I already wrote about one piece (Andrey Venkov (2017) Hymns of Muscovy) from this exhibition but now I want to come back to the whole collection which was presented.
On exhibition were 34 artists from the collection of VLADEY. Today it is an auction house and platform for promotion and support of Russian Contemporary Art. This organisation functioning and collect artworks since 2013. Quote: “Is a twenty-first-century monumental art possible? Are there original artists in Russia, can they create high-level works and compete with world stars?” (VLADEY, 2018, foreword). Fool information about the collection available here: https://vladey.net/ru/exhibitions/monumental
Honestly speaking only after I left Moscow in 2016 I opened for myself a world of contemporary art. Despite, I studied at Surikov University, the environment didn’t allow me to see further. Exhibitions which happened in Moscow were rather old fashion and dominated by highly respected Professors with an academic background. Stepping back from the topic - only in 2017 this University officially implemented subject of “Contemporary Art” for students.
Today, when coming back to Moscow, I try to visit only modern and contemporary events but still it is a drop in the Ocean compare to Shanghai, London and Berlin. But anyway my patriotic feeling is increasing each year but, unfortunately with bad connotation. I’m happy to be Russian but I’m extremely sorry to have what we have inside the country. Political and Religious situation keep strong walls around a heartful and creative people.
Anyway, I was happy to see this exhibition and artists which doing their best in a new field of Russian contemporary Art.
Sergey Bratkov, LEAVE TO FORGET, 2013, black and white photography, neon 140 x 272 cm (print), 35 x 200 cm (neon), Catherine and Vladimir Semenikhin collection. [Online] Available from: https://vladey.net/ru/artwork/4223 [Accessed 10/10/18]
I strongly believe that Russian Art scene is a not established market yet, so it has huge potential. Along with it, a unique perception of the life fulfils Russian contemporary Art with sadness and self-irony at once. Art heritage with Kandinsky, Malevich, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Solzhenitsyn, Brodsky and others form strong, heavy, emotional, satiric and cold appearance. The Continental climate, (I wrote about it so many times:) can’t give us (here I mean Russians) a bright colour like it would be in Latin American or African art.
War and Bolsheviks time, also, I think, till now echo in new Russian Art. Just some examples:
Anatoly Osmolovsky, PL-01 from the series “Products”, 2016, bronze, nickel, 26 x 50 x 6 cm [Online] Available from: https://vladey.net/ru/artwork/4238 [Accessed 10/10/18]
Alexander Kutovoy, Soldier, 2015, gypsum, 220 x 70 x 45 cm [Online] Available from: https://vladey.net/ru/artwork/4253 [Accessed 10/10/18]
Egor Koshelev, Soviet Arkady (triptych), 2013, canvas, acrylic, 190 x 150 cm (each part) [Online] Available from: https://vladey.net/ru/artwork/4229 [Accessed 10/10/18]
Looks like it takes longer for Russia to integrate new world and a new reality. For instance, where are a digital and light installations, intricate materials and development of a new? Looks like we are trying to be smart but not always present it in a modern way. In other words, I can see a problem of Russian Contemporary Art as - education limiting creativity and blocking the artistic potential. Without long research and analysis of the modern technology, tendencies - artists keep working with ready materials – canvases, cardboard, wood, bronze, steel - forgetting that there is no presentation of unique texture or interesting drawing elements.
Semen Faibisovich, Despairing from the “Kazan Station” series, 2013, oil on canvas, mixed media, 300 x 200 cm (two parts) [Online] Available from: https://vladey.net/ru/artwork/4226 [Accessed 10/10/18]
Artists, born around 50th/60th in Russia, had a complex experience. Probably, political, economical and cultural environment raised a pleiad of artists who were talented and could make a difference, but the system crashed all undertakings. Some who was not able to move on “the West” out of regime stuck in grey reality 70th-90th. Today when Russia seems to be open, highly educated old generation cannot recognise modern reality. The idealistic art acknowledged as an academic figurative art with strong canons. This pseudo openness transforms into the critique of the society. The representational part rather tends to be a Kitsch, as a solution, which artist use, is rather not innovative and rather conventional. This is only how I can explain their choice for such a subject. Quote: “...heroes are people who are not noticed, who are physically present, but visually absent. After all, today socialist realism is replaced by glamour, which also offers some ideal, glossy life - what it should be. And the life that is, that flows before all eyes, as if it is not there again. And now, as before, my challenge, including the challenge of this new ideology, is to show what it is... ... they have a touching and helplessness, as in homeless dogs.” (Semen Faibisovich (born 1949) [Online] Available from: https://vladey.net/ru/artwork/4226 [Accessed 10/10/18]). Here I want to compare with Ai Weiwei (born 1957) and the way how he does the same – critics the society. I don’t think that exhibiting homeless people would change governmental regulation, except the mood of people visiting the exhibition. But Chinese artist brought a political idea into Contemporary Art which is reflecting our time via new language.
Kirill Lebedev (Who), Untitled, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 150 cm [Online] Available from: https://vladey.net/ru/artwork/4231 [Accessed 10/10/18]
A language has a big part in each culture so Russia is not an exception. We are trying to implement our tongue on the flat surfaces but these experiments are always about the meaning of the words itself, again, I haven’t seen that Russian artist (it doesn’t mean that no-one tried this) would think about art as a language in whole as it does an American artist Lawrence Weiner for instance. Probably “conceptual” understanding for the artist in Russia is too philosophical...?!, but the physical world still close to us and reflect on it is the most simple way.
Finalizing long discussion I answer the question which posed by the organizer - in the twenty-first century monumental art in Russia not possible, at least not with this works. There are too little original artists in Russia yet, who can create high-level works and compete with world stars. We still have long way to go...
Bibliography and references
1. VLADEY (2018) foreword, Catherine Foundation, Moscow. 25.07.20018
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