Moscow-New York = Parallel Play
Selections from the Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art
Opens on 15 October 2007 in Moscow
The exhibition considers an artistic axis of two cities of eastern and western continents representing Russian artists living or working in these largest art capitals, and creating with their art an international context and distinctive intellectual plastic Russian “rhyme” in the international art community. It draws from the Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art, one of world’s largest private collections, with over 7,000 pieces by more than 300 artists from Russia and the former Soviet Union, chronicling four decades of nonconformist art from the post-Stalinist era to the present.
The Kolodzei Collection, founded by Tatiana Kolodzei in Moscow during the height of the Cold War and continued today with her daughter, Natalia, contains a living history of artistic ideas turning literally before our eyes in a classical heritage, yet mobile and not frozen in a museum.
The Kolodzei Collection belongs to the major current of Russian alternative culture, born underground, expressed by an oppositional idea to the situation of the “closed” society during Soviet times. To collect art in the 1960s in the Soviet Union demanded not only a sharp feeling of history, but also great courage. It turned to original alternative independent art movements in aesthetic forms. Its life could break at any moment, but it bore in itself a huge charge of internal energy, both protesting and guarding tradition. Tatiana Kolodzei managed to unite in the Kolodzei Collection the best names of the Russian independent visual culture, including Petr Belenok, Eric Bulatov, Oleg Vassiliev, Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin, Ilya Kabakov, Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid, Dmitri Krasnopevtsev, Vladimir Nemukhin, Dmitri Plavinsky, Oscar Rabin, Mikhail Shvartsman, Eduard Shteinberg, and Vladimir Yankilevsky.
The “Art Geography” of the Kolodzei Collection is wide and democratic in its interests in the alternative art movements in the regions throughout the former Soviet Union. At the same time, its basic vectors specify points in this geo-artistic space where there was an intense art field: Moscow, St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad), Tallinn (Estonia), and Tbilisi (Georgia), among others. The dialogue between these centers and their uniquely regional, independent character add to the wide ranging nature of this unique collection.
Possessing breadth of spatial coordinates, the Kolodzei Collection describes the history of independent, or “non-conformist,” art processes and movements in a unique depth. The Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art is a living, open entity, continuing to grow, and consequently reflects changes in actual culture and reacts to the variable nature of contemporary art.
Moscow-New York=Parallel Play. Selections from the Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art considers an artistic axis of two cities of eastern and western continents – Moscow and New York. After opening in Moscow the exhibition Moscow-New York=Parallel Play. Selections from the Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art will travel to Chelsea Art Museum – the Home of Miotte Foundation (New York) in February of 2008, forming, thus, integrity of this radical art meeting of the visual cultures possessing doubtless internal unity.
Moscow-New York = Parallel Play
Selections from the Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art
15 October – 11 November 2007
National Centre for Contemporary Arts (NCCA)
Moscow, Zoologicheskaya Street 13, Stroenie 2
Press preview: 15 October 2007 at 4 PM
Opening reception: 15 October 2007 at 5 PM
Moscow-New York = Parallel Play
Selections from the Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art
February – May 2008
Chelsea Art Museum – Home of the Miotte Foundation
556 West 22nd Street, New York, New York, USA
For information and images, please contact:
Natalia Kolodzei – Kolodzei Art Foundation, Inc. (USA) Tel. 1-732-545-8425; Fax: 1-732-545-8428. In Moscow 7-495-952-0277 Kolodzei@KolodzeiArt.org www.KolodzeiArt.org
The Kolodzei Art Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit public foundation started in 1991, organizes exhibitions and cultural exchanges in museums and cultural centers in the United States, Russia and other countries, often utilizing the considerable resources of the Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art, and publishes books on Russian art, and provides art supplies to Russian artists. The Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art consists of more than 7,000 art works, including paintings, drawings and sculptures, by more than 300 artists from Russia and the former Soviet Union. For additional information visit www.KolodzeiArt.org or email Kolodzei@KolodzeiArt.org
The National Centre for Contemporary Arts (NCCA), whose activities include exhibitions and art research, was founded in 1992 to promote contemporary Russian art. In addition to Moscow, NCCA has four branches in different regions of Russia. NCCA main activities: curatorship; exhibitions; research and information; education. For additional information visit www.ncca.ru
The Chelsea Art Museum – Home of the Miotte Foundation (CAM) is dedicated to showing art from an international standpoint and provides an intimate platform for individual artists and thematic group shows that may not find a home in larger art institutions. In addition, CAM does exchange programs with other organizations around the world. This concept of providing a platform for artists and ideas that are not addressed elsewhere in the U.S. originates from the Jean Miotte Foundation (housed at CAM and dedicated to archiving, preserving, presenting and making available for exhibitions the work of Jean Miotte). Miotte’s work is very much influenced by dance and music, and the Chelsea Art Museum also supports this integration of the arts, understanding that they work together and often influence each other. For more information visit www.chelseaartmuseum.org
Image above:
Vitaly Komar, Alex Melamid
Soul of Norton Dodge. 1978-79 From the project Corporation for Buying and Selling Souls. A construction of wood, metals, white string, and certificate on red paper, 6-3/4 x 10-1/8 x 5-1/8 inches. Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art, Kolodzei Art Foundation, USA.