International Art News

Olga Tobreluts. Ups and downs. Oil on canvas. 2012

January 24 to February 24 2013 – Moscow Museum of Modern Art
The Moscow Museum of Modern Art in collaboration with Triumph Gallery present a large-scale retrospective exhibition of Olga Tobreluts, a Russian artist, who became well-known internationally, primarily as a pioneering media art artist and a creator of massive video installations. She is one of the first contemporary artists who picked modern computer technologies as a medium. The latter enabled Tobreluts to develop her own singular yet extremely recognizable style one can clearly tell even in her early works. Tobreluts’s artworks appear to be intricate manipulations, in which historical realities and myths of modern culture are melted together for the purpose of transforming them into a magical super reality.

Olga Tobreluts. Venus. Print. 2003. Courtesy of The Moscow House of Photography.

Olga Tobreluts gave up using computer technologies as her artistic medium in 2003. The year saw her return to painting. She managed to find out her own painting manner by employing ancient painting techniques. She keeps developing her manner while carrying out experiments with the chemical makeup of paints to expand her range of methods of light transmission.
The MMOMA retrospective exhibition will show Olga Tobreluts’ well-known series of works made available courtesy of several museum and private collections. Apart from the above, the artist’s experimental works will be put on display for the first time

Moscow Museum of Modern Art – MMOMA

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.

Museum Hours

From November 22, 2011 to January 8, 2012 – Moscow museum of modern art
Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents The State exhibition by Dmitry Tsvetkov. He is a representative of the generation of Moscow artists who started their careers in the 1990s, at the beginning of the Russian contemporary art scene. Among them Oleg Kulik, Anatoly Osmolovsky, Dmitry Gutov and others may be named. At present, they stand out in Russian art — surely, this concerns Dmitry Tsvetkov as well.

The exhibition demonstrates the development of the author’s concept regarding «new visual symbols of Russia». Among them there are uniforms, orders, weapons and coats of arms. The artist makes these attributes of power attractive and magnificent. Thus, Tsvetkov creates a grotesque, ironic, sarcastic and absurd image of the State. For example, the crown of the Russian Empire is made of silk and decorated with chrystals, a 3-meter-high military papakha is bead-embroidered, whereas hand grenades or daggers are knitted. The diversity of items forms an alternative symbol system of the invented state, where, like in a distorting mirror, the viewers can easily recognize many familiar things.

The author’s reflection about the state and its presentation are serially exhibited in 12 halls; each of them is devoted to the artist’s specific series or project. The exhibition in the MMoMA will show the artist’s famous artworks from the collections of Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Tretyakov Gallery, National Centre of Contemporary Art and other collections.

Museum Hours

September 13 — October 30, 2011  – Moscow Museum of Modern Art
Necrorealism emerged in the early 1980s in Leningrad, founded by Evgeny Yufit, artist and independent film director. Necrorealism overturned the established Soviet concept of death as the only possible heroic ‘death in the name of Motherland’. Necrorealism was born as a social protest, full of absurdity and black humor, and based on forensic medicine textbooks. The main aesthetic theme of Necrorealism is the condition of man standing on the verge of death and demonstrating some pathology. The artists tried to represent the unthinkable — death itself. The very title contained a paradox: necro, which means death, and realism pointing to life.

The very first works produced by the group were studio photographs in ‘zombie make-up’ and impromptu performances that imitated fights and chases shot against the background of woods, abandoned construction sites, suburban trains, etc. These shootings were a start of the parallel cinema in Russia. Yufit founded the first experimental film studio ‘Mzhalalafilm’ that united independent directors and artists.

In the early 1990s, Necrorealism reaches international acclaim, and the works by group members take part in the most prominent exhibitions of Perestroika era, such as ‘In the USSR and Beyond’ (1990; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam), ‘Binazionale: Soviet Art around 1990’ (1991; Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf; Central House of Artists, Moscow; Israel Museum, Jerusalem), ‘Kunst Europa’ (1991; Kunstverein, Hannover), and others.

The exhibition at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art is the first full-scale retrospective of Necrorealism that allows retracing the development of this original artistic movement. The display features both well-known and new works by the artists, as well as presents the ‘necro-method’ and complete iconography of the group.

Participants: Evgeny Yufit, Vladimir Kustov, Sergei Serp, Valery Morozov, Andrey Mertvy (Kurmayartsev), Leonid Trupyr (Konstantinov), Igor Bezrukov, Evgeny Debil (Kondratiev), Anatoly Svirepy (Mortyukov), Yuri Tsirkul (Krasev)

Museum Hours

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.

Museum Hours

May 13 — June 12, 2011 – Moscow Museum of Modern Art
Moscow Museum of Modern Art and the «G. O. S. T.» gallery present the project «Alexander Kuzkin. It’s White. It’s Black», the first retrospective show of the artist since 1985. The aim of the project is to show the artist’s wide range of interests. Kuzkin worked as a book designer, illustrator, industrial designer, painter, photographer, poster artist and graphic designer.

The first part of the exhibition contains prints. Alexander Kuzkin was a student of the Moscow University of Printing Arts, the Faculty of Printing Technology. The university was famed for its free creative atmosphere. Though the artist studied industrial design, he found time for mastering his drawing techniques.

The next part of the exhibition demonstrates the book design and two conceptual books-objects. Kuzkin was very imaginative, when he was occupied with book design. He invented an object, rather than just decorated a book. In a sense, he was one of the founders of the mail art in Russia. Kuzkin created a project of the edition «The Sorrows of Young Werther» by Goethe. It was a combination of the mail art and book design. Pieces of the edition, displayed at the exhibition, are letters to be mailed to readers during a certain period of time.

His second celebrated book-object is Anna Akhmatova’s «Requiem». It consists of the series of lithographs with verses in the Chinese style. Kuzkin created this edition for the International Book Art Exhibition in Germany in 1982. It was a period when the «Requiem» was still suppressed and was not published in full. The exhibition presents the layout of the book, restored by Andrei Kuzkin, the artist’s son, who is a well-known contemporary artist, the winner of the Innovation Prize 2009.

The exhibition also demonstrates the artist’s posters. Kuzkin was a talented poster artist. His language was new and individual.

The last artworks by Kizkin are remarkable for the abstract style and bold creative idea. In the early 1980s, such art was still provocative and distinguished the artists who were not afraid of experimenting and did not limit their creativity by self-censorship.

It is impossible to label what art movement Kuzkin’s original and many-sided art belongs to. His artworks have features of minimalism, concept art and abstract art. It makes his art close to the Western Modernist art of the 20 century. Thus, Kuzkin becomes an original representative of the Russian Nonconformist art.

Alexander Kuzkin died from heart disease in 1983. He was 33. He knew he would not live a long life. But it did not prevent him from following his own creative way, experimenting, trying different spheres and taking the risk. Alexander Kuzkin achieved so much in his short life. The fact can’t stop surprising.

Museum Hours