Russian Art from the 1960s to the 2010s: A Lecture Series by Sasha Obukhova

Many initiatives aimed at forming the institutional system for contemporary art were launched in the first post-Soviet decade. This talk will cover the main changes: new galleries, museum collecting policies, attempts to organize research and theorize the new developments in art outside of the capital, early curating practices, and the emergence of contemporary-art-focused media. Learn about the decade of intensive growth that laid the foundations of the Russian contemporary art world as we know it today.

REGISTRATION

Andrei Monastyrski (b. 1949) is an artist, poet, novelist, and art theorist and one of the pioneers of Moscow Conceptualism. He studied philology at Moscow State University. Monastyrski was a founding member of the group Collective Actions (founded in 1976), the group’s theorist and creator of most actions. In 1981, he compiled the first issue of the Moscow Archive of New Art (MANI), followed by five more from 1986 to 1990 (1 to 4 with Joseph Backstein and 5 with Sabine Hänsgen). He took part in the Biennale of Dissent (Venice, 1977), the Venice Biennales of 2003, 2007, and 2011, and documenta 12 (Kassel, 2007). In 2003, he won an Andrei Bely Prize for his contribution to the development of Russian literature. He is a recipient of the Soratnik Award (2008) and the Innovation Prize (2009). He lives and works in Moscow.

Nikita Alexeev (1953–2021) studied at Moscow Secondary Art School from 1964 to 1967, the 1905 Moscow Academic Art School (graphics and advertising), and Moscow Printing Institute (design of printed products) from 1973 to 1976. From 1976 to 1983 he was a member of Collective Actions. He took part in the Biennale of Dissent (Venice, 1977) and was one of the organizers of the Moscow Archive of New Art (MANI). From 1982 to 1984, he was a co-founder and director of the gallery APTART, which was located in his one-room apartment in Moscow. From 1987 to 1993, he lived in France. From 1993, he lived in Moscow.

Andrei Monastyrski (b. 1949) is an artist, poet, novelist, and art theorist and one of the pioneers of Moscow Conceptualism. He studied philology at Moscow State University. Monastyrski was a founding member of the group Collective Actions (founded in 1976), the group’s theorist and creator of most actions. In 1981, he compiled the first issue of the Moscow Archive of New Art (MANI), followed by five more from 1986 to 1990 (1 to 4 with Joseph Backstein and 5 with Sabine Hänsgen). He took part in the Biennale of Dissent (Venice, 1977), the Venice Biennales of 2003, 2007, and 2011, and documenta 12 (Kassel, 2007). In 2003, he won an Andrei Bely Prize for his contribution to the development of Russian literature. He is a recipient of the Soratnik Award (2008) and the Innovation Prize (2009). He lives and works in Moscow.

Nikita Alexeev (1953–2021) studied at Moscow Secondary Art School from 1964 to 1967, the 1905 Moscow Academic Art School (graphics and advertising), and Moscow Printing Institute (design of printed products) from 1973 to 1976. From 1976 to 1983 he was a member of Collective Actions. He took part in the Biennale of Dissent (Venice, 1977) and was one of the organizers of the Moscow Archive of New Art (MANI). From 1982 to 1984, he was a co-founder and director of the gallery APTART, which was located in his one-room apartment in Moscow. From 1987 to 1993, he lived in France. From 1993, he lived in Moscow.

Alexander Kosolapov (b. 1943) is a sculptor, painter, and creator of objects. He studied at Moscow Secondary Art School from 1950 to 1961 and Moscow Higher School of Art and Industry (Department of Sculpture) from 1962 to 1968. He showed his work at regular evening and one-day exhibitions of the Sculptors’ Club at the House of Artists at Kuznetsky Most (1976–1986). He worked as a sculptor within the system of the Union of Artists of the USSR from 1968 to 1975. In 1975 he moved to the USA. He lives and works between Moscow and New York.

Leonid Sokov (1914–2018) was a Soviet and American artist, one of the most famous representatives of Sots Art. From 1956 to 1961, he studied at Moscow Secondary Art School and in 1969 graduated from Moscow Higher School of Art and Industry (Department of Sculpture). In 1972, he joined the Moscow Union of Artists. He took part in the Biennale of Dissent (Venice, 1977). He has exhibited in the Russian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2001), Moscow Museum of Modern Art (2012), and the State Tretyakov Gallery (2016). He lived and worked in the USA from 1979.

REGISTRATION

The founders of Sots Art Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid worked as a duo from 1972 to 2003. They created their first collaborative work in 1965. In 1967, after graduating from Moscow Higher School of Art and Industry, both worked as school teachers and as monumental artists. In the same year they had their first joint exhibition, Retrospectivism. In summer 1972, they worked as decorators at a pioneer summer camp outside Moscow, where the idea of the Sots Art series of paintings occurred to them. In 1977, they moved to Israel and in 1978 to the USA. They took part in the Bulldozer Exhibition (1974), the Biennale of Dissent (Venice, 1977), documenta 8 (Kassel, 1987), and the Venice Biennale (1999). They live and work in New York.

Francisco Infante (b. 1943) has been working with Nonna Goriunova since 1968. They explore the possible interactions between nature and artificial objects. They live and work in Moscow.

Viacheslav Koleichuk (1941–2018) was one of the key representatives of kinetic art in Russia, a member of the group Dvizhenie, and a theater designer.

Viktor Pivovarov (b. 1937) studied at Kalinin Moscow College of Art and Industry from 1951 to 1957 and the Moscow Printing Institute from 1957 to 1962. He took part in the Biennale of Dissent in Venice in 1977. He has been based in Prague since 1982. 

Ilya Kabakov (1933–2023) was a Soviet and American artist and a representative of Moscow Conceptualism. He began painting in the late 1950s and was an active participant in nonconformist art exhibitions in the Soviet Union and abroad. In the mid-1970s he started making a series of «albums”—sheets with texts about Soviet communal life—and in 1978 produced his first works for the ironic «zhek series» reflecting on Soviet housing management. In 1986, he created one of his best-known installations The Man Who Flew into Space from His Apartment. In the same year his wife Emilia Kabakov became his permanent collaborator. From the 1990s, Kabakov showed his work in dozens of major exhibitions across Europe and the USA, including at Centre Pompidou (Paris), the National Museum (Oslo), the Museum of Modern Art (New York), Kunsthalle Köln, the Venice Biennale in 1977, 1988, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2007, and documenta IX (Kassel, 1992). In 2008, he received a Praemium Imperiale Award in Japan, and had his largest retrospective show at three Moscow venues: Garage Center for Contemporary Art, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, and Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art. In August 2018, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov donated their studio in Sretensky Boulevard in Moscow to the Tretyakov Gallery.

Viktor Pivovarov (b. 1937) studied at Kalinin Moscow College of Art and Industry from 1951 to 1957 and the Moscow Printing Institute from 1957 to 1962. He took part in the Biennale of Dissent in Venice in 1977. He has been based in Prague since 1982.

Erik Bulatov (b. 1933) was one of the founders of Sots Art. In 1959, he became an artist at children’s publisher Detgiz where he worked alongside Ilya Kabakov and Oleg Vassiliev. Children’s book illustration was his main source of income for almost 30 years. He started exhibiting his own work in Moscow in 1957 and abroad in 1973. After a series of large exhibitions, including at Centre Pompidou and Kunsthalle Zürich, in 1988 he became UNESCO’s Artist of the Year. He took part in the 1977 Biennale of Dissent in Venice and the 1988 Venice Biennale and received an award at Gwangju Biennale (1997) and the Innovation Prize (2013). He has been based between Paris and Moscow since 1991.

Ivan Chuikov (1935–2020) is a representative of Moscow Conceptualism. He studied at the Moscow Secondary Art School from 1949 to 1954 and Surikov Moscow State Academic Art Institute from 1954 to 1960. He was a teacher at Vladivostok Art College from 1960 to 1962 and became a member of the Union of Artists of the Soviet Union in 1967.

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Eduard Steinberg (1937–2012) was taught to draw by his father Arkady Steinberg in Tarusa. In 1961, he moved to Moscow and in 1977 took part in the Biennale of Dissent in Venice. From 1988, he lived between Paris, Moscow, and Tarusa.

Vladimir Yankilevsky (1938–2018) studied at Moscow Secondary Art School from 1950 to 1956 and in the Art Department of Moscow Printing Institute from 1957 to 1962. In 1980, he became a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR. In 1990, he moved to New York and from 1992 he lived and worked in Paris.