bookmarks www.3rd.moscowbiennale.ru/en Official site of the
Third Moscow Biennale
Russia NOW www.rbth.ru
09
www.winzavod.com Moscow Contemporary Art
section sponsored by rossiyskaya gazeta, russia
Centre distributed with the daily telegraph tuesday_september 29_2009 culture
events
the kremlin’s spasskaya tower
festival welcomed military bands
An 862nd birthday might not be a good round
figure, but festivities on Moscow day – which is
traditionally held on the first weekend of september
– have attracted more than 3m people.
This year, there were more than 4,500 events in
russia’s capital over the course of the weekend.
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Along with many concerts, the city hosted the inter-
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national music festival “spasskaya Tower”, featur-
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n ing military bands from around the world.
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There were performances by military bands and
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units of the honour guards of the heads of state,
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dance shows, video installations and fireworks.
A parody by Vladimir Dubrossarky and Alexander Vinogradov: a The squadron of the special Guard of the presi-
heroine is placed in painter Ivan Shishkin’s “Bags in a Pine Forest”. dent’s regiment, of the Honoured Cavalry escort
and of the Band of suvorov’s Military Music Col-
lege were some of the greatest highlights of the
russian art
Festival’s programme.
AlexAndr peTrOsyAn
market: a rebirth?
The rebirth of private art Black Dress (1918), bought at
collections has been one of the Sotheby’s in 2000 for $15.6m on
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most significant cultural and a top estimate of $12m, and
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social movements of the past
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Soutine’s Le boeuf ecorche
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20 years. Before the Bolsheviks (1924), which sold in February
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nationalised private property, 2006 at Christie’s for £7.8m
Russia had some of the world’s ($13.8m at the time) on a top es-
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finest private art collections. timate of £4.8m. Until February
2007, it held the record as the
John Varoli
most expensive Soutine paint-
special for russia now ing sold at auction. Kantor also
london book Fair looks to russia in
raised the bar for leading Rus- 2011
Vyacheslav Kantor, one of Rus- sian post-war artist Ilya Kaba- The london Book Fair and the russian Federal
sia’s richest businessmen with kov when, in 2008, he bought Agency for press and Mass Communications an-
interests in fertilisers and real the artist’s Beetle (1982) at Phil- nounced that russia will be the market focus and
estate, has spent the past dec- lips de Pury & Company for Guest of Honour at the london Book Fair in 2011.
ade building up a collection of £2.93m ($5.84m at the time), an According to Vladimir Grigoriev, deputy head of
20th-century artists, including auction record for Russian post- the agency, “russia’s participation as the Guest
works by modernists Marc war art. of Honour will develop cooperation between our
Chagall, Chaim Soutine, and His collection forms the Muse- countries in film and literature. The number of rus-
Amedeo Modigliani, as well as um of Avant-Garde Mastery in sian and British authors translated into the respec-
post-war legends such as Mark Geneva, where he has a home. tive languages will increase and British readers will
Rothko and Ilya Kabakov. However, Kantor is one of only have the opportunity to learn more about russian
In the past decade, a new elite a handful of major Russian col- literary trends. We are also counting on British
has eagerly returned to old col- lectors who have gone public. publishers to become regular participants at the
lecting traditions, motivated by Many do not speak about their Moscow International Book Fair.”
a number of factors – ranging art holdings, citing privacy and According to Alistair Burtenshaw, Group exhibition
from aesthetic appreciation, a security issues as reasons for director in london, the recent Moscow Book Fair
need to decorate the home and their reticence. “convinced [him] that russian literature is gaining
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art as investment, to a desire to Chelsea FC’s billionaire owner, strength and that russia will soon become one of
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acquire the trappings of power Roman Abramovich, is consid- the primary literature giants of the world.”
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n and prestige. ered another important Rus-
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The Russian onslaught on sian collector. He is believed to
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world art markets began when have spent $120m in May 2008
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billionaire Viktor Vekselberg at Sotheby’s and Christie’s to
Oleg Kulik (above) first became famous as a “human dog” in the early 1990s. He was the founder of an art scooped up the Forbes Faberge secure a painting by Lucian
genre that featured human bodily suffering. One famous example was his performance “I can’t be silent Collection in early 2004 – just Freud and one by Francis Bacon.
anymore! Strassbourg, European Parliament”, which had a man being tortured with a branding iron in months before it was to be auc- Abramovich never confirmed
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the shape of the European Union logo. It’s as if the artist is being crucified on the British flag tioned at Sotheby’s. That pur- the purchases.
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chase cost him more than Dealers and gallery owners
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$100m, though the final figure point out that the increase in art k
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owners are forced to consider in very interesting ways and has never been revealed. sales between 2004 and 2008 in
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the work of young artists who are looking for new approach- “There’s very strong interest in Russia was, in large part, due to
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charge less. es. Still, I can’t say that you impressionist and modern mas- a booming real estate market, Alistair Burtenshaw announces Russia will be the
should rush out and buy their terpieces among the wealthiest and the need for the rich to dec- Guest of Honor at the London Book Fair in 2011
pierre-christian brochet, work. Art right now is depreci- people in Russia,” says Marina orate these new flats and homes.
director avant-garde publish- ating in value. Five or six Rus- Goncharenko, a Moscow art With the property market now
the new rFw season: a bright
ing; publisher petit Fute travel sian art auctions are held eve- collector, and director of GMG moribund and the Russian gov-
guides: ry year. That isn’t much. If you Gallery. “They’d rather buy art ernment forecasting it could be
spring in october
I am, perhaps, not the right per- want to sell a painting, you that has stood the test of time another three years before the At russian Fashion Week, scheduled to take place
son to ask because I have been will have to spend time looking and which is a serious financial economy returns to 2008 levels, in Moscow on October 17-23 at the ITC Congress
collecting contemporary Rus- for an auction that is interest- asset. They’re more likely to the slump in Russian art pur- Centre, russian designers and foreign guests will
sian art for 20 years. I have ed in your work and wait till it spend millions of dollars on a chases will probably last until present their collections for spring and summer
never asked myself whether or gets into the catalogue. Sell- work by an easily recognisable then. But, despite the current 2010. This season’s rFW schedule includes Italian
not this is a good investment: ing a work of contemporary well-known impressionist or economic difficulties, the fact day, made possible by Italy’s national Chamber of
I collect this art because I like art takes at least six months. modern artist, than spend remains that wealthy Russian Fashion, organiser of Milan Fashion Week. Also
it. I have the sense that in Rus- $100,000 on a work by a little- collectors will remain priority coming to Moscow will be designers from the Us,
sia today, several young art- Prepared by known contemporary artist.” targets to be courted by art spain, denmark and Malaysia. This big news is the
ists have appeared who work tatyana Filippova Kantor’s collection includes dealers and international auc- number of showings by russian designers, includ-
Modigliani’s Seated Girl in a tion houses.
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ing yulia dalakian and Tatiana parfyonova.
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