Free visit days at the museum
Every Wednesday, admission to the permanent exhibition "The Art of the 20th Century" and temporary exhibitions in (Krymsky Val, 10) is free for visitors without a guided tour (except for the exhibition "Ilya Repin" and the project "Avant-garde in three dimensions: Goncharova and Malevich").
The right to free access to expositions in the main building in Lavrushinsky Lane, the Engineering Building, the New Tretyakov Gallery, the house-museum of V.M. Vasnetsov, museum-apartment of A.M. Vasnetsov is provided on the following days for certain categories of citizens:
First and second Sunday of every month:
for students of higher educational institutions of the Russian Federation, regardless of the form of education (including foreign citizens-students of Russian universities, graduate students, adjuncts, residents, assistant trainees) upon presentation of a student card (does not apply to persons presenting student trainee cards) );
for students of secondary and secondary specialized educational institutions (from 18 years old) (citizens of Russia and the CIS countries). On the first and second Sundays of each month, students holding ISIC cards have the right to visit the exhibition “Art of the 20th Century” at the New Tretyakov Gallery free of charge.
every Saturday - for members of large families (citizens of Russia and CIS countries).
Please note that conditions for free access to temporary exhibitions may vary. Check the exhibition pages for details.
Attention! At the ticket office of the Gallery, entrance tickets are provided with a face value of "free of charge" (upon presentation of the relevant documents - for the above-mentioned visitors). At the same time, all services of the Gallery, including excursion services, are paid in accordance with the established procedure.
Visiting the museum on public holidays
Dear visitors!
Please pay attention to the opening hours of the Tretyakov Gallery on holidays. The visit is paid.
Please note that entry with electronic tickets is carried out on a first-come, first-served basis. You can familiarize yourself with the rules for the return of electronic tickets at.
Congratulations on the upcoming holiday and we are waiting in the halls of the Tretyakov Gallery!
Right of preferential visit The Gallery, except as provided for by a separate order of the Gallery's management, is provided upon presentation of documents confirming the right to preferential visits:
- pensioners (citizens of Russia and CIS countries),
- full cavaliers of the Order of Glory,
- students of secondary and secondary special educational institutions (from 18 years old),
- students of higher educational institutions of Russia, as well as foreign students studying in Russian universities (except for student trainees),
- members of large families (citizens of Russia and CIS countries).
Right of free admission The main and temporary expositions of the Gallery, except for cases provided for by a separate order of the Gallery's management, are provided for the following categories of citizens upon presentation of documents confirming the right to free admission:
- persons under the age of 18;
- students of faculties specializing in the field of fine arts of secondary specialized and higher educational institutions of Russia, regardless of the form of education (as well as foreign students studying in Russian universities). The clause does not apply to persons presenting student cards of "trainee students" (in the absence of information about the faculty in the student card, a certificate from the educational institution with the obligatory indication of the faculty is presented);
- veterans and invalids of the Great Patriotic War, combatants, former underage prisoners of concentration camps, ghettos and other places of detention created by the Nazis and their allies during the Second World War, illegally repressed and rehabilitated citizens (citizens of Russia and the CIS countries);
- military servicemen of the Russian Federation;
- Heroes of the Soviet Union, Heroes of the Russian Federation, Full Cavaliers of the "Order of Glory" (citizens of Russia and CIS countries);
- disabled people of groups I and II, participants in the liquidation of the consequences of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (citizens of Russia and the CIS countries);
- one accompanying disabled person of group I (citizens of Russia and CIS countries);
- one accompanying disabled child (citizens of Russia and CIS countries);
- artists, architects, designers - members of the relevant creative Unions of Russia and its subjects, art historians - members of the Association of Art Critics of Russia and its subjects, members and employees of the Russian Academy of Arts;
- members of the International Council of Museums (ICOM);
- employees of museums of the system of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and relevant Departments of Culture, employees of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and ministries of culture of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation;
- museum volunteers - entrance to the exposition "Art of the XX century" (Krymsky Val, 10) and to the Museum-apartment of A.M. Vasnetsov (citizens of Russia);
- guide-interpreters who have an accreditation card of the Association of Guide-Translators and Tour Managers of Russia, including those accompanying a group of foreign tourists;
- one teacher of an educational institution and one accompanying a group of students of secondary and secondary specialized educational institutions (if there is an excursion voucher, subscription); one teacher of an educational institution that has state accreditation of educational activities when conducting an agreed training session and has a special badge (citizens of Russia and the CIS countries);
- one accompanying a group of students or a group of military servicemen (if there is an excursion voucher, subscription and during a training session) (citizens of Russia).
Visitors of the above categories of citizens receive an entrance ticket with a face value of "Free".
Please note that conditions for preferential admission to temporary exhibitions may vary. Check the exhibition pages for details.
Nonconformism or unofficial - a peculiar, in many ways paradoxical reflection in the visual arts of the spiritual, psychological and social situation in the Soviet Union in the 1960s - 1980s of the XX century.
Unlike the official, the unofficial preferred not the content, but the art form, in the creation of which the artists were completely free and independent. The separation of form from content led, according to the official doctrine, to the loss of content, so unofficial art - nonconformism— was defined as formalism and persecuted.
The art of non-conformism, despite the fact that the artists attributed to this trend most often were not conscious adherents of the main philosophical trend of the 20th century, can be called existentialist, since it asserted the absolute uniqueness of the individual. Idealistic aesthetics nonconformism was based on the idea of the soul (inner self) of the artist as a source of beauty. This representation contained a rebellious protest against the objectified world, overcoming the gap between subjectivity and objectivity, which led to the expression of the problem of being in disturbing and unusual forms. The existential rebellion of nonconformism was in tune with the world art of the 20th century and - with a delay of several decades - was included in the world art space.
The existentialist revolt was based on the threat of losing one's individuality, which was maximized by Soviet totalitarianism. The global anxiety of the 20th century about the fact that the world of objects created by man subjugates the one who created it and who, being inside this world, loses his subjectivity, in Soviet conditions was intensified by the dominance of collectivist ideology. This ideology, elevated to the rank of state policy, allowed the existence of exclusively conformists, unshakable in their desire to be not themselves, but part of the whole.
S. Kierkegaard understood existence (existence) as something extremely subjective. " Existence is constantly singular, the general (abstract) does not exist". Existentialism nonconformist artists(in most cases unconscious) was a manifestation of the courage of the creator to be himself, not to be afraid to face the universal problem of the lack of meaning in life. The search for meaning and the emergence of despair in the 20th century are connected with the morning of God in the previous 19th century. " Together with Him, the entire system of values and meanings within which man existed died. This turning point is felt as a loss and as a liberation and leads to the courage to take non-existence upon itself."(P.Tillich, 1952). Nonconformism as an artistic direction in the highest degree possessed a characteristic contemporary art creative courage to face the despair of reality and, expressing it in his works, to show the courage to be himself.
The fury with which Soviet ideology attacked nonconformism, testified to the feeling of a serious threat to the spirituality of society, coming from within, from part of it. Neurotic symptom of resistance to non-being through the reduction of being, i.e. denial of any aspects of reality, points to neurotic defense mechanisms in the ant itself and the existentialist desire for traditional guarantees, for the idealized naturalism of socialist realism. The existentialist art of the 20th century is characterized by the courage of despair, generated by the absence of the meaning of existence, and self-affirmation in spite of everything. In relation to the personality of the artist, the anxiety of fate and death was the main problem contemporary art and nonconformism as part of it.
Nonconformism is characterized by deepening into the soul (inner self) of the artist and unusual forms of expression of new psychological material. The “waking soul” of the artist comes into contact with any, the smallest phenomenon of contemporary reality, illuminates new facets of the object when it comes into contact with spiritual life. “Feeling thought”, gravitating towards the meaningfulness of impressions, with the help of associations, gives meaning to any image or hint of it in the picture.
The tension of spiritual forces is capable of sharpening and directing the thought and soul of the artist to the beyond, inaccessible to ordinary experience, but necessary for creativity. On various and unexpected occasions, he can show attention to his surroundings with the involvement of the Higher powers in his work.
In search of a new reality nonconformist art boldly overcame the barriers of the canons of the past.
In Russian classical art, then in socialist realism, narrative intonation dominated, the attention of artists was focused on feelings corresponding to direct names: love, anger, delight, despair. The presentation of the plot was often colored with ideological rhetoric. Forcibly interrupted in its existence early 20th century turned to more subtle and deeper shades of human feelings. The historical merit of nonconformism lies in the resurrection in Russian art of attention to all the infinite variety of aspects of the human psyche.
Nonconformism, as existentialist art, is based on the artist’s conversation with his soul, and a picture can arise not only from strong unambiguous feelings, but also from a combination of impressions, references, and the need to perpetuate the wordless beauty, as it were, crying out for help - the beauty that arises from the need of the artist to see and feel it. The hidden meaning of the picture is obtained by the effort of consciousness, directed at vague sensations and details of deep spiritual life.
The search for an elusive reality in the art of non-conformism is colored by an eschatological picture of the collapse of the traditional system of values that has developed over the almost half-century existence of totalitarianism. All this created a variety of styles and trends within nonconformism as a single artistic movement.
A variety of creative techniques gave rise to the axis also by the human factor. In order to engage in unofficial art during the years of the existence of nonconformism, more than ever and nowhere, a large-scale personality was needed. Strong and deep souls (weak ones were rejected by the very history of nonconformity) gave rise to strong and deep feelings. There was a historically unprecedented repetition of the phenomenon van gogh, and in relation not to one master, but to a whole group of artists, when the lack of professionalism in the usual sense did not interfere with the creation of something new in art. The artist worked under a direct threat to the physical existence of both his work and himself. To this was added the impossibility of flight (unlike Nazi Germany, from where emigration was possible), and the lack of contacts with the outside world, "The courage to be yourself" for nonconformist artists was courage not only creative, but also human. Perhaps that is why non-conformism turned out to be so interesting as a direction of art, because a picture created under the threat of death carries an internal tension communicated to the viewer.
Unique in the history of art, a community of strong individuals has brought to the world an equally unique variety of styles and artistic mannerisms that distinguish nonconformism
The overthrow of totalitarian oppression in Soviet society and art is comparable to the revolution that turned the life of the Russian empire and Russian art at the beginning of the century. Soviet totalitarianism oppressed art historically for a short time - a little more than half a century, but the intensity of oppression was such that this time must be considered, as they say in the war - a year in two or even three.
The art of non-conformism is filled with a sense of the shock of the world, reverberating in the universal expanses. It is complex-associative, the metaphors of freedom express in it the inner essence of the human creator. In this, nonconformists are similar to the avant-garde artists of the beginning of the last century, when “ the breath of time especially folded the angle of view of new artists"(A. Kamensky, 1987).
The reality of those distant years was all in transitions and fermentation, rather meant something than constituted, rather served as a sign than satisfied. It was a whirlpool of conventions between the unconditionality left and not yet achieved. Half a century later, the situation repeated itself. By the 1960s, Soviet totalitarianism had clearly outlived its usefulness and had become an unconditionality abandoned, while freedom and democracy took the place of a dream that was foreseen but not yet achieved.
From the anxieties of time nonconformists who worked underground in the literal (as Arefiev on the landing, others in the janitors' and stokers' rooms) and figuratively moved on to dreams and hopes. As visions before them, along with agitated-feverish, often filled with hatred scenes of real life, images of infinite space and happiness suddenly arose, replaced by reflections of the tragic confusion of the soul. Many of them proved in their work that a person, all the more, can reject the social level of existence and dwell in the boundless Being, eating autotrophically, drawing true content in himself, in the sensationalization of sensations, in the subtleties of inner life, in metaphysics and aesthetics. For others, art served as a sphere of manifestation of social activity. After M. Vlaminkom they satisfied the desire disobey, create a world alive and liberated". The only starting point for nonconformism was the personality of the artist, " knowing herself, and her measure, and her rights, and sins, and proximity to madness» ( P. Lillich, 1952). The artist, having plunged into the depths of his spirit, with the help of introspection, realized his possibilities in his work. There was a need to develop a new creative method, a set of formalistic techniques, such as stylization - strengthening the features of reality by means of the same reality, or deformation - a method of abstracting from reality, a means of manifesting the irrational and others.
With all the complexity and richness of the original techniques, nonconformism was a single artistic movement, modernist in nature, based on idealistic philosophical theories and aesthetic systems of the 20th century.
In the most general form, within this artistic direction, groups of creatively close artists can be distinguished, similar to each other in the vision of the world and their soul, in the methods of conveying this artistic vision to the viewer. At the same time, a certain sequence is revealed in the degree of emotional abstraction from reality, from the social level of the artist's existence.
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- The most connected with the surrounding deistespelnosgnyu, critically thinking in their work artists - conceptualists.
II- Reflecting reality, their impressions with new artistic means - neo-realists and neo-impressionists.
III- Those who see the reality of manifestations of higher forces are neo-symbolists.
IV- Burning with feelings, refracting reality in the light of their strong and
ambiguous emotions - expressionists.
V- Dreamers are surrealists.
VI- Transmitting their spiritual movements and moods by combining
colors and forms - abstractionists.
In the sphere of unofficial art of the Soviet Union, the laws of state regulation of the artistic process did not apply. The development of art was left to its own laws, in its purest form, in which, according to the just remark of a well-known specialist Yu.V. Novikova, art developed in the past among those who later became known as Wanderers, World of Art, Impressionists. With one significant difference - the process of creating nonconformism was weighed down by "the still unmelted glacier of the gravest social pressure."
Strong Personalities involved in unofficial art were individual and original in their artistic searches. The Wanderers or Impressionists were small communities, consisting of several artists close in style.
Nonconformism, as an artistic phenomenon of world art, strikes with a large number of members (many hundreds) and a variety of currents included in it. In the absence of information (“Iron Curtain”), the very spirit of the times, some insignificant scraps of information, rumors in literature, music brought to life art forms that coincided with contemporary forms of world art. Sometimes finds nonconformism ahead of the innovations of the West.
Nonconformism generally regarded by many as " a crazy mixture of Russophiles and Westerners, the salon and thoughtfulness of artists working in a wide variety of manners, united by being on the same side of the barricades» (A. Khlobystin, 2001). However, this military terminology should not obscure the main, deeper similarity of the existential basis that determined the commonality within diversity and united it into a single conglomerate—the mutual proximity of artists “in their aesthetics” (S. Kovalsky, 2001).
Plastic diversity, form-creative experiments gave rise to genre, stylistic varieties of creativity nonconformists: , traditional and intellectual primitive, surrealism (with a mixture of Christian and Orientalist motifs), genre, genre portrait, etc.
In this paper, only the main flows in nonconformism. All of them have been further developed in the modern postmodern twenty-first century.
Nonconformism is the denial of generally accepted rules and foundations that are entrenched in a particular group or community. But people who are adherents of this, one might say, lifestyle, not only simply do not agree with any provisions, they also offer their own vision of the situation. However, first things first.
One against all
In simpler terms, nonconformism is choosing one's own path, and not following the one put forward by society. Such people do not accept what the crowd dictates. And there are actually a lot of examples of such personalities - they can be cited from the sphere of science, art, politics, culture, and simply from public life. For example, the same Giordano Bruno, rejected by society, was a nonconformist. Why? Yes, because in his discoveries, like Galileo Galilei, he was ahead of his time. Society did not accept this, it rejected one or the other scientist.
Philosophy of nonconformism
Nonconformism is a position with a certain point of view. And, accordingly, he has his own philosophy. What is it? So, the first thing to note is that there are two kinds of nonconformism. The first is normal and the second is forced. So, simple non-conformism is rejection, as well as disagreement with certain values and norms that are dominant in society. And the second, coercive, is the pressure exerted on the individual by a particular social group. In other words, the community of people by its pressure forces a person to deviate from their expectations.
In general, it is normal to disagree and protest against something. After all, it was these qualities that made primitive man develop and progress. Times have changed, but the principle of nonconformism has not. At all times, adventurers, rebels and even outcasts were those behind whom the initiative of the revolution of all mankind stood.
Nonconformists are often referred to as oppositionists. This is because they do not follow generally accepted norms thoughtlessly - on the contrary, they fight against them. This is their uniqueness. A nonconformist is a person who does not reject certain norms, he simply expresses a different opinion in relation to them.
Two opposites
Conformity and nonconformism are two interrelated concepts. But completely opposite. So, conformism and non-conformism are often found in certain social groups. And mostly people who are supporters of one point of view or another can be found in a community of rather mundane psychological and social development. After all, in fact, the more the less non-conformism or conformism is inherent in it. What is characteristic of him in this case? This is free self-determination. That is, these are the people who independently decide what to do and what not to do. Not taking into account anyone's opinion, trusting only your own feeling. These are individuals for whom it is important that the result satisfy their expectations, and not refute or approve the laws established in society. We can say - the golden mean.
Outcasts or just special?
Nonconformism... In psychology, this also means a protest reaction to life. "So that not like everyone else" - this is how some supporters of this point of view often think. In fact, both conformists and nonconformists all think the same way. Why? Because some think like everyone else (the first), and the rest - inside out, on the contrary (the second).
What is behavioral negativism? Perhaps in the mind of a nonconformist. He becomes so on purpose, with the aim of being and being considered different from the rest. It often happens that such people become outcasts of society. What kind of team would like to have a person join them who denies everything that they adhere to? But there are those who behave in this way not on purpose. This is really their independent conclusions. They really think differently. They have very different values, and they sincerely do not share other, more common ones. It can be said that such people have their own world.
Creation
It should be noted that non-conformism in art is quite common. And most aesthetes find this style quite attractive. What is wrong with the fact that the creators (most often non-conformism in painting) bring something of their own to art? Thus, it turns out to dilute it, not to let it stagnate and become banal, uninteresting. This is really important. After all, on the other hand, nonconformism can be seen as an eternal search for something fresh, new. So it turns out to expand the scope and own vision for certain things. For example, the same art house, which, due to stereotypes that have spread in society at the speed of light, can be quite attractive and interesting. But the adherents of this style are also a kind of nonconformists.
Conformists and nonconformists - is coexistence possible?
It is safe to say that it is possible. Although you have to work hard for both one and the other. After all, both phenomena are associated with social contact. Even the person who does not agree with the opinion of the majority and does not receive approval and support from them can make friends with conformists. Often such individuals are useful to the team. Because it is nonconformists who are the generators of new, fresh ideas. The opposite is always important. First, for comparison. Secondly, to develop another solution to a particular issue, provision. One that would suit everyone. To put it simply, nonconformists help to look at things with different eyes and make you think.
And conformists, in turn, can teach such people to interact with others without infringing on their interests and, most importantly, mutual desire.
In the USSR, these artists were not allowed not only to work, but also to live normally. They were expelled from universities, not allowed into creative unions, even placed in mental hospitals. And this is only because they did not work as prescribed.
Maxim Kantor. "Red House"
"Painting of Glasnost-Zeit" ("Malerei der Glasnost-Zeit") is the name of the exhibition, which takes place in Emden, Lower Saxony, at the Kunsthalle Museum of Contemporary Art, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The nonconformist artists banned in the USSR, whose works are shown here, were opened to the West in the 80s by the creator of this museum, also the founder and former editor-in-chief of the famous German magazine Stern, Henri Nannen. But how did these works get to Germany? How did they manage to get them out of the USSR? And why did they find a "registration" in Emden?
Psychiatric patients
Hospital ward. Cold tiled floor. Poor beds along the walls. The unfortunate patients of this most likely psychiatric hospital lie and sit on them. Seven men bent over a newspaper with a crossword puzzle - the only food for thought here, it seems. These seven are not like other patients: too expressive faces, too intelligent eyes ... Are they really busy solving a crossword puzzle? Or is it a conspiratorial gathering of dissidents hidden in a "psychiatric hospital"? The author of the picture "Crossword" Maxim Kantor does not give a direct answer. We must do this.
Maxim Kantor. "Crossword" (1985)
Kantor's works are the core of the "Painting in Glasnost" exhibition. Many of its exhibits were first presented by the Kunsthalle back in the 80s. The first exposition dedicated to the work of young expressionists, realists and spiritualists of Moscow and Leningrad (as the Germans classified the Soviet non-conformists) was organized at that time.
The works of artists who found the courage not to create as prescribed from above, but made an uncompromising choice in favor of free creativity, made a splash. The West German media enthusiastically spoke about Maxim Kantor, Leonid Purygin, Lev Tabenkin, Alexei Sundukov. Today their names are known all over the world. And then the fact that in the Soviet Union there were such bold and at the same time extremely gifted masters was a real discovery for the West. After all, usually Soviet art was associated with boring and pretentious socialist realism.
"Cruise" through the studio of banned artists
According to the curator of the exhibition, art historian Lena Nievers, the paintings came to Emden thanks to Henri Nannen, a native of this city, a well-known journalist, founder and editor-in-chief of Stern magazine for many years. He often traveled to the Soviet Union, where he collected material for his reports. At one time, he even accompanied German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer during his first meeting with Khrushchev in Moscow.
Over the years, he formed a circle of friends in the Soviet capital. Through them, Nannen, who was a great lover of art and the owner of an excellent collection of paintings, came to the representatives of "unofficial" art in the USSR.
In the early 1980s, Henry Nannen made a kind of 14-day "cruise" through the semi-underground workshops of 50 informal artists in Moscow and Leningrad. And what he saw in these miserable cellars struck him on the spot. He bought everything he could, and even managed to take the paintings to Germany. True, for this he had to beat many thresholds and use all his Moscow connections. And in 1982, Nannen organized an exhibition that traveled to Munich, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Wiesbaden and, of course, Emden and was a huge success.
A few years later, the journalist, already together with his wife Eske Ebert-Nannen (Eske Ebert-Nannen) and the famous art critic Gerhard Fink (Gerhard Fink), again went to Moscow and Leningrad ateliers. In total, more than 100 works he acquired there in the 80s. In 1986, the philanthropist financed the creation of the Kunsthalle in Emden. In the construction of this museum, which became a gift from Nannen to his native city, the art lover invested almost all his savings. In 1996, Henry Nannen passed away, and his widow took over the Kunsthalle.
Knowing no fear
"This exhibition shocked me. During the Second World War, I fought on the Eastern Front, then I was in Soviet captivity. And now what? We, the defeated, have long enjoyed life and freedom. And they, the winners, lived for so many years like in a camp" .
"Amazing, downright heartbreaking canvases. In the conditions of the Soviet dictatorship, only people who did not know fear and deeply loved their homeland could create such things."
Such reviews of the exhibition "Painting in the Times of Glasnost" can be found in the Guest Book of the Emden Museum.
On the stump is a cat with eyes wide open in horror. She tries to escape from the hands of a little girl. She also dies of fear and tries not to look at the poor animal, but with all her might presses him to the tree. Nearby is a terribly thin woman. She has already raised the axe. "I want to live ..." - this is the name of the picture painted by Lenina Nikitina, who survived the Leningrad blockade - a representative of the older generation of the Soviet underground.
Alexey Sundukov. "Transition" (1988)
"Transition" by Alexei Sundukov. The wide subway passageway barely accommodates the tightly packed crowd. Everyone is dressed differently: some are in winter suits, others are in summer ones. What time of year is unknown. There are leather coats, and a coat with a fur collar, and an officer's uniform, and open light dresses. Village scarves, knitted hats, caps. Bald heads, elegant hairstyles, modest haircuts. The picture is oversaturated with images. At the end of the tunnel is light. People are moving in his direction. However, are they moving? Or just standing? Only backs, heads, hands are depicted. Legs - as well as faces - are not visible. And therefore it remains a mystery whether this crowd will make the transition to a new state, whether it will be captivated by the bright light of freedom.
Since February 1974, the authorities began to carry out action after action aimed at suppressing the movement of nonconformist artists, that is, those painters, sculptors and graphic artists who did not accept the dogmas of the stillborn art of socialist realism and defended the right to freedom of creativity.
And before, for almost twenty years, the attempts of these artists to exhibit were in vain. Their expositions were immediately closed, and the press called nonconformists either “leaders of bourgeois ideology”, or “talentless muffins”, or almost traitors to the Motherland. So one can only marvel at the courage and steadfastness of these masters, who, in spite of everything, remained true to themselves and their art.
And in 1974, the KGB forces were thrown against them. Artists were detained on the streets, threatened, taken away respectively to the Lubyanka in Moscow and to the Big House in Leningrad, blackmailed, tried to bribe.
Realizing that if they remained silent, they would be strangled, a group of unofficial painters organized an outdoor exhibition on September 15, 1974 in a wasteland in the Belyaevo-Bogorodskoye area. Bulldozers, watering machines and the police were thrown against this exhibition. Three paintings perished under caterpillars, two were burnt on a fire that was immediately lit, many were crippled. The initiator of this exhibition, the leader of Moscow nonconformist artists, Oscar Rabin, and four other painters were arrested.
This bulldozer pogrom, which went down in the history of Russian art, caused an outburst of indignation in the West. The next day, the artists announced that in two weeks they would come out again with paintings to the same place. And in this situation, those in power retreated. On September 29, the first officially permitted exhibition of unofficial Russian art took place in Izmailovsky Park, in which not twelve, but more than seventy painters took part.
But of course, those who decided to crack down on free Russian art by no means laid down their arms. Immediately after the Izmailovo exposition, slanderous articles about unofficial artists reappeared in magazines and newspapers, and punitive organs fell upon especially active artists and those collectors who took part in organizing two September outdoor exhibitions. And by the way, it was during the period from 1974 to 1980 that most of the masters now living in the West left the country. There were over fifty of them, including Ernst Neizvestny, Oleg Tselkov, Lydia Masterkova, Mikhail Roginsky, Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid, Alexander Leonov, Yuri Zharkikh and many others. Oscar Rabin was stripped of his Soviet citizenship in 1978. (In 1990, by presidential decree, Soviet citizenship was returned to him). Even earlier, in the early seventies, Mikhail Shemyakin and Yuri Kuper settled in Europe.
Of course, a large group of our excellent unofficial painters remained in Russia (Vladimir Nemukhin, Ilya Kabakov, Dmitry Krasnopevtsev, Eduard Steinberg, Boris Sveshnikov, Vladimir Yankilevsky, Vyacheslav Kalinin, Dmitry Plavinsky, Alexander Kharitonov and others), but there are practically more truly free exhibitions. was not carried out, and persistent rumors were spread about those who left (even letters were sent from the West), they say that no one in Europe and the USA needs them, no one is interested in their work, they almost die of hunger. The remaining art officials warned: “If you start to rebel, we will expel you, you will live in misery there.”
Meanwhile, in fact, in the West, just at that time (the second half - the end of the 70s), interest in unofficial Russian art was especially great. Huge exhibitions of Russian artists were held one after another in museums and exhibition halls in Paris, London, West Berlin, Tokyo, Washington, New York. In 1978, the Biennale of Russian Unofficial Art in Venice was held with great success. For a month, this exhibition was visited by 160,000 people. “We haven't had so many viewers for a long time,” said Biennale President Carlo Rippe di Meanno.
True, skeptics argued that this interest was purely political in nature: they say, you need to see what kind of paintings they are that are banned in the USSR. But when they were reminded of Western collectors, who more and more willingly began to acquire paintings and graphics by Russian artists, the skeptics fell silent. They understood that no collector would spend money on paintings because of some political considerations. And even more so because of such considerations, Western galleries will not cooperate with artists. And of course, because of politics, serious art critics will not write monographs and articles about any artists. And there are many such articles. Monographs about the work of Ernst Neizvestny, Oleg Tselkov, Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid, Mikhail Shemyakin were published in different countries. Dozens of solid catalogs of personal and group expositions have been published.
Somewhere in the late 70s, an article “The Russian Front is advancing” appeared in one of the French art magazines. Its publication was due to the fact that at that time three exhibitions of contemporary Russian art were held in Paris at the same time. Does this sound like a lack of interest?
In Paris, they say, about a hundred thousand artists live and work. There are even more in New York. Everyone wants to collaborate with galleries. The competition is tough. And at the same time, many Russian emigre artists either have permanent contracts with Paris and New York galleries, or regularly exhibit in various galleries in Europe and the USA.
For many years, Yuri Kuper, Boris Zaborov, Yuri Zharkikh, Mikhail Shemyakin (before moving to the USA) have worked and are working with well-known Parisian galleries. In New York, contracts with galleries Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid, Ernst Neizvestny, the same Shemyakin. For many years, the Parisian Oleg Tselkov has been working with the New York gallery of Eduard Nakhamkin. Another Russian "Frenchman" Oscar Rabin signed a contract with one of the Parisian galleries.
Constantly, and often successfully, exhibited in European galleries Vladimir Titov, Mikhail Roginsky, Alexander Rabin. In the USA Lev Mezhberg, Leonid Sokov and other painters and graphic artists successfully work with galleries.
In many French and American private collections, I have repeatedly come across works by all of the above masters, as well as Vladimir Grigorovich, Valentina Kropivnitskaya, Vitaly Dluga, Valentina Shapiro ... Moreover, it is interesting that in the West, especially in Paris, already in the mid-70s collectors of free Russian art appear.
“How do these artists live and where do they work?” the reader may ask.
I will answer that in terms of housing and workplace, everything is arranged decently. In the worst case, one of the rooms of the apartment serves as a workshop for the artist. Many have separate studios - say, Komar, Melamid, Shemyakin, Zaborov, Sokov. And someone even prefers to have an apartment and a workshop in one place, so to speak, without wasting time on the road (Unknown, Cooper, O. Rabin, Mezhberg).
“Really,” some incredulous reader will ask, “everything is so good with emigrant artists, continuous successes and achievements?”
Of course not. Some even of our talented masters could not find themselves in the West, could not stand the competition, broke down. Here I do not want to name names - it is already psychologically difficult for people.
There are, of course, artists who are not able to live by selling their work. They are forced to earn a living by some other kind of work. But there are a great many of these among Western painters and graphic artists. One can only be surprised at how many, in comparison with Western painters (in percentage terms), Russian masters have been living in the West for a long time only due to their creativity.
But it is interesting that even those of our artists who ended up in the West are not in the best financial situation and are forced to earn a living either by industrial design, or by the design of newspapers or books, or in some other way, it’s all the same about their fate do not regret. Why?
When I wrote a book about our artists living in the West, published in 1986 abroad, I happened to take quite a few interviews. One of the painters, whose fate by that time (mid-80s) was not very prosperous, told me: “No, I don’t regret anything. Difficult? Of course it's difficult. It’s unpleasant that I have to break away from the easel in order to earn a living, sometimes it’s a shame that collectors haven’t reached me yet. But did we leave here for the sake of money? We left in order to freely, without fear of anyone or anything, write what and how you want and freely, where you want, to exhibit. However, I wrote freely in Russia as well. But to take part in exhibitions, one might say, did not happen. And here in four years I have already exhibited eleven times. And even sold something at these exhibitions. This is not the main thing, but from the point of view of maintaining the spirit, it is still important. ”
With different variations, however, I heard about the same thing from other emigrant artists who did not achieve such success in the West as, say, Komar and Melamid or Yuri Kuper.
And I don't think that any of them do, as they say, a good face on a bad game. After all, the opportunity to exhibit widely for most artists is a necessity. And for Russian painters, deprived of this in their homeland, this factor is especially significant. From 1979 to 1986 I kept a statistical record of Russian exhibitions in the West. Each time there were more than seventy of them a year. This is a lot. And the geography of these expositions was wide. Shemyakin's personal exhibitions, for example, were held in Paris, New York, Tokyo, and London; O. Rabin - in New York, Oslo and Paris; Cooper - in France, USA and Switzerland; Zaborova - in West Germany, the USA and Paris; Komara and Melamida - in Europe and the USA...
And how many group exhibitions of contemporary Russian art took place during these years, in which these and other Russian émigré artists took part. And their geography is also wide: France, Italy, England, Colombia, USA, Belgium, Japan, Switzerland, Canada...
And as I have already said, Western art critics and journalists have written quite a lot about these exhibitions (both personal and group). Almost every major exhibition was accompanied by the release of catalogs. Here they are on my bookshelf: Ernst Neizvestny, Yuri Kuper, Oscar Rabin, Mikhail Shemyakin, Boris Zaborov, Leonid Sokov, Vladimir Grigorovich, Harry Fife, Vitaly Komar, Alexander Melamid, Valentina Kropivnitskaya... And here are the group exhibition catalogs ; "Contemporary Russian Art" (Paris), "New Russian Art" (Washington), "Unofficial Russian Art" (Tokyo), "Biennale of Russian Art" (Turin) ... And here is the book "Unofficial Russian Art from the USSR", published in London in 1977 and reissued in New York the following year.
So, as you can see, for Russian émigré artists, if not for all, but for the majority, life in the West, in general, was successful. None of them are hungry. They have a place to live. Many have workshops. Everyone has the opportunity to purchase canvases and paints. Some of them work with prestigious galleries. All are exposed.
And how nice it is to know that collectors acquire your paintings, especially museums or the Ministry of Culture, say, of France. And it is no less pleasant to see how Western art lovers stand by your canvases. By the way, in contrast to art historians, a significant part of whom did not immediately perceive the Russian artists who suddenly fell on them, Western viewers were able to appreciate free Russian art very quickly. I heard from them more than once in Paris, and in Braunschweig, and in New York that they find in this Russian art what they cannot find in their contemporary art. What exactly? Living human feelings (pain, anguish, love, suffering...), and not cold form-creation, which, unfortunately, is so common at many exhibitions in galleries in Europe and the USA.
In other words, in free Russian art they find a spiritual element that has always been characteristic of genuine Russian art, even the most avant-garde art. No wonder the book of the great Wassily Kandinsky is called “On the Spiritual in Art”.
In the articles brought to your attention 13 artists are presented. Essays dedicated to them are not listed alphabetically. They are divided into three groups, corresponding to three generations of masters of unofficial (as it was called in pre-perestroika times) Russian art.
I hope that thanks to the initiative of the Znanie publishing house, lovers of contemporary art will learn about the fate of those of our painters who at one time were forced to leave their homeland for the sake of freedom of creativity.
