Igor Kufayev
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Igor Kufayev | |
|---|---|
 Igor Kufayev (2017) | |
| Born | January 5, 1966 Tashkent, Uzbekistan |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation(s) | artist, spiritual teacher |
| Website | www |
Igor Anvar Kufayev /ˈkuːfəjɛv/ (Russian: И́горь Анва́р Kу́фаев, IPA: [ˈiɡərʲ ɐnˈvar ˈkufəɪf]; born January 5, 1966), is a spiritual leader, author and British artist of the 90s generation.
Early years
[edit]Igor Kufayev was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Classically trained in art from an early age he attended a private studio of a martial artist and painter Shamil Rakhimov, a place of underground meetings between liberal thinkers, poets and painters. Kufayev was educated at the Art College in Tashkent, and then at the Theater and Art Institute's department of Mural painting. The violent death of his mentor lead to young Igor's decision to become an artist.[1] Kufayev received his formal education at the Art College in Tashkent, and after two years of compulsory military service, resumed his studies at the Theater and Art Institute, at the department of Mural painting. In 1988 he was accepted as a student of a second year to the Academy of Arts (now Imperial Academy of Arts) in St Petersburg, Russia. Independently of his official program, he studied and painted directly from the masterpieces of western art, in the Hermitage Museum.[citation needed]
Artistic Career
[edit]
In 1990 Kufayev moved to Warsaw, Poland. An encounter with the art critic Andrzej Matynia led to Kufayev's first solo exhibition, Eternal Compromise at the Monetti Gallery, Warsaw.[citation needed] He was invited to take part in The Meeting of Sacred Images, at the National Museum of Ethnography in Warsaw, with his triptych Compromise alongside works by artists of earlier times.[citation needed]
He moved to London in August 1991, the same year his six-year-old daughter from his first marriage died in a road accident.[2] He remained in a prolonged period of grief unable to paint, but came out of the slump in 1994, with a one-man exhibition entitled Burnt Earth, dedicated to the memory of his daughter; Robin Dutt gave it a favourable review in The Independent.[3] He opened his own studio in London where he held private views of his work annually. From 1995 to 1997 he worked on a series of four tondos under the title Zauber. In January 1996 he was granted British Citizenship.[citation needed]
In 2001, the art critic Brian Sewell described Kufayev as a "driven painter, scrupulous draughtsman, intellect and imagination wrestling with seemingly equal force".[4]
Spiritual Transformation
[edit]An early interest towards spirituality led to his practice of Yoga with initiation in 1996 to Transcendental Meditation.[5] He immersed himself in the study of diverse spiritual traditions with special emphasis on Indian philosophy, Sufi, and Zen.[6] In 2001, at the age of thirty-six, in the wake of the TM-Sidhi Program (an advanced yogic course), Igor describes as having undergone a radical transformation of consciousness.[1] He abandoned his art career and for the next five years he continued long hours of meditation, integrating expanded state of awareness throughout his daily activities. During that time he discovered the teachings of Swami Muktananda which led him to the tradition of Kashmir Shaivism.[5] Its 'transcendental physicalism' appealed to his down to earth, creative sensibility, unique to that tradition's doctrine of Spanda (Sanskrit: "throb, vibration")[7] which had been verified by direct experience, in perceiving the World as a Throb of Pure Consciousness in the Heart of his own.[8]
In October 2006, in an interview with Seva Novgorodsev for the BBC Russian Service, Kufayev talked about his years as an artist and the decision to leave painting.[9]
Philosophy and Teaching
[edit]
Kufayev began teaching in 2002, becoming full-time in February 2008. Since 2012 he has offered online webinars and in-person gatherings and retreats worldwide.[10]
The publication of Camatkāra: The Hidden Path in Spring 2023 launched Igor Kufayev as an author. This book is a collection of discourses delivered over a number of years at live events, transcribed and rendered into written form while keeping with the immediacy of its oral delivery. Therein, he presents the experience of Beauty as a unique path toward direct communion with the Divine and aesthetic rapture as a universal spiritual practice.[11]
A forthcoming publication, Kuṇḍalinī: The Goddess as the Power Behind Self-Transformation in Tantric Shaivism is to be expected for its release on February 2025.
Private life
[edit]Igor now lives with his partner and their three small children in Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain. In 2006 he moved back to Uzbekistan and lived in his birth city of Tashkent for almost four years. Between April 2011 and December 2012 he and his family were traveling in Central America with the base in Costa Rica, followed by spending nine months, until September 2013, in Mallorca.
Kufayev has a grown-up daughter from a previous relationship who lives in Warsaw, Poland.
Publications
[edit]Books
[edit]- Camatkāra: the Hidden Path, Paperback Exclusive edition, June 2023, SONG Publishing, ISBN 978-94-647527-1-7
- Camatkāra: the Hidden Path, Hardcover cloth, Limited Edition, January 2023, SONG Publishing, ISBN 978-94-647527-0-0
Selected essays
[edit]- Der verborgene Pfad, Published by Yoga Aktuell Magazine, October/November, 2023
- Czasami Musimy Dać Się Życiu Ponieść, Published by Newsweek Psychologia, September 20, 2023
- The Path of Beauty & Delight, Published by Watkins Magazine, Issue 74, July 13, 2023
- Kundalini Die Definition Des Undefinierbaren, Published by Yoga Aktuell Magazine, May 31, 2022
- Kundalini: Defining the Undefinable, Published by Watkins Magazine, May 24, 2021
- The World is As You See It, Published by Sufi Journal, Issue 98, Winter 2020
- The Nature of Pain, Published by Science to Sage Magazine, Issue 31, November 3, 2020
- Schönheit ist alles, was ist (Beauty Is All There Is), Published by Evolve Magazine, Issue 27, August–October 2020
- Aesthetic Rapture, Published by InZicht Magazine, Volume 7, May 2015 #2
- Shanta Rasa – der Geschmack des Friedens, Published by Yoga Aktuell Magazine, Issue 105, August/September 2014
- Vibrant Self, Published by InZicht Magazine, Volume 16, May 2014 #2
- The World is As You See It, Published by InZicht Magazine, Volume 15, February 2013 #1
- Vibrant Self, Published by Namarupa: Categories of Indian Thought, Issue 18, Winter 2013-14
- The World is As You See It, Published by Namarupa: Categories of Indian Thought, Issue 17, Summer 2013
References
[edit]- ^ a b McNay, Renate (September 2019). Conversations on Awakening: Part One. White Crow Books. ISBN 978-1-78677-093-6.
- ^ "Interview by Philip Goldberg and Dennis Raimondi". Spirit Matters. 20 June 2019.
- ^ Dutt, Robin (1 July 1994). "Burnt offerings". The Independent.
- ^ Sewell, Brian (25 May 2001). ""Your Choice for the Turner Prize"". Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 13 September 2012. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ a b "Igor Kufayev - 'Flowing Wakefulness' Interview by Renate McNay". ConsciousTV. Sep 17, 2013.
- ^ "Igor Kufayev - 'The Impact Of Awakening' - Interview by Iain McNay". Conscious TV. 17 September 2013.
- ^ Kufayev, Igor (Winter 2013–14). "Vibrant Self". Namarupa: Categories of Indian Thought (18).
- ^ Freimann, Amir, Mayseless, Ofra, Hart, Tobin, & Johnson, Aostre (May 2024). "Living transcendence: A phenomenological study of spiritual exemplars". The Humanist Psychologist. 52 (3). doi:10.1037/hum0000359 – via APA PsycNet.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Сева Новгородцев, Севаоборот – Igor Kufayev, interview for BBC Russian Service". BBC Russian Service. 21 October 2006.
- ^ Osto, Douglas (2020). An Indian Tantric Tradition and Its Modern Global Revival: Contemporary Nondual Śaivism. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-000-04929-9.
- ^ Kufayev, Igor (2023). Camatkara: The Hidden Path. SONG Publishing. ISBN 978-9-464-75270-0.