Moscow Museums on the Move: Some short updates

Museum of Moscow

While the world calculates its Venice schedule, Moscow has taken this week to make a few major announcements regarding its museums, including the iconic Museum of Moscow.

First, following the success of last week’s Night at the Museum program, Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky has declared that he would like to see this event – which keeps museums up late, mixing curators and cocktails in a bid for a younger, livelier audience –  four times a year instead of once, so that each season would have its own version. According to Artguide, Medinsky was quoted as saying, “It doesn’t cost us much,” which leads us to believe no one has shown him the PR budget. (Case in point? See the advertisement below, which is all kinds of Francis Alys meets Harvey, though it’s actually a monster borrowed from Philippe Parreno’s Invisibleboy (2010.) The creepy, slinky art-rabbits reappear all over the site as well, where they ride motorbikes, march with banners, and sit in deep contemplation.)

Also, not far on the heels of word that Pushkin Museum director Irina Antonova had been promoted to curator of exhibitions for Moscow Museums (and her immediate attempt to pry some of the Hermitage’s most prized possessions away from the rival museum, in the name of reviving the short-lived Museum of New Western Art), Alina Saprykina has been tapped as the new director of the Moscow Museum, a set of historical museums and institutions centered in the Museum of History of Moscow, one of the city’s oldest institutions, having been founded in 1986.

Zurab Tsereteli, Artplay director Alina Saprykina, and NCCA director Mikhail Mindlin

Saprykina built a reputation working on the launch of the Garage Center of Contemporary Culture and later as the director of Artplay, the sprawling industrial complex home to the 4th Moscow Biennale. This weekend Artplay will also host the first-ever “Art Space Event“; yes, the name needs a little work, but the program itself acts as a mini-fair, with galleries like Triumph, Iragui, Gridchinhall and Pop/off/art  (all Moscow) and Anna Nova, Dmitry Semenova and AL Gallery  (all Petersburg) contributing projects.  For more on the event and its participants, check the site, which is available in English and Russian.

We’ll keep you posted on other updates, but in the meantime, we’d like to thank Artguide, for keeping us informed!

Summer comes to New Holland: St Petersburg welcomes a season-long festival of art and culture

Swampy administers a tattoo to a visitor to New Holland. Photo by Egor Rogalev, courtesy of New Holland.

While Moscow may be prepping for an auction, yesterday, May 18, St Petersburg got something of its own to brag about. Actually, the city has more than a few things to brag about, with the impending announcement of the next Manifesta curator, and the recent contributions of João Ribas‘ research to fledgling APERTO Gallery. Yesterday, however, the city belonged to New Holland Island, the former naval shipyard which is now under the saavy eye of Dasha Zhukova’s Iris Foundation (the same organization responsible for Moscow’s Garage Center for Contemporary Culture.)

TAMIZDAT exhibition by Family Business gallery on New Holland. Photo by Egor Rogalev, courtesy of New Holland.

While New Holland awaits its full renovation – which is expected to be completed by 2015, and will bring museums and mixed-use facilities to the island – Iris Foundation has been running a summer program called, succinctly, “Summer on New Holland.” Last year’s edition brought Vito Schnabel and the Bruce High Quality Foundation; this year, exhibitions will include collaborations with Berlin’s Peres Projects and New York’s Family Business gallery (a wily little project conceived by Maurizio Cattelan and Massimiliano Gioni, whose work with Russian artist and curator Daria Irincheeva led to a rowdy show of young Russians last summer), as well as a series of public art commissions. In addition, the island will feature a pop-up of the Garage’s bookstore, providing a selection of art publications and international exhibition catalogues (a rare commodity within Russia.)

In general, the island will be the site of much of St Petersburg’s cultural activity this summer. The opening gave a taste of that, with a island-wide parade, themed for Mexican Carnival; free, real tattoos by American artist and train-hopper, Swampy; open air painting sessions; and a concert by Rostov-on-Don hipster band Motorama. Over 12,000 visitors flocked to the island on May 18, 2013, alone. We hope this bodes well for the rest of St Petersburg, one of our favorite cities, but also one notoriously isolated from outside culture.

We wish New Holland all the best with this program and look forward to attending some of these exhibitions and events!

For more information on the programs for “Summer on New Holland”, check here. For more about the plans for the islands, refer to this site.

Festival-goers enjoy New Holland’s lawn. Photo by Egor Rogalev, courtesy of New Holland.

Vladey!: In a Record-Breaking Week, Moscow gets an Auction of its Own

Robert Longo, Untitled (Leo), 2013

If we thought the Frieze Art Fair and “The Age of Koons” had us busy, this week held one record-breaking auction after another.

Mark Grotjahn, Untitled (Standard Lotus No. II, Bird of Paradise, Tiger Mouth Face 44.01), 2012

Things kicked off Monday at Christie’s New York, where Leonardo DiCaprio’s 11th Hour auction brought in $38.8 million in support of  DiCaprio’s foundation, which itself addresses issues relating to the environment (After all, as Leo points out, with all we’ve done to the earth, it really may be the 11th Hour…)  Together with Christie’s wunderkind Loic Gouzer, DiCaprio recruited a sterling batch of artists – among them, Sterling Ruby, Robert Longo, Sherrie Levine, Andreas Gursky,  Zeng Fanzhi, Ed Ruscha, Takashi Murakami, and the list just goes and goes… – to the cause, hand-picking a selection of work (some of it tiger-themed, no less) so impressive, it’s no wonder the auction ended up setting 13 records. One Mark Grotjahn painting – estimated at $1.5 -2.5 million – brought in a hammer price of $6.5 million, after a heated bidding war between Larry Gagosian and Vlad Doronin, the real estate magnate who was more recently known to the art world as Naomi Campbell’s collector boyfriend (though he also helped to kick off the Russian version of Interview Magazine.) In his write-up for Gallerist, Dan Duray quotes Leo as quite pleased with the results: “That Vlad and Larry thing was crazy, dude!” [For more about the concept and the build-up of the auction, may we humbly recommend Maria Baibakova's column (in Russian) on Buro 247?]

The following night, Sotheby’s raised eyebrows of its own with the news that a Barnett Newman had gone for a record $43.8 million, while a 1968 Richter brought in $37 million (alas, not to the artist himself, who is currently beset by tax woes.) Even more eye-raising, maybe, was the fact that a Jeff Koons went unsold, perhaps as a karmic mosquito bite in answer to last week’s cover claim.

Andy Warhol, Four Marilyns, 1962

Wednesday night, Christie’s continued the streak, bringing in the highest auction total ever with the $495 million spent at their Post War and Contemporary Evening Sale. A 1948 Jackson Pollock fetched $58.3 million alone, followed by Roy Lichtenstein‘s 1963 Woman with a Flowered Hat ($56.1 million), Jean-Michel Basquiat‘s 1982 Dustheads ($48.8 million) and a 1958 Mark Rothko (holding strong at $27 million.) Another Koons failed to sell (another karmic mosquito bite? We’re sure with the dueling shows at Zwirner and Gagosian, the artist has little to fear about his market.) And while Phillips‘ Thursday evening sale of Contemporary Art may have been the underperformer-of-the-week, they still managed to score $38.5 million for a 1962 Warhol, Four Marilyns (though hearsay points to Gagosian as the main engine driving up that price.) As Christie’s Julki Pylkkänen proclaimed: “We are in a new era of the art market.”

Tair Salakhov, Meeting in Monaco, 2007

Amid all the excitement, Moscow is trying to drum up a little buzz of its own. Regina Gallery founder and director Vladimir Ovcharenko will oversee a new attempt at founding a contemporary art auction house in Moscow, VLADEY. (Yes, that looks a little narcissistic at first, but the Russian stem vlad- connotes ownership.) VLADEY will showcase only Russian contemporary work.

Olya Kroitor, Untitled, 2011

The first auction is scheduled for May 23, 2013, at Red October (the former home not only of Baibakov Art Projects but of a recently-closed nonprofit of Ovcharenko’s.) The top lot is a work by Tair Salakhov (who recently represented Azerbaijan at the 53rd Venice Biennale, and is also the father of Moscow staple Aidan Salakhova.) The 2007 painting, Meeting in Monaco, is estimated at €350,000 – €400,000, while the next largest estimate (for a 2001 painting by the recently deceased wonder, Oleg Vassiliev) comes in at €70,000. The rest of the prices are markedly more modest, going down to €800 for collages by up-and-comer Olya Kroiter. Other artists include AES+F,  Semyon Faibisovich and Pavel Pepperstein.

For more information about VLADEY and the May 23 sale,  check here.

Auction Week Appetizers: Frieze New York and the Age of Koons

This week, contemporary art took hold of New York – and we’re not just referring to Jeff Koons‘ extra creepy cover of New York magazine, heralding “The Age of Koons.” “The most successful artist” did cause plenty of commotion, though, launching simultaneous shows at David Zwirner AND Larry Gagosian. Earlier there had  been a rumor one gallery would show new work, and one a collection of classics. As it happened, both showed new work, inspired by the classics. But that’s Classics with a big “C” – whether you take your Venus Callipygian, or of Willendorf. Then again, Koons wasn’t the only one copying famous sculptures that week. Outside the Frieze New York tent, Paul McCarthy erected an 80 foot tall, red balloon dog: Koons meets Clifford.

Paul McCarthy, Balloon Dog, 2013

In its sophomore year, Frieze Art Fair’s New York edition was commendably strapping,  bringing in a solid show from the trendier edges of the blue chip realm (not as stodgy as Basel, not as dicey as NADA.) There were more stable shows than expected – recently, galleries seem to be fighting fair fatigue with solo presentation or thematic exhibitions, rather than just one work from each of the represented artists – but the fair still managed to feel fresh. At Marian Goodman, one entered a white room to find an eleven-year-old girl, an Ann Lee (the anime character famously “rescued” by Pierre Huyghe and Philippe Parreno) brought to life by Turner contender Tino Sehgal. She was unnervingly poised, asking annoying questions ala most eleven-year-old girls, except her questions were “Would you rather be too busy or not busy enough?” and “What is the relation between a sign and melancholia?” As part of the Frieze Projects, artist Liz Glynn set up a speakeasy, slipping keys to 144 fairgoers, purportedly at random. Recipients were instructed to find the secret door tucked between fair booths, where their keys opened safety deposit boxes. The contents of those boxes determined the cocktail that visitor would receive, and the story the bartender would tell as he mixed it. The stories were half-improvised, but the drinks were double-strength. There were no complaints.

Michele Abeles, You People, 2013, Image courtesy of 47 Canal

Frieze wasn’t the only fair in town, obviously. NADA was sporty fun, in its new location at Basketball City, one of the piers on the Lower East Side, in easy walking distance to Michele Abeles‘ “English for Secretaries” at 47 Canal, or Tracey Emin‘s ache-filled drawings at Lehmann Maupin‘s Chrystie Street outlet.

It also meant you were in close proximity to cutlog, the French fair/band of outcasts colonizing the Clemente on Suffolk. This year’s focus was on Russian artists and curators, including cyber-pioneer Anna Frants and Victoria Golembiovskaya, who installed a salon of drawings as part of her House of the Nobleman project. The grand prize for best artist was awarded to Siberian upstart, Radya, who constructed a version of Stability Figure #1  out in the courtyard of the Clemente. The sculpture erects a pyramid from police shields. Why it wasn’t called Stability Figure #2, we don’t know, but we do know it took home a $2000 prize, so our congratulations!

Radya, Stability Figure #1, New York, 2013

Restitution in the News: The Met’s return of two Cambodian Sculptures may aid Antonova

Paul Gauguin, Eu Haere ia oe (Woman with a Fruit), 1893. Part of the Morozov Collection, now at the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia.

Last week, we reported how newly-appointed Chief Curator of Russian Museums Irina Antonova did not waste time, promptly petitioning Putin (on national TV, no less) to consider re-establishing the Museum of Modern Western Art. Originally founded in 1919, and 1923, the institution housed the magnificent combined collections of  Ivan Morozov and Sergei Shchukin, who bought up Impressionists at a time when Matisse was still considered an aberration. Antonova’s petition would give Moscow a kind of Musee D’Orsay, to supplement the Tretyakov Galleries and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts  (where Antonova is still acting director.)

It would be a fantastic plan – if only half of the works weren’t already pivotal to the contemporary collection at the Hermitage, where part of the work was relocated after the war, and if only Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky weren’t hellbent on keeping these works – including Matisse’s Dance – there. Still, hard to battle promises made on live TV, and so it is that Putin announced he would take Antonova’s suggestion into consideration, appointing a team to research her proposal. Their verdict is to be delivered June 15, 2013.

One of the Kneeling Attendants. Photo @ Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

It can’t hurt Antonova’s case that the international art world is busy lauding other high profile restitution claims. The Metropolitan Museum made the front page of the New York Times with its May 3 announcement that it would be returning a pair of sculptures to the Kingdom of Cambodia. According to the release, the works in question are two 10th-century stone statues of “Kneeling Attendants,” originating at the seven-tiered Koh Ker Temple, and eventually given to the museum from the late 1980s and early 1990s. For the twenty years following this gift, the two lifesize sculptures have knelt before the entrance to its Asian Wing. According to the New York Times writers, “The Met’s decision reflects the growing sensitivity by American museums to claims by foreign countries for the return of their cultural artifacts.”

So far the Met has received a surge of public approval for taking the initiative in this case. However, it will be interesting to see if and how the precedents set here affect other holdings.

Read the New York Times article here and the Met’s press statement here.

Venice already?! e-flux and ArtReview help us prepare

Over the past few weeks, e-flux has been filling our inboxes with announcements of this or that pavilion, this or that parallel program, all slated to open on or around May 29, when the 54th Venice Biennale finally opens (at least to those who snagged an invite.)

Poster for the Central Asia Pavilion, 54th Venice Biennale, 2013

Don’t get us wrong, we’re stoked! We can’t wait to see the Georgian pavilion Kamikaze Loggia, with work by Thea Djordjadze, Bouillon Group, and Gela Patashuri with Ei Arakawa and Sergei Tcherepnin; curator Dina Nasser-Khadivi‘s parallel project, “Love Me, Love Me Not: Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan and its Neighbors”, which includes among its “neighbors” Kutluğ Ataman, Taus Makhacheva, and Slavs and Tatars; or selections from the Pinchuk Future Generation Art Prize, whose top award went to Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, who was recently named a nominee for this year’s Turner Prize. We’re especially to intrigued to see how WINTER descends on the Central Asia Pavilion, for which curators Tiago Bom and Ayatgali Tuleubek  and “Artistic Adviser” (and our long time art-crush) Suzanne Winterling have brought together eight artists from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The theme borrows from Kazakh poet Abay Qunanbayuli - “Don’t let winter feast in our steppes” – but we’re more intrigued to see how the art holds up in the sweltering, salty Adriatic summer.

Of course, it’s about as easy to get lost and confused in our inboxes as it is to get lost and confused in actual Venice (though there’s less chance we’ll just scrap our plans and get gelato.) ArtReview steps in to help with The Venice Questionnaire; each day leading up to Venice, they will publish an interview with a different artist. For their first interview, they take on Jesper Just, who will be representing Denmark with a new five-channel video installation, Intercourses. Read about it here.

Jesper Just, Intercourses, 2013, 5 channel video installation at the Danish Pavilion for the 55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, 2013. Courtesy Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Galerie Perrotin, James Cohan Gallery, and the artist

Feeling Philanthropic (Sort of): Major Changes on the way for Russian Art Museums?

Henri Matisse, The Dance, 1910, Collection of the Hermitage

On April 11, Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky named Irina Antonova – director of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts since 1961 – as Chief Curator of Russian Museums.

Irina Antonova at the April 23, 2013, hearing on philanthropy. Photo @Artguide.ru.

While at 91 years old (far and away the world’s oldest director to be working on the scale of the Pushkin Museum), Antonova is full of folksy quotables  - “So, we practice optimism. So what?! That’s our job!” and “I don’t know what the Chief Curator is supposed to do. Right now I’m just sitting and waiting until I get to talk about my work!” – but let’s not forget her roots. According to Artforum: “In 1945, the young art historian played a vital role in having artworks from Germany transferred to the Pushkin Museum as spoils of war. She was also one of the strongest voices to speak against the return of German artwork after the fall of the Soviet Union and in 1996 was found to be hoarding Priam’s Treasure, a collection of gold and other prized artifacts found by German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in 1873.”

Our fair lady did not waste time raising the matter of restitution, though on a domestic scale. On April 25, she made an official plea to Putin himself to order the return of the famed Ivan Morozov and Sergei Shchukin collections, which include such treasures as Henri Matisse’s The Dance (1910.) In the 1930s, the collections were split between the Pushkin Museum and its unofficial-rival, the Hermitage, in St Petersburg, but Antonova has spent the past decade (and then some!) campaigning for the return of the entire collection to Moscow. Now she has given shape to the idea with the proposal to found a new version of the Museum of Modern Western Art, which would house the complete collection. This of course, runs counter to the wishes of Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky, but, as Antonova reminds us: “The restoration of this museum is not the problem  of Antonova and Piotrovsky,  it’s not the problem of the Hermitage or the Pushkin Museum. It’s a matter of state.” Either way, we greatly appreciated that Artguide tallied some of the greatest moments of the battle to house this very famous collection (Alas, in Russian.)

Duma Representative Maria Maksakova-Eigenberg

On the subject of philanthropy… Throughout all this talk of oligarchs and their art centers, it’s rarely mentioned that there are no tax breaks for charitable spending in Russia.  This month a bill was brought forward in the State Duma to amend this. A similar bill was proposed in 1997, only to languish 13 years until its mercy killing in 2011. This time, however, the bill seems to have more support (notably blonde-bombshell-soprano-cum-legislator Maria Maksakova-Eigenberg, who was part of the four person team sponsoring the new bill.)

On April 23, the Ministry of Culture’s Expert Council met with Maksakova-Eigenberg and others to discuss the bill. Artguide provided a fantastic run-down of the conversation (as well as a photo of the bouquet MAMM Director Olga Sviblova brought the soprano.)

Lily of the Valley, or none, Maksakova-Eigenberg was not shy about expressing her views on “contemporary art” and the enormous potential for tax fraud it enables:

In America, there is a system: if you  give a work of art to a museum, you can deduct the value of that work of art from your taxes. This seems like a fabulous idea, but it leads to total tax fraud: museums take in all sorts of so-called “contemporary art” [here she had air quotes, as Artguide gleefully notes.] You know, like expert opinion says this smiley face costs 10 million dollars, and so on. A philanthropist donated it to the museum and doesn’t have to pay taxes on the money. It’s just fraud, plain and simple.

Sviblova had other worries on her mind, namely that any private charitable contributions to the museum are then deducted from the museum’s federal budget:

My beloved city tells me: live on your own means, you received 10 rubles from philanthropists and now you’re still worried that you don’t have a budget. They then tax those ten rubles, only to still deduct them from state funding for the next year – because, look, you’ve found a partner! Someone gives a crazy sum of money, as a one time thing, and then the next year – bang! – the budget is gone, because so is the “partner.”

It is high time that these issues were addressed and we are pleased to see them getting the attention they deserve. Read the full report (in Russian), here on Artguide.