Contemporary art

ART MOSCOW 2007: The Beginning of Entropy

Yevgenia Kikodze

Article: 
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Magazine issue: 
#3 2007 (16)

This year has proved something of a confirmation for Art Moscow, the only international contemporary art fair in Russia: According to Vasily Bichkov, Director of the Expo-Park Company, this is the first time when the event was actually profitable (last year, the organizers hardly broke even, managing only to cover expenses, while earlier Art Moscow was expressly unprofitable). The officially announced profit was almost $10 million, with about half of the money coming from actual sales and the other half the price of reserved pieces.

ART MOSCOW 2007: The Beginning of Entropy

This year has proved something of a confirmation for Art Moscow, the only international contemporary art fair in Russia: According to Vasily Bichkov, Director of the Expo-Park Company, this is the first time when the event was actually profitable (last year, the organizers hardly broke even, managing only to cover expenses, while earlier Art Moscow was expressly unprofitable). The officially announced profit was almost $10 million, with about half of the money coming from actual sales and the other half the price of reserved pieces.

THE VENICE BIENNALE: Thinking and Feeling Should Be in Unity

Evgeniya Kikodze

Article: 
INTERNATIONAL PANORAMA
Magazine issue: 
#4 2007 (17)

This year’s project for Venice was prepared against the backdrop of the apparent failure of the 2005 Biennale. In fact, at first, the well-known American art critic and artist Robert Storr, this year’s curator, had been offered the curatorship of the previous exhibition. However, there was not enough time left for preparations, and Storr declined the offer, passing it on to Rosa Martinez. This year, Storr had more time which he used effectively to express his views most fully and comprehensively.

THE VENICE BIENNALE: Thinking and Feeling Should Be in Unity

This year’s project for Venice was prepared against the backdrop of the apparent failure of the 2005 Biennale. In fact, at first, the well-known American art critic and artist Robert Storr, this year’s curator, had been offered the curatorship of the previous exhibition. However, there was not enough time left for preparations, and Storr declined the offer, passing it on to Rosa Martinez. This year, Storr had more time which he used effectively to express his views most fully and comprehensively.

Contemporary SMS-art. The 2008 Biennial at the Whitney Museum, NY

Natella Voiskounski

Magazine issue: 
#2 2008 (19)

I happened to be in New York in March this year and naturally did not miss a chance to visit the 2008 Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art. This most important survey of the state of contemporary art in the USA today should by all means be of special interest for me - a representative of a country which has very little (or better to say no) experience in organizing such cultural events: 74 in the Whitney in New York against 2 in Moscow! Nevertheless the idea to make a comparison seemed real - each large-scale survey mirrors the most vivid tendencies common for the state of contemporary art in general. My expectations came true. As it was put by Donna de Salvo, the Whitney Chief Curator and Associate Director for Programmes: “The Biennial is a laboratory, a way of ‘taking the temperature’, of what is happening now and putting it on view... In dealing with the art of the present, there are no easy assessments, only multiple points of entry. For the Whitney, and for our public, we hope the Biennial is one way in."

Contemporary SMS-art. The 2008 Biennial at the Whitney Museum, NY

A biennial is an exercise in imposing temporary order onto a situation that is, essentially, out of control.

Adam D. Weinberg

On the Crossroads of Traditions

Anna Ilina

Article: 
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Magazine issue: 
#2 2009 (23)

To celebrate its 10th anniversary, the Moscow Museum of Modem Art, together with the Surikov Arts Institute, and the Scientific Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts, opened a new exhibition, “From a Study to an Art Object”. The exhibition, which was supported by the Moscow Government, the Moscow Department of Culture, the Russian Academy of Arts and ENEL company was experimental — but it will surely not be the last of its kind.

On the Crossroads of Traditions

To celebrate its 10th anniversary, the Moscow Museum of Modem Art, together with the Surikov Arts Institute, and the Scientific Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts, opened a new exhibition, “From a Study to an Art Object”. The exhibition, which was supported by the Moscow Government, the Moscow Department of Culture, the Russian Academy of Arts and ENEL company was experimental — but it will surely not be the last of its kind.

CAN THE FUTURE BE DEFEATED?

Jurgen Weichardt

Article: 
INTERNATIONAL PANORAMA
Magazine issue: 
#2 2009 (23)

When the doors of the Giardini were opened for journalists on the first day of the 53rd Biennale of Venice, where traditionally the national pavilions present their artists, nearly all writers and photographers hurried, passing the pavilions of Switzerland, Venezuela, Russia, Japan and Germany to the British Pavilion, to take a place in a quickly growing queue... It was like in bad times, when there was something free on offer - this time tickets for a 30-minutes film by Steve McQueen. The number of visitors was limited, therefore one had to wait for days, if not following the queue

CAN THE FUTURE BE DEFEATED?

A Space of Experiment

Article: 
COLLECTORS AND COLLECTIONS
Magazine issue: 
#2 2009 (23)

“A Certain State of the World?” - a selection of works from the Frangois Pinault Foundation collection - was the second project put together by the Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture. Moscow’s new exhibition venue owes its name to the fact that initially the building housed a garage, for buses, built in 1926-27 to the design of the famed Constructivist architect Konstantin Melnikov.

A Space of Experiment

“A Certain State of the World?” - a selection of works from the Frangois Pinault Foundation collection - was the second project put together by the Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture. Moscow’s new exhibition venue owes its name to the fact that initially the building housed a garage, for buses, built in 1926-27 to the design of the famed Constructivist architect Konstantin Melnikov.

THE SCULPTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY OF ANTONY GORMLEY

Anna Diakonitsyna

Article: 
“GRANY” FOUNDATION PRESENTS
Magazine issue: 
#3 2009 (24)

The work of Antony Gormley, a classic of contemporary British art, has long enjoyed worldwide recognition - today he is one of the most sought-after modern artists in the world. Every year, different countries host from five to ten new exhibitions of his sculptures, including large-scale open-air projects. Several of his works are permanently exhibited in the UK: among them the piece that brought fame to Gormley - “Angel of the North” (1998) with wings measuring 54 meters, in Gateshead in the North East of England, as well as “Quantum Cloud”, mounted in Greenwich by the Thames, and “Another Place”, sited in 2005 on Crosby Beach in Merseyside.

THE SCULPTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY OF ANTONY GORMLEY

LOUISE BOURGEOIS: THE ONE WHO IS NOT AFRAID

Article: 
“GRANY” FOUNDATION PRESENTS
Magazine issue: 
#3 2016 (52)

The “Tretyakov Gallery Magazine” and Garage Museum of Contemporary Art have been collaborators since the latter’s opening, with articles on the shows of Antony Gormley and Mark Rothko, and the exhibition of works from Frangois Pinault’s collection appearing in these pages. Co-editor Natella Voiskounski met with Garage Chief Curator Kate Fowle recently to discuss Garage’s Louise Bourgeois exhibition - one of the major events of the past exhibition season, which introduced Moscow viewers to the artist’s works from the last two decades of her life. Bourgeois was among the very few artists who represented both modern and contemporary art - she belonged to the 20th and 21st centuries equally, both chronologically and artistically.

LOUISE BOURGEOIS: THE ONE WHO IS NOT AFRAID

THE SCULPTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY OF ANTONY GORMLEY

Anna Diakonitsyna

Article: 
“GRANY” FOUNDATION PRESENTS
Magazine issue: 
#2 2016 (51)

The work of Antony Gormley, a classic of contemporary British art, has long enjoyed worldwide recognition - today he is one of the most sought-after modern artists in the world. Every year, different countries host from five to ten new exhibitions of his sculptures, including large-scale open-air projects. Several of his works are permanently exhibited in the UK: among them the piece that brought fame to Gormley - “Angel of the North” (1998) with wings measuring 54 meters, in Gateshead in the North East of England, as well as “Quantum Cloud”, mounted in Greenwich by the Thames, and “Another Place”, sited in 2005 on Crosby Beach in Merseyside.

THE SCULPTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY OF ANTONY GORMLEY

Contemporary SMS-art. The 2008 Biennial at the Whitney Museum, NY

Natella Voiskounski

Article: 
INTERNATIONAL PANORAMA
Magazine issue: 
Special issue N2. USA–RUSSIA: ON THE CROSSROADS OF CULTURES

I happened to be in New York in March this year and naturally did not miss a chance to visit the 2008 Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art. This most important survey of the state of contemporary art in the USA today should by all means be of special interest for me - a representative of a country which has very little (or better to say no) experience in organizing such cultural events: 74 in the Whitney in New York against 2 in Moscow! Nevertheless the idea to make a comparison seemed real - each large-scale survey mirrors the most vivid tendencies common for the state of contemporary art in general. My expectations came true. As it was put by Donna de Salvo, the Whitney Chief Curator and Associate Director for Programmes: “The Biennial is a laboratory, a way of ‘taking the temperature’, of what is happening now and putting it on view... In dealing with the art of the present, there are no easy assessments, only multiple points of entry. For the Whitney, and for our public, we hope the Biennial is one way in."

Contemporary SMS-art. The 2008 Biennial at the Whitney Museum, NY

A biennial is an exercise in imposing temporary order onto a situation that is, essentially, out of control.

Adam D. Weinberg

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