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THIS OBSCURE OBJECT OF ART
Stella Art Foundation presents Major Collection of Contemporary Russian Art at the Kunsthistorische Museum in Vienna
October 28 till November 16, 2008
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Bassano Hall
‘This Obscure Object of Art’, an exhibition of 40 works including paintings, assemblages and sculptures by 17 contemporary Russian artists, opens at the Kunsthistorische Museum in Vienna on 28 October 2008. Curated by Vladimir Levashov, the show includes artists from the Sots Art Movement such as Vitaly Komar, Alexander Melamid, Konstantin Zvezdochetov, Alexander Kosolapov and Boris Orlov, as well as works from the Moscow Conceptualists, from the same period, such as Andrey Monastyrsky, Yuri Albert, and Vadim Zakharov.
Vladimir Levashov, curator of ‘This Obscure Object of Art’ comments: ‘I believe the time has come to highlight and to refocus on these art forms that have developed in Russia over the last 30 years. Contemporary Russian art was born out of the ‘cultural underground’ and developed, up to the time of the perestroika, in opposition to the official art. In the 1970s, it was this underground environment that brought forth the most important innovative movements such as Moscow Conceptualism and Sots Art.’
The similarities and juxtapositions between these two movements of Russian art of the late 20th and early 21st century form the heart of ‘This Obscure Object of Art’. Often referred to as ‘Soviet Pop Art,’ Sots Art (short for Socialist Art) originated in the Soviet Union in the early 1970s as a reaction against the official aesthetic doctrine of the state—Socialist Realism. The Moscow Conceptualist, or Russian Conceptualist, movement began with the Sots art in the early 1970s, and continued as a trend in Russian art into the 1980s. It attempted to subvert socialist ideology using conceptual art strategies.
Stella Kesaeva, President of Stella Art Foundation, comments: ‘It is the first time that a private collection will be showing contemporary Russian art of this scale at a venue outside of Russia and we are proud to be able to present it at the Viennese Kunsthistorische Museum, one of the world’s leading art institutions. The show fully reflects the Foundation’s policy which is aimed at supporting Russian contemporary art and bridging through cultural diplomacy the East-West divide. It’s a rare chance to see this unexplored strand of contemporary Russian art which will be inspiring to European and Russian audiences alike.’
Dr. Wilfried Seipel, Director General of the Kunsthistorische Museum, says: ‘The collection of the Stella Art Foundation highlights an important episode in Russian history, and both its content as well as its quality will have exciting ressonances in the Kunsthistorische Museum. We are honored to open our spaces to this extraordinary show’.
The title of the exhibition refers to Luis Buñuel’s last film ‘Cet obscur objet du désir’ (1977), in which the characters of the principal females are constantly contrasted. It is clear that the two fellow movements Sots Art and the Moscow Conceptualism both juggled for critical acclaim.
NOTES TO THE EDITORS:
STELLA ART FOUNDATION is a non-profit organization, founded in 2004 on the initiative of Stella Kesaeva, the Russian contemporary art collector. The prime objective of the Foundation is to support Russian contemporary art and to bridge the East-West cultural divide.
THE SAF COLLECTION
Stella Art Foundation currently has several hundreds of works of about 70 Western and Russian artists which the Foundation is planning to put on a permanent display in 2010 when opening its contemporary museum in one of Konstantin Melnikov’s garages in Moscow. The collection will illustrate the dialogue between West and East by clearly demonstrating the period before and after the iron curtain fell in 1989.
IMPORTANT PROJECTS
Between 2004 and 2007 Stella Art Foundation has curated several landmark contemporary exhibitions in Moscow and St. Petersburg including two major displays of Ilya and Emilia Kabakov in 2004, one in the State Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg, and the other at the premises of the Foundation Moscow, and an important retrospective of Vadim Zakharov in collaboration with the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow in 2006. From June 10th 2008 SAF has been showing works by Yuri Albert.
Other featured artists have included Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselman and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Alex Katz, David Salle, Robert Mapplethorpe, Marc Quinn, Andrey Monastyrsky, Anatoly Osmolovsky, Yuri Avvakumov, Eugeny Dybsky, Alexander Gnilitsky, Eugenia Emets, Stas Polnarev, Vadim Zakharov, and Arsen Savadov, and a group show featuring the artists Yuri Albert, Konstantin Batynkov, Eugeny Gorokhovsky, Dmitry Gutov, Vadim Zakharov, Konstantin Zvezdochetov, Alexander Konstantinov, Igor Makarevich, Andrey Monastyrsky, Anatoly Osmolovsky, Pavel Peppershtein, Viktor Pivovarov, Alexander Ponamarev, Dmitry Prigov, and Kirill Chelushkin.
As part of the international program, ’Ruin Russia’ featuring Stas Polnarev marked the Foundation’s participation in the official program of the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007. The exhibition consisted of a multi-level installation including photography and documental videos.
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