Main Collection

Private gift

Gift of Anton Belov

In 1986, four friends decided to form an art group called World Champions. Despite its short life (the group disbanded in 1988), World Champions was one of the most striking artistic phenomena of the perestroika period. The backbone of the group comprised Gia Abramishvili, Konstantin Latyshev, Boris Matrosov and Andrei Yakhnin. They studied together at Moscow’s School No. 96 in Bolshoi Tishinsky Pereulok, where they were taught physics by a very special man, Evgeny Matusov. He organized meetings with interesting people for his students, including Boris Grebenshchikov, Sven Gundlakh, and Konstantin Zvezdochotov. Contact with these people grew into friendship and then joint artistic practice. 

 The “champions” selected irony as their main tool for dissecting both late‑1980s Soviet reality and the specific, closed world of unofficial art. They made fun of the unintelligible practices of the older generation of Moscow conceptualists and of state sport and public organizations, with their outdated methods of transforming groups of individuals into collectives. The group’s actions and demonstrations had an absurd and spontaneous character in which a sudden idea of a “meaningless feat” was immediately embodied, erasing the boundaries between art and life. The artists changed the direction of rivers, used shampoo and rags to clean the Black Sea cliffs and seafront, and created pictures and objects from worthless materials, with no interest in preserving them after they had been shown at a one‑day exhibition. 

 When creating drawings and paintings the “champions” parodied the team method of making state commissions for artistic products. Participants published a decree that defined in detail not only the image but also the quantity of materials available to the artist who would make it. The group’s garish, flashy paintings are stylistically similar to children’s drawings and lubok folk prints, comics, and posters.

 In 1986, four friends decided to form an art group called World Champions. Despite its short life (the group disbanded in 1988), World Champions was one of the most striking artistic phenomena of the perestroika period. The backbone of the group comprised Gia Abramishvili, Konstantin Latyshev, Boris Matrosov and Andrei Yakhnin. They studied together at Moscow’s School No. 96 in Bolshoi Tishinsky Pereulok, where they were taught physics by a very special man, Evgeny Matusov. He organized meetings with interesting people for his students, including Boris Grebenshchikov, Sven Gundlakh, and Konstantin Zvezdochotov. Contact with these people grew into friendship and then joint artistic practice. 

 The “champions” selected irony as their main tool for dissecting both late‑1980s Soviet reality and the specific, closed world of unofficial art. They made fun of the unintelligible practices of the older generation of Moscow conceptualists and of state sport and public organizations, with their outdated methods of transforming groups of individuals into collectives. The group’s actions and demonstrations had an absurd and spontaneous character in which a sudden idea of a “meaningless feat” was immediately embodied, erasing the boundaries between art and life. The artists changed the direction of rivers, used shampoo and rags to clean the Black Sea cliffs and seafront, and created pictures and objects from worthless materials, with no interest in preserving them after they had been shown at a one‑day exhibition. 

 When creating drawings and paintings the “champions” parodied the team method of making state commissions for artistic products. Participants published a decree that defined in detail not only the image but also the quantity of materials available to the artist who would make it. The group’s garish, flashy paintings are stylistically similar to children’s drawings and lubok folk prints, comics, and posters. 

Detail of the installation The Black-and-White Exhibition

Giordano Bruno

Aidan Salakhova is a sculptor and graduate of the Surikov Moscow State Art Institute who participated in the 44th and 54th Venice Biennale (1990, 2011). Her interests include exploring the fragile boundaries of women's freedom, gender and social identities, searching for answers through religious and traditionalist symbolism, and posing questions concerning the desirable and the forbidden. 

 Her debut as an artist took place at the XVIII Exhibition of Young Moscow Artists at the Manezh Central Exhibition Hall in 1988 with the triptych Steel Orgasm on an Orange Background (1987). A year later Salakhova, together with Yevgeny Mitta and Alexander Yakut, opened First Gallery and then, in 1992, Aidan Gallery, which existed for twenty years and became one of the most important venues on the Moscow art scene. In 2012, she established Aidan Studio, bringing together over thirty artists who graduated from Salakhova's studio at the Surikov Moscow State Art Institute, which the artist led from 2001 to 2022. Since the 2010s, she has spent most of her time living and working in Carrara, Italy, studying the plastic possibilities of the most famous marble on the planet. 

 In 2019, artist and theater producer Pavel Kaplevich invited Salakhova to design director Maxim Didenko's production Carmen. Drama‑Opera‑Ballet. The artist proposed a set comprising ornamental red cocoons from which the performers emerged and in which they hid. Salakhova embodied in these objects one of her main principles, the animation of sculpture, because for the artist her marble sculptures are always the receptacle of the soul.

 Aidan Salakhova is a sculptor and graduate of the Surikov Moscow State Art Institute who participated in the 44th and 54th Venice Biennale (1990, 2011). Her interests include exploring the fragile boundaries of women's freedom, gender and social identities, searching for answers through religious and traditionalist symbolism, and posing questions concerning the desirable and the forbidden. 

 Her debut as an artist took place at the XVIII Exhibition of Young Moscow Artists at the Manezh Central Exhibition Hall in 1988 with the triptych Steel Orgasm on an Orange Background (1987). A year later Salakhova, together with Yevgeny Mitta and Alexander Yakut, opened First Gallery and then, in 1992, Aidan Gallery, which existed for twenty years and became one of the most important venues on the Moscow art scene. In 2012, she established Aidan Studio, bringing together over thirty artists who graduated from Salakhova's studio at the Surikov Moscow State Art Institute, which the artist led from 2001 to 2022. Since the 2010s, she has spent most of her time living and working in Carrara, Italy, studying the plastic possibilities of the most famous marble on the planet. 

 In 2019, artist and theater producer Pavel Kaplevich invited Salakhova to design director Maxim Didenko's production Carmen. Drama‑Opera‑Ballet. The artist proposed a set comprising ornamental red cocoons from which the performers emerged and in which they hid. Salakhova embodied in these objects one of her main principles, the animation of sculpture, because for the artist her marble sculptures are always the receptacle of the soul. 

Sketches for a production of Carmen

Yuri Avvakumov is an architect, artist, and curator and one of the pioneers of conceptual design that developed in the USSR in the 1980s. In 1984, he coined the term “paper architecture,” meaning the creation of architectural fantasies on paper, or projects that were difficult to realize for technical, financial or ideological reasons. The works were characterized by a synthesis of text, theatricality, and postmodernist reflection. 

 In 1986, Avvakumov began the series Temporary Monuments, which reinterpreted the legacy of Constructivism and the avant‑garde. The heroes of his interpretations are Vladimir Tatlin, El Lissitzky, Vera Mukhina, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Pavel Grokhovsky, and Kazimir Malevich. Projects include Red Tower, Polar Axis (Axis of Ascent), Tribune for a Leninist, Fire Escape Monument, Red Galley, Flying Proletarian, and others. To create ambivalence, Avvakumov uses Communist red for the drawings and chooses a fragile Soviet newspaper sheet (Pravda, Moskovsky komsomolets, Sovetskaya Rossiya, etc.) as a base, thus emphasizing the contrast between form and content. Some projects were also realised as models of unrealised buildings. 

 Avvakumov considers the main work in the series to be the project with the general title Worker and Collective Farm Woman International, to which the sheet Worker + Farmer (1990–1993) belongs. It is a fusion of two grandiose Soviet projects, Vladimir Tatlin's unrealized “Tower” (Monument to the Third International) and Vera Mukhina's monument Worker and Collective Farm Woman, which epitomized the power of the Soviet Union at the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris. Avvakumov places the framework of the two‑figure composition, which became a standard of Socialist Realism, inside the utopian dream of Constructivism, merging two irreconcilable sources of Soviet art‑abstraction and realism. 

 The project Worker and Collective Farm Woman International has been exhibited several times around the world, including in the Main Project of the 6th Venice Architecture Biennale (1996). In parallel, in the Russian Pavilion, Avvakumov presented the exhibition Russian Utopia: A Depository, which included 480 unrealized projects by Russian architects of the eighteenth to the twentieth century.

 Yuri Avvakumov is an architect, artist, and curator and one of the pioneers of conceptual design that developed in the USSR in the 1980s. In 1984, he coined the term “paper architecture,” meaning the creation of architectural fantasies on paper, or projects that were difficult to realize for technical, financial or ideological reasons. The works were characterized by a synthesis of text, theatricality, and postmodernist reflection. 

 In 1986, Avvakumov began the series Temporary Monuments, which reinterpreted the legacy of Constructivism and the avant‑garde. The heroes of his interpretations are Vladimir Tatlin, El Lissitzky, Vera Mukhina, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Pavel Grokhovsky, and Kazimir Malevich. Projects include Red Tower, Polar Axis (Axis of Ascent), Tribune for a Leninist, Fire Escape Monument, Red Galley, Flying Proletarian, and others. To create ambivalence, Avvakumov uses Communist red for the drawings and chooses a fragile Soviet newspaper sheet (Pravda, Moskovsky komsomolets, Sovetskaya Rossiya, etc.) as a base, thus emphasizing the contrast between form and content. Some projects were also realised as models of unrealised buildings. 

 Avvakumov considers the main work in the series to be the project with the general title Worker and Collective Farm Woman International, to which the sheet Worker + Farmer (1990–1993) belongs. It is a fusion of two grandiose Soviet projects, Vladimir Tatlin's unrealized “Tower” (Monument to the Third International) and Vera Mukhina's monument Worker and Collective Farm Woman, which epitomized the power of the Soviet Union at the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris. Avvakumov places the framework of the two‑figure composition, which became a standard of Socialist Realism, inside the utopian dream of Constructivism, merging two irreconcilable sources of Soviet art‑abstraction and realism. 

 The project Worker and Collective Farm Woman International has been exhibited several times around the world, including in the Main Project of the 6th Venice Architecture Biennale (1996). In parallel, in the Russian Pavilion, Avvakumov presented the exhibition Russian Utopia: A Depository, which included 480 unrealized projects by Russian architects of the eighteenth to the twentieth century. 

Worker and Farmer

Nikita Alexeev was a representative of the second wave of Moscow Conceptualism. In 1982 he opened the gallery APTART in his small apartment on Vavilova Street in Moscow. During the two years of the gallery’s existence there were 14 exhibitions which included work by key artists of the 1980s Moscow underground: Toadstool Group, TOTART (Natalya Abalakova and Anatoly Zhigalov), Victor Skersis, Vadim Zakharov, George Kiesewalter, and others. 

 In spring 1983, as a result of increasing pressure on Nikita Alexeev and other artists, the gallery temporarily stopped work, although in that period two projects took place outside the city, including the one‑day exhibition APTART Behind the Fence, which took place in September at the dacha of artists Sergei and Vladimir Mironenko’s parents. 

 For this exhibition Nikita Alexeev created the series Bananas. Some of the sheets of paper were attached to bushes and others lay on the grass around them. The text‑centeredness, seriality, and irony typical of Moscow Conceptualism was supplemented by a lack of seriousness of visual content that was a feature of work by the younger generation of artists. Alexeev used an easy technique (felt‑tip pens), a simplified style of drawing, and bright colors. As a result, universal and contextually monumental symbols (the pyramid‑ziggurat, sun, and moon) take on the characteristics of a child’s drawing and common phrases become absurd expressions. This attempt to escape simplicity with words and images creates a semantic gap, the search for which was key to art for Nikita Alexeev.

 Nikita Alexeev was a representative of the second wave of Moscow Conceptualism. In 1982 he opened the gallery APTART in his small apartment on Vavilova Street in Moscow. During the two years of the gallery’s existence there were 14 exhibitions which included work by key artists of the 1980s Moscow underground: Toadstool Group, TOTART (Natalya Abalakova and Anatoly Zhigalov), Victor Skersis, Vadim Zakharov, George Kiesewalter, and others. 

 In spring 1983, as a result of increasing pressure on Nikita Alexeev and other artists, the gallery temporarily stopped work, although in that period two projects took place outside the city, including the one‑day exhibition APTART Behind the Fence, which took place in September at the dacha of artists Sergei and Vladimir Mironenko’s parents. 

 For this exhibition Nikita Alexeev created the series Bananas. Some of the sheets of paper were attached to bushes and others lay on the grass around them. The text‑centeredness, seriality, and irony typical of Moscow Conceptualism was supplemented by a lack of seriousness of visual content that was a feature of work by the younger generation of artists. Alexeev used an easy technique (felt‑tip pens), a simplified style of drawing, and bright colors. As a result, universal and contextually monumental symbols (the pyramid‑ziggurat, sun, and moon) take on the characteristics of a child’s drawing and common phrases become absurd expressions. This attempt to escape simplicity with words and images creates a semantic gap, the search for which was key to art for Nikita Alexeev. 

Bananas series. From the project APTART Beyond the Fence

Sergei Shutov’s biography incorporates a broad spectrum of creative experiments, from psychedelic new wave painting to multimedia installations and from avant‑garde experiments with video art to sound environments. The 7th Youth Exhibition, friendships with the “New Artists,” rave culture and VJing in the first clubs (and featuring on the cover of Ptyuch magazine), the squat in Furmanny Pereulok, the film Assa, concerts with Pop‑Mekhanika, inserts for Pirate Television, exhibitions across the world, and showing in the Russian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale are only a tiny part of the typhoon of new Russian culture of which Shutov was at the center. 

 Shutov’s 1984 work on paper shown here is from the period when he was involved in working with metal. The sheet features a monochrome schematic composition depicting an exchange of energy and is inspired by the artist’s lifelong interest in science, technocracy, and eastern esoterica. 

 At that time Shutov also began to study the theoretical aspects of intaglio printing. Since he had no access to high‑tech equipment, the artist used his own method of working with the material, applying a thick layer of white enamel to high density paper and, once it was dry, using needles to make an image of various depths, sometimes piercing the layer of enamel. The last stage was the addition of oil paint applied with the edge of the palm and the completion of the composition. Unlike editioned prints, this labor‑intensive technique was used to make a single work. This sheet is one of around twenty unique works.

 Sergei Shutov’s biography incorporates a broad spectrum of creative experiments, from psychedelic new wave painting to multimedia installations and from avant‑garde experiments with video art to sound environments. The 7th Youth Exhibition, friendships with the “New Artists,” rave culture and VJing in the first clubs (and featuring on the cover of Ptyuch magazine), the squat in Furmanny Pereulok, the film Assa, concerts with Pop‑Mekhanika, inserts for Pirate Television, exhibitions across the world, and showing in the Russian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale are only a tiny part of the typhoon of new Russian culture of which Shutov was at the center.  

 Shutov’s 1984 work on paper shown here is from the period when he was involved in working with metal. The sheet features a monochrome schematic composition depicting an exchange of energy and is inspired by the artist’s lifelong interest in science, technocracy, and eastern esoterica.  

 At that time Shutov also began to study the theoretical aspects of intaglio printing. Since he had no access to high‑tech equipment, the artist used his own method of working with the material, applying a thick layer of white enamel to high density paper and, once it was dry, using needles to make an image of various depths, sometimes piercing the layer of enamel. The last stage was the addition of oil paint applied with the edge of the palm and the completion of the composition. Unlike editioned prints, this labor‑intensive technique was used to make a single work. This sheet is one of around twenty unique works. 

Untitled

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Мастер

World Champions was a Moscow art group made up of a group of friends who had studied at School No. 98 and Krasnopresnenskaya Art School. The group included Gia Abramishvili, Konstantin Zvezdochotov, Konstantin Latyshev, Boris Matrosov, Andrei Yakhnin, and others. In 2021 there was a retrospective exhibition of the group’s work at Moscow Museum of Modern Art.

World Champions

Yuri Avvakumov was born in 1957 in Tiraspol. He graduated from Moscow Architectural Institute. In 1984, he introduced the term “paper architecture” to describe a 1980s genre of Soviet conceptual design. He exhibited in the Russian Pavilion at the 6th Architecture Biennale in Venice (1996). In 2019, he published the book Paper Architecture: An Anthology.

Avvakumov Yuri

Sergei Shutov was born in 1955 in Potsdam. He was a member of the City Committee of Graphic Artists (Moscow) from 1978. He worked on the film Assa (1987) and took part in concerts by the band Pop‑Mekhanika. He founded the Institute of Art Technology (Moscow, 1992), ran practical sessions at Moscow Artistic Laboratory of New Media (Moscow, 1994), and was a VJ at the club Ptyuch (Moscow). He exhibited in the Russian Pavilion at the 49th Venice Biennale (2011).

Shutov Sergei

Nikita Alexeev was born in Moscow. From 1964 to 1967, he studied at Moscow Middle Art School of the Moscow Surikov State Art Institute and then at 1905 Moscow State Academic Art College in the Department of Industrial Graphics and Advertising. From 1973 to 1976, he studied at Moscow Printing Institute in the Faculty of Artistic and Technical Design of Print Products (he did not graduate). From 1976 to 1983, he was a member of the group Collective Actions. He took part in the Biennale of Dissent (Venice, 1977). He was one of the organizers of MANI (Moscow Archive of New Art). From 1982 to 1984, he was co‑founder and director of APTART Gallery, which was located in his studio apartment in Moscow.

Alexeev Nikita

Aydan Salahova was born in Moscow. She graduated Moscow Surikov State Academic Art Institute (1987). From 1989 to 1992 she was co‑director and curator of First Gallery (Moscow). She was the founder of Aidan Gallery (Moscow, 1992–2012). She took part in the 44th and 54th Venice Biennale (Russian Pavilion, 1990; Azerbaijan Pavilion, 2011). She was a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR (1988) and is an academician of the Russian Academy of Arts (2002).

Salakhova Aidan

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