| Thaw: Russian Art From Glasnost to the PresentFebruary 28, 2008- May 17, 2008Reception: February 27, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Selections from the Guelman Collection '15G' exhibition at the Russian Museum, Marble Palace,
Saint Petersburg 2007.
Curated by Marat Guelman and Juan Puntes
Undoubtedly, politics have influenced the arts in Russia, and Marat Guelman,
founder of the M+J Guelman Gallery in Moscow, has become something of a
legend in his lifetime for both his support of the arts and his often provocative
political stance.
The title THAW is based on a real experienced situation by the people and the
art world in Russia from the 1960s onwards, a period of slow, gradual but real
thaw, a defrost of three quarters of a century’s cultural freeze that happened not
in a single decade, but over several decades, culminating in the period of the
1990s known as Glasnost.
The '15 G' of the subtitle refers to the first 15 years of Marat Guelman's art
gallery activities and how the events that took place there changed the artistic
panorama of Russia and helped create a real, tangible art scene in Moscow.
Radical people who frequented the gallery as audience, supporters,
sympathisers and as participating artists were coined "Guelmanites" - even to
this day. Artists in this exhibition include:AES+F, Blue Noses, Vladimir
Dubosarsky& Alexander Vinogradov, Gor Chahal, Olga&Alexander Florenskie ,
Georgy Ostretsov, Juri Shabelnikov, Vasili Tsagolov, Arsen Savadov,Valery
Koshlyakov, Dmitry Gutov, Alexander Kosolapov, Dmitry Vrubel & Viktoria
Timofeeva, Oleg Kulik, Erbol Meldibekov, Alexey Kallima, Avdei Ter-Oganian.
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