol, almost a cult object. Amongst the works, which make up the exhibition “The Library of the artist”, are things, which point directly to the “local”, Moscow context. Namely – “Poor might”, “portraying” the book by Georgiy Sokolov about Russia (with the classic Polenov’s “Moscow yard” on the cover), and the series “Moscow streets” with the reproduction of an opened album with graphic views of 19th century Moscow. The first work is a tribute to the beginning of the 1990s, in concept approaching Sots-art. But in the series are demonstrated the author’s estrangement and liberation from the importune image of his native city. In essence, the art of Naftali Rakuzin is work with a single enormous book about art, the subject of which, unhurriedly developing for decades, in time, becomes yet more multilayered and interesting.