Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Wednesday 5 June 2019
Private collectors key to boosting Russia's art market

By KATE de PURY "thaw" after Stalin's death
Associated Press in 1953 and refused to
MOSCOW (AP) — For Rus- go back to socialist real-
sian art collector Roman ism. Banned by the state,
Babichev, a visit to an starved of materials and
artist's family living in a public recognition, these
cramped St. Petersburg artists continued to create
apartment yielded an un- in a period of "Soviet Re-
expected sight. naissance," a term Opal-
In a cardboard folder un- eva uses with some irony.
der one of the beds was a Milena Orlova, editor of
stash of paintings taken off Russia's influential Art News-
their frames because they paper, admires their cour-
would have filled one of age.
the two rooms the family of "These artists made and
four lived in. showed their own work be-
"They were just lying there, cause they had no other
awaiting their destiny," choice. Let's not forget the
Babichev said. conditions in which they
He bought them, adding produced this wonder-
these works by landscape ful art, we need to double
painter Alexander Ved- the value of what they did
ernikov to his collection of In this photo taken on Tuesday, March 19, 2019, a view of the building of the AZ Museum in Mos- because of the conditions
Russian modernist art. cow, Russia. they worked under," she
It's just one example of Associated Press said.
how, at a time when sanc- A small space tucked be-
tions and economic woes he tracked down their ne- also was shot, Eduard Krim- gold mine, also collects So- tween grand apartment
push the topic of culture glected works and pieced mer burned most of his work viet-era underground art. blocks in central Moscow,
down the Kremlin's agen- together the artists' stories. and Maria Kazanskaya suf- In 2015 she opened the the AZ Museum is packed
da, wealthy individuals are Many had studied abroad fered a lifetime of mental ill- AZ Museum in Moscow, for openings. Older visitors
filling a gap by bringing or witnessed the flowering ness after being imprisoned named after Anatoly remember the unofficial
much-needed cash to a of Russian avant-garde art at 18. Zverev whose portrait of a artists as heroes of their
struggling art market and just after the Bolshevik Rev- Babichev's collection of young woman was Opal- own Soviet youth.
supporting young Russian olution. Isolated and under some 4,000 works displays eva's first purchase. An "un- Opaleva has ambitious
artists. threat, they still saw them- dazzling, unrealized poten- official artist" of the 1960s, plans to boost AZ's reputa-
The tradition of private art selves as part of the global tial. Zverev's work is exuberant tion in Russia and abroad,
collectors in Russia pre- modernist art movement "If that tragedy of 1917 had and accessible, making staging her first interna-
cedes even the 1917 Bol- they had glimpsed briefly. not happened, Russian art him popular with the pub- tional show in Florence last
shevik Revolution when Many were forced to hide might have attained a dif- lic. year. She sees collecting
magnates like Sergei their work; some were per- ferent place," Babichev Focusing on Soviet un- art as a personal, even pa-
Shchukin and Pavel Tre- secuted. said. derground art of the triotic mission and is deter-
tyakov amassed priceless Vera Ermolaeva, star of ART AGAINST THE SOVIET 1960s-1980s, Opaleva has mined to ensure that these
troves, now in the country's the Russian avant-garde STATE amassed some 2,500 works. forgotten Soviet artists gain
top museums. Today's col- movement, was executed Natalia Opaleva, a bank- This generation experi- global stature.
lectors may not have the in 1937. Nikolai Emilianov er and head of a Siberian enced Russia's cultural "They are worthy of interest
same stature, says Pushkin not just in Russia but in the
Museum director Marina world, as a part of world
Loshak, but they are key culture," she said.
to developing Russia's art BUILDING THE FUTURE OF
scene. ART
"Collectors are the big im- Moscow property develop-
petus. Without collectors er Dmitry Aksenov fell into
there are no galleries and art by accident. He bought
these are the laboratories, an abstract painting for his
the test tube, in which ev- new house and just over 10
erything happens," Loshak years later, owns a growing
told The Associated Press. collection of contemporary
DISCOVERING RUSSIA'S Russian and East European
HIDDEN MODERNISTS art.
Babichev gave up a suc- A physicist by training, Ak-
cessful business career in senov took a scientific ap-
the 1990s to collect art. His proach once he decided
apartment on Moscow's to collect art and set about
outskirts is both a gallery studying cultural history to
and a living space, with train his eye. Now he feels
paintings and sculptures confident enough to buy
displayed floor to ceiling. work he chooses himself.
Babichev dug back into The Aksenov Family Foun-
Soviet history, discover- dation owns 400 pieces
ing forgotten artists of the In this photo taken on Friday, March 15, 2019, Russian art collector Roman Babichev arrives to an including video, photogra-
1920s-50s. With determina- interview with The Associated Press in his apartment in Moscow, Russia. phy, painting and site-spe-
tion and detective work, Associated Press cific installations.q