Russian-born Lena Liv captures Moscow’s socialist subways in Tel Aviv museum show

PHOTOGRAPHY INSTALLATION LIGHT BOXES MUSEUM SHOWS RUSSIA ISRAEL ITALY

Artist Lena Liv takes her shots in the early morning, capturing various Moscow subway stations before people crowd the architecture. Her interest in these Stalin-era “palaces for the Proletariat” may stem from a need to capture examples of the city’s “show architecture”, remnants of a building style that once mirrored state ideologies.

Russian-born, Liv has returned to her homeland after many years living and working in Italy and Israel. Her photographic installations, capturing as they do the extraordinary in the everyday, are now on show at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in an exhibition titled “Cathedrals for the Masses | Lena Liv: Moscow Metro“.

Lena Liv, 'Taganskaya', 2006-2009, transparency on glass, fluorescent light, wood and metal construction. This station was opened on 1 January, 1950 and is themed on medieval architecture. Image courtesy of Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

The museum summarises the exhibition on its website:

“Lena Liv’s lens exposes a paradox in the metro’s heroic building work: on the one hand, the buildings were meant to contain within their monumental dimensions a human body in search of domestication; on the other hand, this is building whose far-reaching ideology sought to turn Moscow from an ancient capital to the center of world Proletariat—to sow the “seeds of the new, socialist Moscow,” in the words of the journalists of the time. Above all, it seems that Lena Liv’s works testify that this show architecture was the first sprouts of a city that never materialized.”

Cathedrals for the Masses | Lena Liv: Moscow Metro is curated by Prof. Mordechai Omer and runs in collaboration with Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy. The exhibition runs until 9 October this year.

Lena Liv 'Grand Mayakovskaya', 2006-2009, transparency on glass, fluorescent light, wood and metal construction. This station was opened on 11 September, 1938 and is considered a masterpiece of Soviet Art Deco. It won the 1939 Grand Prize at the New York World's Fair. Image courtesy of Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

Lena Liv, 'Elektrovodskaya 1 and 2', 2005-2006, transparency on glass, fluorescent light, wood and metal construction. This station was opened on 15 May, 1944 and is themed on the home front struggle of the Great Patriotic War. It was the winner of the 1946 Stalin Prize. Image courtesy of Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

Lena Liv, 'Novokuznetskaya', 2006-2009, transparency on glass, fluorescent light, wood and metal construction. This station was opened on 20 November, 1943 and is themed on WWII. It was built as a monument to Soviet military valor. Image courtesy of Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

KN/HH

Related Topics: Russian artists, Israeli artists, European artists, photography, light art, museum shows

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• Photography in contemporary Russia – Art Radar speaks with Olga Sviblova, AES+F and Igor Moukhin – August 2010 – both Sviblova and Igor emphasise the popularity of photography in Russia
• World premiere of new AES+F photo collages at Moscow’s Garage Center – video – August 2010 – watch the video for stunning footage of this artist group’s latest creations
• Russian curators prosecuted for showcasing banned art: media round-up – August 2010 – we have hunted around to bring you the various views on this controversial decision
• Today’s societal image obsession explored in “10000 Lives”, Gwanju Biennale – August 2010 – an overview of this exhibition
• Compound Eye: RongRong and inri retrospective at He Xiangning Art Museum – June 2010 – an overview of the work produced by this husband-and-wife artist team, accompanied by stunning imagery

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World premiere of new AES+F photo collages at Moscow’s Garage Center – video

RUSSIAN ARTIST COLLECTIVE PHOTOGRAPHY VIDEO

Made up of artists Tatiana Arzamasova, Lev Evzovitch, Evgeny Svyatsky, and Vladmir Fridkes, internatinoally acclaimed Russian collective AES+F returns once again to Moscow’s Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in the center’s newest exhibition, “The Feast of Trimalchio“.

AES+F, 'Triptych #1. Panorama #2', 2010, digital collage. Image courtesy of Garage Center for Contemporary Culture.

Curated by Olga Sviblova, the collective’s interpretation of Satyricon, a work by Roman poet Gaius Petronious Arbiter, features a nine channel video installation of a hotel resort paradise threatened by disaster. The artists’ website states:

the atmosphere of ‘The Feast of Trimalchio’ can be seen as bringing together the hotel rituals of leisure and pleasure … On the other hand the ‘servants’ are more than attentive service-providers. They are participants in an orgy, bringing to life any fantasy of the ‘masters’.

The show, which runs from 19 June to 29 August, features both the video installation as well as several brand new, never-before-seen panoramic digital collages.

Watch Garage Center’s short preview of “The Feast of Trimalchio” here (video length, 1:07 mins)

EH/KN

Related Topics: AES+F, Russian, photography, video art

Related Articles:

• Russian curators prosecuted for showcasing banned art: media round-up – August 2010 – an overview of the viewpoints of art professionals, the church and the government as portrayed in the media
• Cause and Effect: London solo for Macau-Russian artist Konstantin Bessmertny – May 2010 – a contemporary Russian painter exhibits in London
• Art Dubai 2009- who sold what to whom? 15 galleries talk to Art Radar – March 2009 – AES+F resonates with Middle Eastern collectors at Art Dubai
• Dasha Zhukova experiments with exhibition of 12 leading video artists on giant outdoor screen- Moscow Times, Reuters – December 2008 – Garage Center for Contemporary Culture shows AES+F’s Last Riot on the jumbotron in Moscow
• Russian collective AES+F talks to the Art Newspaper about their meteoric success over the last year – August 2008 – the collective discusses inspirations, concepts and newly exhibited work

Subscribe to Art Radar Asia for more on AES+F and contemporary Russian art

Cause and Effect: London solo for Macau-Russian artist Konstantin Bessmertny

Bessmertny's Causarum Cognitio Philosophicus

Courtesy Rossi & Rossi

RUSSIAN ARTIST TALK EXHIBITION

A technical impresario who underwent rigorous formal training, Konstantin Bessmertny has risen to become one of Macau’s foremost artistic ambassadors.

Raised in Far Eastern Russia on the Chinese border, Bessmertny learned the traditions of European painting while studying under Russian dissidents exiled eastward by the Soviets. Later moving to Macau, a city of Chinese and Portuguese history, perpetually shadowed by the bustling Hong Kong, Bessmertny is a creature of boundaries between times, cultures and places. He represented the Chinese enclave at the Venice Biennale in 2007.

Konstantin Bessmertny, La Battaglia di Anghiari dell'Opera Perduta di Leonardo (Copy after Leonardo No. 2) 2009

Bessmertny’s works address the many absurdities of contemporary living and our understanding of history. The paintings are lush, thick with coded allusions to high and low culture. They gleefully portray challenges of basic, almost universally accepted understanding of zeitgeist and history.

Rossi & Rossi, in association with Amelia Johnson Contemporary, is holding an exhibition of much anticipated new paintings and sculpture by Bessmertny — Causarum Cognitio or Knowledge of Causes.

The exhibition is to be held from May 7 to June 3 at Rossi and Rossi www.rossirossi.com. An artist’s talk was held on May 8  with Pamela Kember, a director of the Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong.  Kember is a curator and historian of art. She has lectured at the Hong Kong Arts School and the Academy of Visual Arts in Hong Kong. She has contributed to Asian Art News, World Sculpture News and Art Asia Pacific.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue 52 pages in length.

Konstantin Bessmertny

Courtesy Museu de Arte de Macau

Pamela Kember

Courtesy Chelsea College of Art & Design

Related posts:

• The Problem of Asia; Para/Site art exhibition explores Asian identity in Sydney – May 2010
• Two contemporary art museums planned for Moscow – Sep 2009
• Wu Guanzhong – a retrospective at Singapore art museum – New York Times review – May 2009

AD/KCE

Kandinsky prize winner Russian artist Alexey Beliavev-Guintovt prices boosted by continuing controversy

Beliayev-Guintovt Star

 

RUSSIAN ART PRIZE

The Art Newspaper reports that Kandinsky Prize prize winner Alexey Beliavev-Guintovt continues to cause controversy and threatens a split amongst the supporters of the Russian contemporary art scene.

“These (art) unprecedented divisions in a community which hitherto has been more-or-less united to promote contemporary art in and outside Russia,” said Matthew Bown, a Russian art dealer based in London.

Artist accused of being fascist, jury member disavows vote

The debacle began on the night of the award ceremony when 2007 winner Anatoli Osmolovsky

stood up and lambasted Beliayev-Guintovt when he was announced the winner. In the days and weeks that followed, prominent dealers, critics and curators readily gave interviews accusing the artist of being a “fascist” and “ultra-nationalist” for his views, and his art style that harks back to Stalinist-era aesthetics.

Friedhelm Hutte, a jury member and representative of Deutsche Bank, the prize’s co-sponsor, retracted his vote for Beliayev-Guintovt in an interview with the German website, Taz.de.

Beliayev-Guintovt prices boosted by controversy

Whatever the state of the argument, and despite the economic downturn, the Kandinsky Prize and all the surrounding controversy have done the winner no harm at all. Triumph Gallery reports that prices of Beliayev-Guintovt’s works are up by 30%.

Source: The Art Newspaper

Related categories: Russian art, prizes, reports from Russia

Relatd posts:

• Kandinsky prize won by Beliayev-Guintovt Dec 2008 includes links to video of menacing ceremony and coverage by Reuters and Bloomberg 
• Dasha Zhukova’s Garage Center temporary, New York Times wrong Nov 2008
• Russian new media artists at MOMA Moscow where interest in electronic art grows Sep 2008
• Art prizes adding auctions and a charitable twist Aug 2008

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Sotheby’s irrevocable bid explained – FT, Saatchi

Kasimir Malevich Suprematist Composition 1916

 

AUCTION NEWS

What is an “irrevocable bid”? asks Georgina Adam in the Financial Times

‘A new symbol is perplexing dealers and collectors alike. It popped up for the first time in Sotheby’s catalogue for its Impressionist and Modern sale in New York this week, against Malevich’s “Suprematist Composition” (1916), estimated at $60m and which sold to just one bidder for that amount.

The auction house explains that under the “irrevocable bid” arrangement, it finds a person prepared to submit a bid for an undisclosed amount. If no one bids any higher, then the buyer gets the work and pays the buyer’s premium. If the work sells for more, then the “irrevocable bidder” gets a cut of what is called the “upside”, the difference between the final price and the secret price he or she agreed to bid. In the case of the Malevich, the irrevocable bidder secured the work at the price agreed in advance. In effect, the painting had been pre-sold – the only unknown was if anyone else would bid, and no one else did. The auction houses have been cutting back on financing guarantees themselves (Sotheby’s recently admitted it lost $15m in guarantees this autumn) and instead are farming them out to others in the form of “third party guarantees”. This is when an outside person carries the risk and benefits financially if the work of art sells for more than the expected price.’

Any difference between the irrevocable bid and the third party guarantee?

‘So what’s the difference between (the third party guarantee) and the “irrevocable bid”? I asked Sotheby’s. The third-party guarantor doesn’t bid, and the irrevocable bidder does, the firm said. This version was questioned by a number of dealers, who say that third-party guarantors can and do bid on works they have underwritten. “I don’t see the difference [between the third party and the irrevocable bid,” said New York dealer Richard Feigen; “This totally lacks transparency, and it’s time this market was more regulated.” ‘

The symbol might be new but not the concept

Anthony Haden-Guest in the Saatchi magazine explains ‘The notion of “irrevocable bids” was arrived at a couple of years ago when the market was still on a bender and it’s really a punt, a gambler’s option. Such a bid is made in advance of the auction and it cuts an auction house’s exposure. For instance, it removes the need for the auction house to put up a guarantee. Then if the irrevocable bidder secures the work, he or she pays the same premium as any other bidder, but if it goes above that level and somebody else buys the lot, the irrevocable bidder is rewarded by a slice of the deal. Fifty percent of the buyer’s premium, insiders say, but on this point Sotheby’s are mum.’

And is it really irrevocable?

Haden-Guest points out that there was also an irrevocable bid alongside Munch’s Vampire, another of the evening’s choice pieces, but Sotheby’s were saying this had been a typo, a printing error. ‘Pesky cynics, of course, were saying that the irrevocable had been revoked’ he writes.

And he reminds us how opaque the art markets can be.

‘In November 87 the Australian financier, Alan Bond, bought van Gogh’s Irises for $53.9 million, also at Sotheby’s, New York. This was then the most expensive painting ever sold. But two years later Sotheby’s revealed that they had loaned Bond $27 million of the purchase price, that he had failed to come up with his share of the moolah, and that they were keeping it at a secret location. It was bought by the Getty in 1990, the year of the Art Crash.

Shortly before the Malevich sale I asked Sotheby’s how they could satisfy themselves that the Irrevocable Bidder would not pull an Alan Bond? They responded: THE IB IS CONTRACTUALLY BINDING AND CANNOT BE REVOKED. So no worries clearly.’

• Image and explanation of ‘irrevocable bid’ bullet on Sotheby’s site and on Culture Grrl
• More press coverage: Munch buyer pulls out in The Art Newspaper,  
• More auction news, market watch, reports from New York on this site

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Emerging artists sell well at Zoo Art Fair London 2008 – Telegraph

 

Gosha Ostretsov

ART FAIR LONDON

 

Like Frieze, the Zoo Art Fair, which was held at the Royal Academy’s Burlington Street galleries, concentrates on new work. “Several of us did very well,” says Nick Hackworth, director of London’s Paradise Row gallery, which sold four works by Russian artist Gosha Ostretsov for £13,000 each within the first half an hour.

“We’ve had a lot of major collectors who would normally have been looking at very established artists, coming to look for new, exciting younger artists here. Maybe the trend this month is that while overvalued works at the top and middle of the market have suffered, emerging art is fine.”

See

• images on Gosha Ostretsov website
• more posts about emerging artists, Russian artists, art fairs
• latest news from London
• Telegraph site

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