Igor Kopystiansky

Igor Kopystiansky (born (1954-12-16)16 December 1954 in Lviv) is an American artist, active in New York City since 1988.^[1] He has a multimedia practice, including painting, photography, film, and video, with an investigation of language as his primary paradigm.^[2] On works in media of film and video, he collaborates with his wife Svetlana Kopystiansky. His independent works and their joint works are shown internationally and held in museum and private collections around the world. Archives of works by Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky are located at the Centre Pompidou, Kandinsky Library.^[3]

From the late 70s until the late 80s Igor Kopystiansky was part of a second-generation of "Soviet non-conformist artists".^[2] In 1979, he turned to the avant-garde tradition. The initial inspiration for his works rooted in ideas of deconstruction and appropriation came from DADA and Marcel Duchamp. These works appropriated images by Western European painters. The new paintings were deliberately created in different sizes compared to the originals. This approach reflects the situation where a work of art functions in society more as a reproduction in a book, poster, or billboard, or when it is viewed on a screen at the cinema, with the size of the image being different from the original painting. The execution of the appropriated paintings was just the first stage in the production of the actual artwork.

These painted copies were then used to create assemblages or environments referred to as Interiors, where images from various paintings interacted with one another. The final outcome of the entire work would always be revealed only at the last stage, upon completing the installation, remaining absolutely unpredictable beforehand.^[4]

From this group of works in the collection MNAM Centre Pompidou Paris are represented Transformable Paintings(1991). This work does consist from seven paintings based at works of Western-European artists including Titian, Diego Velazquez, Giorgione, Murillo, Tintoretto, Eugène Delacroix which were exhibited and can be exhibited as objects in several different ways.^[5][6]

Compact Paintings (1992) are in the collection of the Centre Pompidou. ^[7]For each object from the set was produced an oil painted copy of the pre-existing painting. After that a painting was cut in stripes which were rolled and fixed bound with a rope. In this way a two dimensional painting was turned into a three dimensional compact object.

The work The Secret of the Lost (2003) which consists of 18 Compact Paintings is in the collection of Museum Folkwang Essen. ^[8]

Igor Kopystiansky’ individual works produced in the media of painting and installation since the early eighties have rightfully been defined as a part of an international art movement known as Appropriation Art. ^[9]

In 1988, he and his wife and collaborator Svetlana Kopystiansky left the Soviet Union and moved to New York City. In 1990, Svetlana and Igor Kopystiansky received a DAAD artists-in-residency grant that took them from New York to Berlin, Germany, and resulted in their solo museum exhibition with a catalogue curated by René Block for the Berlinische Galerie, Museum of Modern Art, in the Martin Gropius-Bau, Berlin in 1991.^[1]

Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky pursue individual careers, but also regularly work together. His individual and joint practice were shown at museum venues, in important international presentations and are collected by major American, European and Australian museums.

In the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art Igor and Svetlana are represented with a two screen slide projection installation The Day Before Tomorrow photographed on streets of New York in 1999, the last year of the Millennium.^[10]

Increasingly the Kopystianskys make video. Their 1996-7 video Incidents, filmed on streets of Chelsea Manhattan was first shown by curator Harald Szeemann in the Lyon Biennale in 1997,^[11] meditates on the potential beauty and pathos of discarded objects, as they are balletically blown around by wind along a city street. The filming of Incidents was made during a period of two years 1996/1997 in Chelsea where has been located artists’ studio, what at that time was largely non-residential area. Artists made filming and editing instantly and continued to work in such way until the video was accomplished. A soundtrack of this work is based exclusively on original recording in the city, which consist from incidental sounds of street life: traffic, conversations, footsteps, etc. A fresh and very common wind from the Hudson River transformed streets into a kind of a stage with actors. Everyday objects: a cup, a newspaper, an umbrella, a cardboard box, plastic bags are blown across the sidewalk and street. Mass-produced discards become large sculptures always in their movement, with constant changes of their sculptural form. Hours of footage carefully collected on many windy days have been edited to capture these magical moments. The wind was playing with these objects, turning and twisting them, bringing them together, and then separating them once more. It looks that the wind was liberating them from a power of gravitation.

Incidents were produced in a limited editions which were acquired and become a part of collections of MoMA, Metropolitan, Centre Pompidou, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, TATE Modern London, Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt, Germany, AGNSW Sydney, MFAH, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and were exhibited as a part of collections by major museums and at important international exhibitions. ^[12][13] A complete exhibition history of the video work Incidents (1996/1997) is published in a reference to a purchase at the web site of the MFAH, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas.^[14]

Later collaborations, such as 2005's Yellow Sound represented in the collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum takes its title from a Wassily Kandinsky theater production, and its silent structure and running time from John Cage's famous composition 4'33" (1952), in which a piano player sits at the keyboard, lift the lid and stay motionless and silent for the next four minutes and thirty-three seconds. As a source for Yellow Sound,(2005) artists used a found silent film footage with an image of a vinyl record. The original very short film was slowed down to increase it’s duration to 4:33. During the whole presentation a viewer does see an image, which looks like a still and only dust, scratches and other original damages of the film, which appear and disappear slowly indicate that the time is flowing.^[15]

In the video Portrait, 2006, represented in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum, Kopystiansky used a short excerpt from Masculin Feminin by Jean-Luc Godard. This selected clip has been played forward and backward at the same time. As the artists have described their process, "The effect is that most of the time the image is doubled, but in the middle of the program for 1/24th of a second the images merge in one single still. This moment has been determined by the movement of the film in the projection camera.” ^[16]

In a 2006 film work, Pink and White-A Play in Two Time Directions, artists superimpose the same footage playing forward and in reverse. The suggestive quality of these pieces is enhanced as the time/action moves forward and rewinds, creating a sense of time as both a found event and a lost memory. Pink and White is emphasizing their interest in early cinema, and the surrealist graphic intensity of photographer Man Ray.

Pink and White is related to two other film/video works by Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky: Double Fiction (2008)^[17] and Fiction Double (2008).^[18] In both works the entire movie – respectively, The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock and the Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard – have been played in two directions: forward and backward. Their soundtracks, in contradistinction to Pink and White, were appropriated from the original movies. Both movies were created almost at the same time within only a three year difference: 1960 Breathless and 1963 The Birds, both have a dramatic intensity and a fictional film narrative built in a classical way: a narrative time moves straightforward in one direction only. Both films represent an “author’s” cinematography and for artists was important to use classical films which every viewer is keeping in a memory. In Double Fiction and Fiction Double respectively, entire film footage of Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds and the entire film footage of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless are shown with sound, from beginning to end and over again in reverse, from the end to the beginning simultaneously and both flows of time are visible to the viewer in every moment of the presentation. In this way Kopystiansky’s incorporated the entire film as a found object and re-considered viewer’s reception of narrative time in the classical cinema. In a visual part early scenes are joined with later scenes. At the mid-point, each film becomes one as the superimposed films line up and become a single film. Both time flows heading in opposite directions join for a very brief moment which duration has been defined by a speed of a film presentation: 1/24th of the second. Deconstruction of an original narrative content worked at the same time as a constructive force by creating a new visual and audio quality of the work and producing a new visual object. In that new work relations between characters have changed and simultaneously new relations have been built, new interactions between them. Characters also interact with themselves being present at the screen in two times at once. Every next image is an unpredictable visual combination. All the music, all noises and each spoken word in the film always have been played twice: in a regular direction and in a reverse. An important part of these works is a verbal language. The sound has been bound to the image and has been played equally either in a regular direction or reversed. In that second case spoken words have been changed to a not recognition and by loosing their communication means gained new qualities and have been turned into abstract Sounds.^[19][20]

Video installation Crossroad (2009) was exhibited for the first time at the solo exhibition by Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky in the Musée d'Art Moderne de Saint-Etienne Métropole, France in 2010. An unedited solid footage filmed at six different crossroads in the Lower Manhattan was a record of real time: of all events, which took place in a front of the camera with all sounds of an environment. From these 6 video records artists made 3 video programs using two footages for each screen by superimposing them and dissolving one of them very slowly into another one and back during the playback. In this way during a projection images slowly and gradually dissolve from a shot of one location to a shot of another location in the city. At the beginning of each program is only one single frame which represents a perfect image from one location and immediately after that begins a very long and graduate dissolve which ends up with a single frame of another “perfect image” from a second footage. After reaching that point begins equally slow dissolve back to the first footage again. In the rest of the time on each screen is projected a mixture of two different locations and two time pieces what creates a new fictional visual reality. The architecture becomes entirely unreal and a gradual transition between two different locations creates a dislocation of time and place.^[21][22]

Kopystiansky’s individual and collaborative works has been featured in the MoMA, Metropolitan Museum in New York City; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Centre Pompidou Metz; Tate Modern, London; Tate Gellery Liverpool; Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, MFAH Texas; MCA Chicago; Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; Museum für Moderne Kunst, MMK Frankfurt am Main; Deichtorhallen Hamburg; Kunsthalle zu Kiel; Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst SMAK Gent; Art Gallery of New South Wales AGNSW, Sydney; Museum of Contemporary Art, Vigo^[23] , Spain; MUMOK, Vienna; Henry Art Gallery, Seattle. Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky had solo exhibitions at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Saint-Etienne, France; Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; Sprengel Museum Hannover; Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel; Martin-Gropius-Bau/Berlinische Galerie; Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art SMoCA Arizona; Fine Arts Center UMass, Amherst; GAMeC, Bergamo; Muzeum Sztuki in Łodz, Poland; Lithuanian National Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania.^[24]

His individual and joint practice were shown in major international presentations, including the 1988 Venice Biennial, 1992 Sydney Biennial,^[25] the 1994 Sao Paulo Biennial, the 1995 Istanbul Biennial,^[26] 1997 Lyon Biennial,^[27] 1997 Johannesburg Biennial^[28] 1999 Liverpool Biennial^[29] and documenta 11 in 2002^[30], ^[31]

Lisson Gallery represented Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky from 2001 till 2011.^[32]A collaboration with the gallery started in 2000, when being in New York Igor and Svetlana received an invitation to participate in Video Work, exhibition by the Lisson Gallery in Covent Garden, at 9 Kean Street, April 28 - May 26, London which coinsided with the opening of the Tate Modern. At that exhibition Igor and Svetlana presented their video work Fog (2000) filmed from the Chelsea piers across Hudson River. In 2024 Fog (2000) was acquired by the Walker Art Center.^{[33][34][35][36]}

At the Armory Show New York in 2001 Lisson gallery presented a video program which included Incidents (1996/1997) by Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky.

A major part of the first solo exhibition by Igor and Svetlana at the Lisson gallery London in 2002 were installation works filmed on streets of New York City including two screen slide projection installation The Day before Tomorrow (1999) which become a part of the Whitney Museum of American Art collection in 2009.^[37][38]

The Day before Tomorrow was exhibited as a part of the exhibition Chronos & Kairos: Time in contemporary art. Curator René Block 5 Sept.-7 Nov. 1999. Kunsthalle Fridericianum,, Kassel, Germany. ^[39]

In 2006 at their second Lisson gallery solo exhibition Igor and Svetlana presented video installation Yellow Sound(2005) which from 2009 is represented in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., two video projection installations (Sandglass) Establishing Shot commissioned by the Scottsdale Contemporary Art museum accompanied by a photographic project Fade also created in the desert of Arizona. Exhibition also included Pink and White presented as a multi screen video installation and paintings by Svetlana Kopystiansky: Landscapes and Seascapes shaped by handwritten text appropriated from poems by Samuel Beckett and works on paper.^[40][41][42]

The first group exhibition Igor participated at after the immigration to the US was "What is Contemporary Art?” organized by an American curator Dan Cameron. Participated artists were: Fischli-Weiss, Katharina Fritsch, Georg Herold, Rebecca Horn, On Kawara, Mike Kelley, Jeff Koons, , Sherrie Levine, Tatsuo Miyajima, Walter Obholzer, Meret Oppenheim, Perejaume, Haim Steinbach, Bill Taylor, Jeff Wall. Rooseum, Malmö, Sweden 1989. All works by Kopystiansky exhibited at this project were shortly before that exhibited at the solo exhibition by Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky in New York City in October 1988. ^[43]

• Museum of Modern Art^[44]
• Metropolitan Museum of Art^[45]
• Whitney Museum of American Art^[46]
• Art Institute of Chicago^[47]
• MFAH, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston^[48]
• Walker Art Center, Contemporary Art Museum, Minneapolis,^[49]
• Smithsonian American Art Museum^[50]
• Henry Art Gallery in Seattle.^[51]
• Centre Pompidou Paris^[52]
• Tate Modern, London^[53]
• Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney^[54]
• Musée d'art moderne Saint-Étienne,^[55] France
• Ludwig Forum for International Art, Aachen. ^[56]
• Berlinische Galerie^[57]
• Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main^[58]
• Frac Corsica^[59]
• MOCAK, Museum of Contemporary Art Krakow, Poland^[60]
• Museum of Art, Łódź, Poland^[61]

• "Igor & Svetlana Kopystiansky". The Lithuanian National Museum of Art. 2023. Foreword: Arūnas Gelūnas. Texts by Michel Gauthier, John G. Hanhardt. Quotations from texts about Kopystiansky's by Kai-Uwe Hemken, Philippe-Alain Michaud, Anthony Spira, Adam D. Weinberg.(Lithuanian, English, French) ISBN 9786094261824
• Kopystiansky: Double Fiction/Fiction Double". Published on the occasion of the solo exhibition at the Musée d"Art Moderne de Saint-Étienne. 2010. Texts by John G. Hanhardt, Philippe-Alain Michaud. Les Presses du Réel. ISBN 9782840663744
• "Igor & Svetlana Kopystiansky." Published on the occasion of the solo exhibition at the EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Helsinki, 2007. Texts by Timo Valjakka, Anthony Spira, Barry Schwabsky, (English, Finnish, Swedish), EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Helsinki. ISBN 9789525509007
• "Igor & Svetlana Kopystiansky: The Day before Tomorrow". Published on the occasion of the solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel and Fine Arts Centre of UMass, Amherst, Massachusetts, 2005. With introduction by René Block and Loretta Yarlow and texts by Adam D. Weinberg, Barry Schwabsky, Andreas Bee, Anthony Bond, Kai-Uwe Hemken. (English and German), ISBN 9780929597195
• "Igor & Svetlana Kopystiansky: Tracking Shot." With texts by Barry Schwabsky, Andreas Bee, Anthony Bond. (English and Spanish), Distrito4, 2004. Madrid, Spain ISBN 9788493342265
• "Igor & Svetlana Kopystiansky: Dialog," Published on the occasion of the solo exhibition at the IFA Galerie Berlin, 1998. Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen Stuttgart/Berlin.
• "Igor Kopystiansky: Exhibition of Paintings." 2nd Johannesburg Biennale, 1997. ISBN 9783927869127
• "Igor Kopystiansky: The Museum." Published on the occasion of the solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany. 1994.
• "Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky" Published on the occasion of the solo exhibition at the Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin, 1991. DAAD. Curator René Block. Texts by Dan Cameron, Joachim Sartorius, Christine Tacke. ISBN 9783893570317

• Thierry Davila, Heuristique des courants d’air. Les Cahiers du Musée national d’art moderne , #146, Winter issue 2018-2019 of the Centre Pompidou. "Of an art that does not lack air. From Leonardo da Vinci to Duchamp, Hans Haacke and beyond, a eulogy of drafts »Heuristique des courants d’air. Artists: Léonard de Vinci, Marcel Duchamp, Piero Manzoni, Giuseppe Penone, Hans Haacke, Marinus Boezem, Igor et Svetlana Kopystiansky, Ryan Gander, Gabriel Orozco, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Zilvinas Kempinas, Francis Alÿs, Didier Marcel. Les Cahiers du Musée national d’art moderne 2019/1 N° 146 EAN 9782844268372
• Philippe-Alain Michaud. Sur le film. Editions Macula, France. 464 pages index150 illustrations couleur, 185 illustrations noir et blanc, pp. 207-220. 2016 ISBN 978-2-86589-085-9, ISSN 2430-8943,
• Michel Gauthier. Scenes from the life of palimpsests in Art Lovers. Stories of Art in the Pinault Collection at the Grimaldi Forum Monaco, from 12 July to 7 September 2014. Lien Art. Curator Martin Bethenod. Texts: Après by Martin Bethenod. ISBN 978-2-35906-112-3
• Adam D. Weinberg. The Binary Method, Some Thoughts on Two Projects: Incidents and The Day Before Tomorrow in: Artist, work, Lisson. Lisson Gallery London, England. "ARTIST WORK LISSON documents the history and legacy of Lisson Gallery over the past 50 years. Under the art direction of famed Dutch designer Irma Boom, the publication features an A-to-Z of every artist who has had a solo exhibition at the gallery. pp. 14, 340, 341, 464-465, 472-473474, 662-665. Distributed in North America by Artbook | D.A.P., 2017. ISBN 978-0-947830-63-2
• Adam D. Weinberg. “Das binäre Verfahren. Überlegungen zu zwei Arbeiten Incidents und The Day Before Tomorrow.” Das Fridericianum Magazin. Kunstverein und Kunsthalle, Nov. 2005, pp. 42-45.
• Hemken, Kai-Uwe: Die doppelte Documenta 11 - Die Videoinstallation "Flow" von Igor & Svetlana Kopystiansky als Sinnbild einer mediatisierten documenta. XXD11: Über Kunst und Künstler der Gegenwart. Ein Nachlesebuch zur Documenta 11. Kassel University Press ; Erscheinungstermin. 1. Mai 2003 ; ISBN 978-3-89958-506-3.
• "Kunst der letzten 10 Jahre." Curated by Dieter Ronte and Wolfgang Drechsler. Museum of Modern Art, Vienna. 28 April bis 24.September 1989. pp.14, 150-153. ISBN 978-3-900776-03-9
• "Documenta 11," Director Okwui Enwezor. Kassel, Germany. 2002. ISBN 978-3-7757-9088-8
• “Chronos & Kairos : die Zeit in der zeitgenössischen Kunst;” Museum Fridericianum Kassel, Curator René Block, Verlag: Documenta und Museum Fridericianum Kassel, 1999. Kunsthalle Fridericianum, 5 Sept.-7 Nov. Kassel, Germany. ISBN 978-3-927015-13-5
• "Trace," Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art, (Curator Anthony Bond). The Tate Gallery Liverpool, ISBN 978-0-9536761-0-1
• "2nd Johannesburg Biennale," Curator Okwui Enwezor. Johannesburg, South Africa. ISBN 978-0-620-21522-0
• "L'Autre. 4e Biennale de Lyon, Art Contemporain," Curator Harald Szeemann, Lyon, France ISBN 978-2-7118-3574-4
• "The 4th International Istanbul Biennial, ORIENT/ATION–The Vision of Art in a Paradoxical World." Turkey. Director: René Block. Venue: Antrepo no. 1, Yerebatan Cistern, Hagia Eirene Museum, Atatürk Cultural Center Art Gallery. ISBN 978-2-87939-249-3
• “Caravanserraglio, Fuori Uso ‘95,” Curator Giacinto Di Pietrantonio. Ex Aurum, Pescara, Italy. ISBN 978-1-9993170-0-3
• "Cocido y Crudo," Museo National Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain. Curator Dan Cameron. 1994. pp. 50, 58, 118-121, 234 237, 324, 330. ISBN 978-84-8026-042-8
• “Ich will daß Du mir glaubst .9th Triennial of Small Sculpture,” Curator Jean-Christophe Ammann, Natalie de Ligt. Fellbach, Germany. Alte Kelter - 26.6. bis 26.9.2004. Participating artists: Nobuyoshi Araki, Stephan Balkenhol, Thomas Bayrle, Linda Benglis, Heiner Blum, Louise Bourgeois, Peter Fischli/David Weiss, Ceal Floyer, David Hammons, Martin Honert, Bethan Huws, Igor und Svetlana Kopystiansky, Zoe Leonard, Martin Liebscher, Cathy de Monchaux, Ron Mueck, Bruce Naumann, Markus Raetz, Martial Raysse, Andreas Slominski, Rosemarie Trockel, Erwin Wurm. Herausgebende Fellbach, Württ Stadt Fellbach Publikationsjahr 2004. ISBN 978-3-86984-147-2
• "The Boundary Rider," 9th Biennale of Sydney. Curator Anthony Bond. AGNSW, Sydney, Australia. ISBN 978-1-921034-84-8
• “Dialog im Bode museum.” Curator Klaus Biesenbach. Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Bodemuseum Berlin, 1992. ISBN 978-0-9841776-2-2
• Jörn Merkert. Kunst die in Berlin entstand : Meisterwerke der Berlinischen Galerie. Prestel, München 2004, ISBN 978-3-7913-3217-8
• “From Trash to Treasure. Vom Wert des Wertlosen in der Kunst.” Edited by Anette Hüsch. Kunsthalle zu Kiel. Participating artists: Arman, Joseph Beuys, George Brecht, Pavel Büchler, Christo, Tony Cragg, Jürgen Drescher, Marcel Duchamp, Sylvie Fleury, Gilbert & George, Asger Jorn, Arthur Køpcke, Igor und Svetlana Kopystiansky, Urs Lüthi, Gordon Matta Clark, Olaf Metzel, Robert Morris, Vik Muniz, Mimmo Rotella, Dieter Roth, Kurt Schwitters, Daniel Spoerri, Jacques de la Villeglé, Wolf Vostell. Published by Kerber, 2011. ISBN 978-3-86984-147-2
• “Erre, variations labyrinthiques.” Organized by Hélène Guenin and Guillaume Désanges. Préfaces d’Alain Seban et de Laurent Le Bon, Centre Pompidou-Metz, 2011. ISBN 978-2-35983-014-9
• "The Purloined Image," Curator Christopher. R. Young. The Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, USA March 28-May 9. ISBN 978-0-941548-01-4
• Le Musée d'art moderne de Saint-Etienne. Edited by Bernard Ceysson, p.120. Le Musée d'art moderne de Saint-Etienne. Edited by Bernard Ceysson, p.120. Paris : Musées et monuments de France : A. Michel ; Saint-Etienne : la Ville, 1990. Published with the support of the Fondation Paribas. Collection directed by Pierre Lemoine ISBN 978-2-912808-17-2
• "Anni Novanta," Curator Renato Barilli. Galleria Comunale d'Arte Moderna, Bologna; Musei Comunali, Rimini; Ex colonia "Le Navi," Catolica, Italy. pp. 21, 250-251. Editore, Mondadori (31 dicembre 1990). ISBN 978-88-242-0087-5
• "What is Contemporary Art?” Curator Dan Cameron. Participating artists: Fischli-Weiss, Katharina Fritsch, Georg Herold, Rebecca Horn, On Kawara, Mike Kelley, Jeff Koons, Igor Kopystiansky, Sherrie Levine, Tatsuo Miyajima, Walter Obholzer, Meret Oppenheim, Perejaume, Haim Steinbach, Bill Taylor, Jeff Wall. Rooseum, Malmö, Sweden. ISBN 978-99910-73-53-8 ; OCLC 21436173
• "XLIII La Biennale di Venezia, Aperto, " pp. 310, 347, 350. 1988. ISBN 978-88-208-0332-2
• Phyllis Freeman, "New Art," Harry N Abrams, New York, pp. 106-107. 1990. ISBN 978-0-8109-2443-7
• Robert Atkins.  "Art Speak: A Guide to Contemporary Ideas, Movements, and Buzzwords."  Appropriation. Who: Mike Bidlo, David Diao, Komar and Melamid, Jeff Koons, Igor Kopystiansky, Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine, Carlo Maria Mariani, Sigmar Polke, Richard Prince, Gerhard Richter, David Salle, Julian Schnabel, Peter Schuyff, Elaine Sturtevant. When: 1980’s. Where: United States and Europe, Abbeville Publishers, New York, 1990, pp. 42–43. Abbeville Publishers. New York, New York. 1990. ISBN 978-0-7892-1151-4 https://openlibrary.org/books/OL2198674M/Artspeak
• “Tempo ao tempo/ Taking time.”Catalog of an exhibition held at MARCO, Museo de arte contemporánea de Vigo, Oct. 19, 2007-Feb. 17, 2008. Texts by Isabel Carlos, Félix Duque, and Iñaki Martínez Antelo. In Galician, Spanish, and English. ISBN 978-84-935505-4-7

• Fonds Igor et Svetlana Kopystiansky. Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Centre Pompidou.

• Homepage

• Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky: Incidents (1996/7)

• Bibliographie/Bibliography

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art Thomas J. Watson Library Catalog

• documenta archiv

• Whitney Archives

• GND Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

• Getty record

• Harald Szeemann Archive Getty Research Institute