IZO

There is plenty of coverage now in the Western press of the prosecution of Yuri Samodurov. Human rights' organisations are following the case (e.g. fsumonitor.com). But amid the art fairs and high-roller auctions and all-night parties there is no sign yet that the Russian art world will come out solidly in Mr Samodurov's support.

The opening of Art Moscow: Marat comes clean (photo: JV). Actually this is an archetypal moment: in order for contemporary art to remain vital, it has to contemplate the possibility of its own irrelevance and uselessness.

If anyone wants a couple of tickets for club match of the decade Chelsea-Manchester United on Wednesday, price 2000 euros the pair, call Tanya on +7 495 509 3545.

Master of the Severe Style Petr Pavlovich Ossovski celebrates his birthday today. He has also recently been decorated for services to the Cossack people. I visited him in his studio yesterday. He was suffering from a hangover after an evening of cheap vodka. He compared the vodka unfavourably to a bottle of vintage scotch he drank recently at a dinner in Lipetsk. It cost 8000 roubles (about $350), apparently, and he had to drink the whole bottle alone because the others at the table were either driving or of the champagne persuasion. The next morning, he told me, his head was perfectly clear and he did a full day's work. Happy eighty-third birthday, Petr Pavlovich!

The art-until-dawn event (доутрарт) last night produced a mass turn-out. Vinzavod was like a football stadium on big match day (Marat Guelman says, like Red Square on 7 November, Soviet era). I staged a strategic retreat to the guest-list-protected Triumph Gallery where I enjoyed a glass of champagne and looked at dark glistening paintings by Ukrainian Sergei Chaika. Then back into the fray. The crowd at Art4ru was spilling onto the streets; the intimate physical access Igor Markin allows to his art collection is remarkable: and as far as I can tell people don't abuse it. A lot of artists were out and about. A 3 am pot of green tea at Coffee Mania by the Conservatory set me back about 15 quid, I think.

Roman Abramovich bought the top-selling Bacon and Freud at the recent New York sales (Art Newspaper).

The Roman Abramovich Garage project, revealed on IZO, has now gone public. Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst, of Sudeley Castle, Glos, and formerly of Gagosian Gallery, London, has been enlisted to help in the running. Sir Nicholas Serota is on the board. Amy Winehouse will perform at the opening (First Post).

In the government reshuffle a few days ago the plain-speaking (or, in the alternative, gaffe-prone?) Minister of Culture Alexander Sokolov was removed and replaced by career diplomat Alexander Avdeev. Avdeev's last posting was as ambassador to France; he is reputed to speak several languages; I haven't seen any indication that he has a special interest in the visual arts. Avdeev's appointment coincides with reorganisation of the Ministry itself: it will take over the duties of the Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography (FAKK - the acronym in itself was reason to get rid of it...), headed by Mikhail Shvidkoi, which will be dissolved; and give up its responsibilities for mass communications (Kommersant, in Russian).

A look at Art Moscow and associated events (John Varoli/Bloomberg).

Scenes from Art Moscow:
- Tsekh Gallery (Kiev) booth; pretty well sold out on VIP night.
- Blue Nose Alexander Shaburov gives an interview (Guelman Gallery).
- Work by Oleg Dou (Aidan Gallery).
- Anatoli Osmolovski, bread piece (fore); Blue Noses/Ilya Chichkan collaboration allowing you to play ping-pong with Albert Einstein (aft); curator Ekaterina Degot (seated) (Guelman Gallery).
- IV Height group (on the wall); Andrei Prigov (passing by).
- Julian Schnabel at Kaj Forsblum.
- Porno cut-outs by, I guess, Porolon, but maybe I am wrong.
- Triumph Gallery booth.
- Gary Tatintsian Gallery booth.
- Elena Vrublevskaya Gallery, mysterious and effective performance/installation.
- Work by Dima Gutov (Guelman Gallery).
- Girls, girls, girls: in foreground, sculpture by AES+F (Triumph Gallery).

The new surgically-enhanced Art Moscow has shrunk perceptibly. In fact, it would be even smaller had not Guelman Gallery occupied three spaces and Kaj Forsblum, from Finland, two. For whatever reason, the space freed up hasn't been occupied by more interesting galleries from abroad; since Volker Diehl set up in Moscow we have to count him as Russian, so Forsblum is now the only major foreign participant. Why? Maybe the Art Moscow pr is to blame? I get invitations to participate from all sorts of fairs all over the world, but nary an email from the Art Moscow. Or maybe the show is the victim of the art world's perceived wisdom: that there are only three or four events where you can count on making money (Frieze/Zoo in London; Art Basel in Switzerland and Miami; the Armory Show). I also wonder, prompted by an incident affecting an artist whom I have shown in London, the Latvian photographer Arnis Balcus, whether the fair is victim to creeping embourgeoisement. Work from Balcus's series Flowers was due to be shown on the Riga Gallery stand, but the organisers requested it be excluded. Below, a Balcus from the prohibited series. No black cock in Moscow, pliz!

I understand that the much-missed Art Times will be back online soon, with a new design.

The Art Moscow fair opens tomorrow in the Central House of the Artist. I read somewhere that the number of participating galleries has been cut from 70-odd to 40-something. I'm told that the organisers decided to dispense with Western dealers who merely brought over blue-chip artists (Warhol etc) in search of sales, preferring galleries who develop their own stable of artists. Makes sense to me.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin opened the Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya collection today at the newly-restored Konstantinovsky Palace, St Petersburg. (AP and ITAR-TASS).

Breakfast this morning with Ilya and Emilia Kabakov at their London hotel. They are here to discuss a show at Tate Modern, due next year. They have a daunting schedule of major exhibitions, beginning with the multi-venue display in Moscow in September.

The Dmitri A Prigov retrospective curated by Ekaterina Degot at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art opens tonight, I think (Artdaily).

More on the imminent prosecution of Yuri Samodurov (Moscow Times).

Volker Diehl will be bringing "Russian political art" of the 80s & 90s to Haunch of Venison, London (Artinfo).

"Fuse" is one of Tel Aviv's first graffiti artists. He paints a traditional graffiti tag "fused" onto a nostalgic scene of his extended family. Contrasting black-and-white traditions of his past in rural Russia with urban graffiti colors, Fuse shows us the extent to which this art form has become part of our world (Jerusalem Post).

Sotheby's London preview will travel to Kiev as well as Moscow (the Korovin at the link looks gorgeous; it's also unusually big) (Artdaily). Ukraine is plainly viewed as an important growth area: Phillips de Pury have bought a building there; Christies are appointing a representative.

It's nice when someone agrees with you; even nicer when it's a portion of the professional art world. A friend calls to quote me this from the most recent issue of The Art Newspaper about the top-lot Kuindzhi at Sotheby's NY last month:

Before the sale, the work's authenticity had been questioned by collectors and dealers, none of whom wanted to go on the record. Sotheby's dismissed this: "We feel these rumours are spread by some dealers in order to scare bidders away and keep prices low," said one top auction house official.

Well, that's a bit far-fetched from Sotheby's: in fact, it suggests they inhabit a parallel universe in which values are inverted. Who are these dealers who want to "keep prices low"???!%$£@!! And it doesn't address the fact that the work sold plainly differs from the illustration of, purportedly, the same work in an early C20 Kuindzhi book that Sotheby's chose to reproduce in its catalogue. A couple of snapshots from Sotheby's catalogue below: on the left, the old book illustration, on the right, the painting that was sold by Sotheby's. Even at the tiny resolution I offer them here on IZO, they plainly differ. Look for example at the markings on the tree-trunks: it's like a game of spot the difference for pre-schoolers. I'm told by someone who viewed the old book itself that the differences really are substantial.

It's hard for me to see how Sotheby's can assert that the work illustrated in the old book and the work they sold are one and the same. It's possible, of course, that it underwent substantial all-over restoration at some point; in which case, one might expect Sotheby's to point that out. But I didn't get the impression, on viewing it in Moscow, that it had been restored. If the old book illustration does indeed represent the third version of this painting by Kuindzhi (the other two being in museums), then, logically, Sotheby's work would be something else: a fourth version, perhaps, painted, I suggest, on a very off-day? Or...? UPDATE: the report in The Art Newspaper is by John Varoli.

Kira Plastinina, 15, opens her new store in LA (LA Times).

In December 2007 I gave the artist Katie Paterson her first show; soon after I sold her first major work, now in a Spanish museum; and now, less than six months later, she has been snaffled, snapped up, scrobbled  (as John Masefield wrote in The Box Of Delights) by the very rich Albion Gallery, which shows James Turrell, Ilya Kabakov and other stars. I'm extremely happy for Katie; and the Albion Gallery is on the ball; but what's a small gallerist to do when the big ones are cruising like great white sharks with an insatiable appetite for new talent?

Mamaev Barrow, Volgograd, today, 9 May (Victory Day as celebrated in Russia) (from ru_politics). I think the huge sculpture is by Vuchetich, but haven't checked. Considering the Putin government's harking back to Soviet glories, it seems a failure of the imagination not to return to the city its old name, Stalingrad.

Evgeni Khaldei exhibition opens today in the Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin (Art Knowledge News). See also this recent post.

Dubossarsky and Vinogradov at Deitch Projects, opens today (Deitch Projects).

Apparently the Russian St George's ribbon, a symbol of victory in WWII, which should be given away free, is being sold for up to 30 roubles a strip (RIA Novosti, in Russian). Coincidentally, the colours - old gold and black - are also those of Wolverhampton Wanderers football club, one of my favourite teams, so I feel justified in wearing a ribbon myself when in Russia.

Another look at the Russian pavilion in Cannes (Earth Times).

The perils of Google keyword-based blog-alerts: Russian Art, Painting, Woman In Field With Sickle.

In an act of vandalism, black paint has been poured over the base of the monument to the Soviet Warrior-Liberator in Vienna (Gazeta.ru, in Russian).

Yuri Samodurov, head of the Sakharov Centre, has been charged over the exhibition Forbidden Art (IZO, passim) (The Other Russia).

A story behind one of the most famous Soviet photographs (Daily Mail).

An IZO reader writes, apropos the Markin-Kabakov bust-up:

These Russians should stop writing blogs - the diary is a tricky genre and very rarely shows the best part of the person.

That's true, and, what's more, conceivably even applies to some non-Russians. IZO isn't really a diary, but my old attempts to write a diary always foundered because of the attendant confusions: questions such as: what is my point-of-view? what is the tone I seek? AND WHO AM I, ANYWAY?

A look at the controversy over C19 fakes (John Varoli/Bloomberg).

Maybe it's common knowledge, and maybe it's not even true, but the rumour has reached me that Triumph Gallery has acquired a major London gallery lock-stock-and-barrel: the premises, the staff, the stock, the artists.

Will this sort of Chinese "scandal" hit the Russian art world? (Actually, I think the scandalousness is moot). Conceivably; but I don't know of anyone who has assembled a collection of contemporary Russian art in quite the same hard-nosed fashion as these guys (NY Times) (thanks, MK).

Nikolai Makarov left Russia in 1979, with his mother, I believe. Now he occupies several hundred metres of loft-space in Berlin's Wedding district, plus a tremendous roof-garden. His paintings - portraits, cityscapes, deriving perhaps (I didn't ask) from photos but heavy on the sfumato - will be shown at Triumph Gallery, Moscow, next month; next year, he shows at the Tretyakov Gallery and, I believe, Russian Museum.

An exhibition of Afghan war rugs (The Globe and Mail).

Emilia Kabakov has sent a reply to the description by Igor Markin, one of the most important collectors of contemporary Russian art, of his visit (here on IZO, here in Russian on Markin's blog) and asked me to post it; I am glad to do so.

Dear Igor,

I am sorry you got sick. Not that I believe it. Or maybe you should drink less?

I just want to say that it's definitely not worth to show art to someone like you. You are not able to see it, not able to understand it, not able to appreciate it.  You only see dollars sign in everything.

Yes, we do big projects. Yes we participate in the competitions, but we never did anything for money. Public projects never have millions of dollars in their budgets.

And unlike you we do respect art, culture, other people. But then we work with people, with art, and with cultural institutions.

I hope you feel better.

Russian Art Party, 8 May, Chelsea Museum (Chi Chi 212).

Are you a Russian male?  A forty-something is needed now in South Korea (worknplay Korea).

Alina and Jeff Bliumis's new installation Language Barrier: Ben (below) has been purchased by the Saatchi Collection and will be shown in the upcoming The Shape Of Things To Come: New Sculpture show (Saatchi Gallery artists' page).

I believe that Erik Bulatov is the only Russian artist at the big Modern and Contemporary sales in New York this month (NY Times; thanks MK).

Igor Markin visits Ilya Kabakov (art4-ru, in Russian):

A visit to Ilya Kabakov
Let's begin with this
that all evening I was sick from the fish
carefully prepared by Emilia Kabakova

(...)

before asking for $350,000 in sponsorship money
the Master's niece showed me what they are doing
tens of carefully-made maquettes for monuments and installations.
Their business today
is to take part in competitions
and carry out large scale projects
worth several millions of $, in the event of winning.
The projects aren't bad on the whole
but they are not made for the sake of creating a masterpiece
but for the sake of the winning itself.

Amongst what I saw:

1. Wings, like those in my collection,
they are made in a series (поточно) by two hired helps
it's hard to imagine what the total edition is.

2. In the store, several Stools, like the ones I have,
issued as an extra edition of 5, making ten in all, and maybe more.

(...)

They also promised to give a lecture at the Museum in August
- just don't get upset about the 350 thou.

UPDATE: I understand that the Kabakovs' recollection of this meeting is at complete variance with Markin's. UPDATE 2: Emilia Kabakov's reply to Markin.

Apparently, Brighton Beach locations have a significant role in Grand Theft Auto IV (New York).

Vera Mukhina's Worker and Collective-Farm Girl monument, dismantled for repair in 2003, should be restored by the end of 2008 (RIA Novosti, in Russian).

Moisei Feigin, the world's oldest practising artist, has died at age 103; he was the last surviving participant of exhibitions in the twenties by the Jack of Diamonds group (RIA Novosti, in Russian).

Iosif Bakstein has found the answer to this question (John Varoli/Bloomberg).

An annual prize for realist painting (За сохранение и продолжение традиций русской реалистической школы живописи) has been awarded to Nikolai Kolupaev (lunina22, in Russian).

Nowadays the Great Game is fought by lawyers in London: the biggest legal bill in the history of the English courts - $120 million - has been run up by the Tadzhik government (John Helmer/Asia Times).