The art of internal affairs - Newspaper Kommersant No. 172 (7373) of 09/19/2022

The art of internal affairs - Newspaper Kommersant No. 172 (7373) of 09/19/2022



The 10th Cosmoscow contemporary art fair has ended in Gostiny Dvor (its online version with the same assortment is open until September 25). The fair was attended by 65 galleries, mostly Moscow, there were no foreign ones at all, but the works of foreign artists occasionally met on the stands. Otherwise, the current issue did not differ much from the issues of previous, peaceful years. Igor Grebelnikov it seemed that the fair art caused even more excitement than before.

In front of the entrance to the fair on the last day of its work, there was a hustle and bustle: a queue for entrance tickets (2 thousand rubles each), a queue for the wardrobe, a rather dense seating in the restaurant, temporarily deployed under the stairs of Gostiny Dvor. At the fair itself, the last deals were concluded: some gallery owners were waiting for buyers who reserved works, others were already rubbing their hands, someone even managed to update the exposition at the stand, as buyers hurried to pick up the purchased works, and somewhere they still hung, marked with red circles - sales sign. A lot of idle people: people came to watch the fair as a big exhibition of modern art. Their right is all the more so now, with the suspension of the work of the Garage Museum, the House of Culture GES-2, the Multimedia Art Museum (there is a repair), the tightening of the rules for displaying art in the Exhibition Halls of Moscow, there are significantly fewer places to get acquainted with the projects of contemporary artists .

Another thing is that art at fairs pursues a completely different goal than in museums and galleries: first of all, to be sold. However, in order not to look like a trading place at all, art fairs are “hung around” with all sorts of special projects, educational and parallel programs, but now, with the start of a military special operation in Ukraine, they are a minefield. In April, the display of Oleg Kulik's sculpture Big Mother in a special section of the Art Moscow fair turned into a criminal case for the artist under an article on desecration of symbols of military glory. The organizers of Cosmoscow did not allow such misfires: they took care of the viewer - and how they looked into the water. On the last day, even the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Peskov, who had not previously shown such interest in contemporary art, examined the fair stands.

Valeriy Chtak was named the "Artist of the Year" (the title entitles him to a large-scale project), and he quite accurately fell into the mood of the event, and, perhaps, of today. He painted more than thirty identical paintings in gray and black colors, differing only in the color of the inscription “Nonlinear Narrative” placed on a conditional city view: high-rise buildings, night, full moon, some symbols in rectangles - interpret as you like, but rather just admire.

And a good half of the works at the fair were distinguished by such an innocent message. There is a lot of the most diverse abstract painting, sometimes executed very sophisticatedly and as if even fraught with some plots - like the four-meter panel by Vlad Kulkov "The Path of the Spider" (800 thousand rubles, Anna Nova Gallery), or the two-meter paintings "Untitled" by Peter Kirill (330 thousand rubles, gallery Myth), or works by Vitaly Pushnitsky (from 360 thousand rubles, gallery pop / off / art). These paintings seem to be so absorbed in themselves - in color, texture, visual effects - that they leave no room for interpretation - only emotions. And yes, this is a win-win element of decor - like a carpet. Another pictorial fashion (particularly devoted to the new generation of artists) is something expressive and surreal, tenaciously grabbing the attention of the viewer: paintings by Kirill Mikhailin (from 310 thousand rubles, Alisa Gallery), or the Disappear Here series by Oli Avstreikh with swimmers as if dissolving in water (from 150 thousand rubles, Serene gallery), or paintings by Irina Petrakova - either dreams or vague memories (from 300 thousand rubles, Iragui gallery).

Not to say that the gloomy mood of our days at the fair is completely ignored: there are works that, of course, are not on the forehead, but still speak about the other side of the holiday. Absurdist staged photographs by the Voronezh author Kirill Savelyev (H.L.A.M. Gallery) are scenes from the life of provincial outcasts, presented in an extremely grotesque way, which is why they fascinate, especially against the general benevolent background. The black-and-white paintings by Rinat Voligamsi from Ufa (from 250,000 rubles, the 11.12 gallery) are pure surreal, although they are landscapes, people, buildings, in which something mundane and hopeless is easily recognizable.

And yet, many works meet the needs of more demanding collectors, those who do not rush to "fresh blood" or something safe to decorate the interior. Artists who are sensitive to what is happening, who, moreover, have won professional awards and participated in major exhibitions and biennials, are a much more promising investment. In the expressive painting of Ekaterina Muromtseva (500 thousand rubles, gallery XL) with some fantasy interiors, as if flying into fragments, or in quite realistic underground passages, corridors, doorways Semen Agroskin (from 250 thousand rubles, "Eastern gallery”), the present is seen much more clearly than in bright abstract overflows.

And the current Cosmoscow itself also showed an example of such meaningful collecting, presenting the collections of Sergei Limonov and Denis Khimilyaine: the large stand showed items acquired by them exclusively after February 24, 2022. At least this is how they commemorated the date that changed the world.



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