Joseph Backstein Collection

Joseph Backstein (1945–2024) was a curator, art historian and critic and a key figure of the Russian contemporary art scene over the past four decades. Over approximately the same period, a collection of artworks gifted to him by their authors was formed.

This presentation marks the second iteration of works from his archive, which comprises approximately 200 pieces. The display brings together gifts from Nikita Alexeev, Yuri Albert, Maxim Ilyukhin, George Kiesewalter, Maria Konstantinova, Alexander Kosolapov, Oleg Kulik, Diana Machulina, Andrei Monastyrsky, Irina Nakhova, Alexander Povzner, and the art groups Nest (Gnezdo), Peppers (Pertsy), and ABC (Art Business Consulting)—friends and graduates of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Moscow, which is now named after Joseph Backstein.

In 2018, among numerous documents and photographs, Backstein donated to Garage Archive Collection several address books containing alphabetical indexes and the contacts of both longstanding and recent acquaintances. According to his widow, art critic Katy Deepwell, Backstein always carried them with him, even after he began using a mobile phone.

Deeply personal, the Joseph Backstein archive recalls one of these address books: here, names are accompanied by annotations, and gifted works by dedications—or, as in the case of Irina Nakhova’s works on paper, displayed under Backstein’s curatorship at the exhibition in Butyrka Prison in February 1992, by the historical circumstances of their display.