Hubert Le gall - Fauteuil « Placide le lapin câlin » - 2012 - Fausse fourrure, drap de laine et bois verni 155 x 80 x 90 cm - Édition à 99 exemplaires
Until June 2, 2012 – Mazel Galerie
Silence is golden, from design to painting – Duo Show
Vincent Guzman « Sanguine » - Acrylique et pigments sur toile - 2012 100 x 100 cm
December 15, 2011 to January 15, 2012 – Moscow Museum of Modern Art, 25 Petrovka str
OstenGruppe is an association founded by designers Eric Belousov, Igor Gurovich and Anna Naumova. It appeared in Moscow in 2002, during the period of the rapid growth of the Russian advertising industry. The group’s activities are based on principles of the alternative culture, i. e. pre-revolutionary protest, radical attitude to the visual language, principal stand, liking for avant-garde thinking, ideology of the cultural diktat. OstenGruppe is a group of artists with their own styles, skills and dispositions. Individuality of each member contributes to the whole image of the group.
During a rather short period of time, the OstenGruppe has become a cult group in the Russian design. Not differentiating between the «low» and «high» genres, the group focuses its attention on the genre of the street poster art, seemingly non-topical in the 21st century. Following traditions of the 20th century graphic art and using cutting-edge achievements in the field of visual culture, the designers breathe new life into the social and plastic achievements of the Russian avant-garde art. The «art of the day» principle becomes vividly apparent in collaboration of the OstenGruppe with the Cultural Centre DOM. The lab provided design for music events. The poster transforms from a street advertisement into a method of the alternative visual culture.
The up-to-date poster is a platform for socialization of the artistic gesture and at the same time for the plastic experiment. Balancing on the verge of the applied and visual arts, public and individual utterance, the poster is called upon to bridge the gap between the «high» and the «low» cultures. Moreover, the poster performs social functions. It touches upon the issue of communication and its opportunities. What are the limits of the public utterance and do they exist at all?
The exhibition by OstenGruppe in Moscow Museum of Modern Art is called upon to expose the subject of the Russian contemporary poster and print art in the context of development and continuation of the avant-garde art of the 1920s. It is devoted to problems of the tradition and continuity in the Russian visual culture and the importance of the Russian print art in the world context. It is the first exhibition of the lab in the museum space. The exposition contains well-known and new works by the designers. Along with posters, there are objects, small print forms, documentary materials, which narrate the history of the group and introduce the project members to the audience.
A catalogue, illustrated with the most typical artworks by the group, has been published for the exhibition. This edition reflects the specific character of the designers, their approach to the creation of products of mass visual communication.
Igor Gurovich. During his career, he has been working in the field of set design in Russia, Latvia and France. In 1995-2002, he worked as art director at IMA-Press Publishing. Since 2002, he has been a member the OstenGruppe.
Anna Naumova. She has been engaged in print design since 1994. Prior, she had worked as theater artist. She has graduated from the Moscow Polygraphist Institute. For four years, she was working at IMA-Press Publishing. Together with Igor Gurovich and Eric Belousov, she is a founder of the OstenGruppe design lab.
Eric Belousov. In 1983-1985, he worked as graphic designer during his military service. In 1992, he graduated from the Stroganov Art School. In 1997-2002, he worked at IMA-Press Publishing. Since 2002, he has been a member of the OstenGruppe. Since 2007, he has been an academician of the Russian Academy of Graphic Design.
Robert RAUSCHENBERG 29.7 x 37 x 38.3 cm. Shades, 1964 Lithograph on plexiglas on metal support and a lightbulb
From June 8 to October 30, 2011 – Moscow Museum of Modern Art
The Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents the exhibition «Masterpieces of the 20th Century from the Collection of the Valencia Institute of Modern Art (IVAM)».
It is remarkable that the IVAM and the MMoMA collections are similar to each other in many respects. Each collection counts over 10,000 exhibits and tends to present a panoramic view of modern art in all its diversity, with special emphasis on the national heritage. So it comes as no surprise that the Moscow Museum of Modern Art hosts this important exhibition.
The IVAM collection presents an overview of the avant-garde art of the first decades of the 20th century and all art tendencies of the postwar period. The art of Julio González, a pioneering Spanish artist and sculptor of the first half of the past century, occupies a special place in the IVAM holdings. The IVAM holds the richest collection of his artworks. The exhibition at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art opens with Julio González’s oeuvre together with the works by Torres Garcia, a Uruguayan artist of the early 20th century. Also on view at the Museum, will be kinetic sculptures by Alexander Calder, installations by Kurt Schwitters and Man Ray, abstract works by František Kupka and works by classic Surrealist and Dadaist masters Joan Miro, Marcel Duchamp, André Masson, Jean Arp.
The exhibition will show experimental tendencies of the postwar period, which reflected a newly formed worldview. These are works by European masters, i. e. Antoni Tàpies, Antonio Saura, Karel Appel, Ad Reinhardt, Pierre Soulages, and works by celebrated American artists, i. e. Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Serra. Works by American Pop-art artists, such as Richard Hamilton, James Rosenquist and European representatives of this tendency, such as Eduardo Arroyo, Equipo Crónica group and others will also be exhibited.
Starting from the 1980s, artists have been actively using new media, new techniques and electronic devices. The IVAM responded to the new art trends early on and acquired for its collection works by Andreu Alfaro, Miquel Navarro, John Davies, Bruce Nauman, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Christian Boltanski, Eduardo Chillida and Juan Usle. Some of these artworks will be displayed at the exhibition «Masterpieces of the 20th century». Postwar Modern Art will be represented at the exhibition by the works by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso.
Since the IVAM holds the most extensive and valuable collection of photography in Spain, a section of the exhibition is devoted to photography of the past century. Among other photo masterpieces of the 20th century, the show will feature a work by Alexander Rodchenko, one of the greatest Russian photographers.
10 December 2010 – 9 January 2011 – Erarta Museum and Galleries of Contemporary Art
Gennady Zubkov anniversary exhibition presents more than 40 paintings date back to diverse periods of the artist’s creative life.
Gennady Zubkov is a well-known artist, a direct heir and successor of the traditions of the Russian Avant-Garde art. Since 1963 during 10 years Zubkov had been studying painting under Vladimir Sterligov guidance. He became one of the first Sterligov’s students. After the master’s death Zubkov managed to continue his path. He taught a generation of Sterligov successors. Nowadays many of them became prominent artists of various genres – from painting to video-art.
From the art-critic’s point of view Zubkov’s painting is a continuous experiment, an attempt to combine various conceptions of classical Modernism – Impressionism, Cubism, Cézannism, Suprematism. He considers a figurative idea to be an essence of a painting. That is why a lot of his canvases are dated twice – the first date present a year of an idea birth, the second – a creation of a painting. The gap between them may be even several decades.
Zubkov’s paintings are in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow), the State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg), the Zimmerli Art Museum (USA) and many other museum and private collections in Russia, the USA, and Germany.
Zubkov first of all strives in his painting to reveal internal links among things. On his canvases on the edge of two forms the third one appears – it fills the objects with new meanings. Color combinations result in new additional shades. The onlooker discovers the entire solid world where nothing is close or far, but everything is united. Zubkov prefers simple subjects – still lifes, countryside landscapes, casual scenes; though he fills them with profound symbolical significance.
Koen Delaere, z.t. 2010, 80 x 100 cm. acrylic and oil paint on canvas.
June 5th, 2010 to July 3rd, 2010 – Aschenbach & Hofland Galleries
PLATINUM METRE
ronald de bloeme
olaf holzapfel
koen delaere
michiel ceulers
bas van den hurk
tatjana doll
wendy white
alivia zivich & nate young
curated by koen delaere
I first asked Wendy White whose work I like because of the empty unpainted canvas space in it and the intuitive and human approach to the whole idea of painting. That immediately brings me to Michiel Ceulers who also recently described paint as a humane material to work with and I asked my friend Bas van den Hurk whose work looks really improvised and nonchalant but is totally imbedded in a programmatic research of the autonomy of painting. All of them working consciously with ‘flaws’ and ‘ faults’ . In that way the ‘faults’ and ‘drips’ in the works of Roland de Bloeme and Tatjana Doll are not that far away although each of these artists work within a totally different idiom. Ronald mixing pop and hard edge and Tatjana using idols from art history and objects like cars and fire extinguishers. With their works I have a long relationship through our mutual friend Joep van Liefland and his art space Autocenter in Berlin. Ronald suggested to invite Olaf Holzapfel and through my friend Peter Fengler who runs artspace De Player in Rotterdam I came in contact with the work of Alivia Zivich and Nate Young.
I see all these artists connected in a way which is both formal and engaged, both humane and autonomous, totally full of life and platinum.
Koen Delaere 2010 Gallery Hours