American Art Presented In Moscow At Pushkin Museum

Art in America: Three Hundred Years of Innovation, the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of American art to travel to Russia will be on view at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts through September 9, 2007. // www.huliq.com // more...

John Varoli. Growth in Russian market slows
Buyers go for quality as top works break records, and lesser works remain unsold

While Sotheby's and Christie's June sales of Russian art in London did well, with a combined total of almost £41m
($81m), there is growing consensus among auctioneers and art dealers that the era of rapid growth in this field is over. // www.theartnewspaper.com // more...

Sophia Kishkovsky. Dmitry Prigov 1940-2007
A Russian poet and performance artist whose work was respected in the west.

Dmitry Prigov, a prolific and influential Russian poet and artist who at one point was incarcerated in a Soviet psychiatric hospital as punishment for his work, died on July 16. He was 66. // www.times.spb.ru // more...

Sarah Nathan-Whyte. "Between Sky and Earth": a Chagall retrospective in Switzerland
MARTIGNY, Switzerland (EJP) --No greater tribute to Marc Chagall can be offered than that of the superb exhibition in the Swiss town of Martigny in the Canton of Valais which opened earlier this month.

No greater tribute to Marc Chagall can be offered than that of the superb exhibition in the Swiss town of Martigny in the
Canton of Valais which opened earlier this month. // www.ejpress.org // more...

Moscow artist shows people around his own show
An exhibition of one of the most famous Russian contemporary artists, Oleg Kulik, has been on at Moscow's Central House of Artists for a month now. Before the event closes, the artist himself decided to lead a tour around the exhibition.

An exhibition of one of the most famous Russian contemporary artists, Oleg Kulik, has been on at Moscow's Central House
of Artists for a month now. Before the event closes, the artist himself decided to lead a tour around the exhibition. // www.russiatoday.ru // more...

Amsterdam Museum to exhibit Russian Jewish art from the Stalin era

From 19 October 2007 the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam will present the exhibition Modern Masterpieces from Moscow. // www.ejpress.org // more...

International Bidders Give Nagel Record Sales

The special section devoted to Russian art of the Twentieth Century had a considerable share in the success of this spring auction, grossing nearly $2.7 million. The Suprematist painting by Ivan Kliun (1873-1943) displayed on the title page of the catalog was knocked down to a private German collector for $188,250. // www.antiquesandthearts.com // more...

Survey of innovative Soviet buildings that left imprint before Stalin's crackdown are on show at New York MOMA

It is a stretch of the imagination, but Soviet architecture exists, despite communism's grim legacies. And the best of these boldly innovative buildings are celebrated in a photographic survey at New York's Museum of Modern Art, where photographer Richard Pare has collected 75 color portraits from cities across the former Soviet Union for an exhibit. // www.iht.com // more...

Marilyn Henry. Art Restitution Goes on Trial

A lawsuit over ownership of 14 paintings by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich is currently pending in federal court in Washington. The case is complex, but this much seems certain: The court's ruling will strongly influence whether American courts remain open to claims for Nazi-looted artworks being held by European museums. // www.forward.com // more...

Rosie Ryan. Audit finds 160,000 Russian artefacts stolen

It's been almost a year since a curator was linked to the theft of millions of dollars worth of art, jewellery and
religious icons from Russia's Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. An audit ordered by President Vladimir Putin has now been
released. A government commission checked 500 museums with 20 million items – only a quarter of the country's total museum
collection. // www.abc.net.au // more...

Matthew Westphal. Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya Art Collection to Go for Auction

The 350-lot collection, estimated to be worth £3 million, is drawn from the belongings the couple assembled over three decades for their apartments in Paris and London, according to a statement released by Sotheby's last week. // www.playbillarts.com // more...

Rostropovich's rare art to be auctioned

Some 350 paintings and objets d'art collected by Russia's late cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and his wife, soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, will be auctioned by Sotheby's in London on Sept. 19, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported Saturday. // www.theglobeandmail.com // more...

Russian art marathon opens in Tokyo

The five-month Russian arts festival, to run till Nov 5, will feature classical opera and ballet productions by the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky theatres, as well as folk music and dance performances by troupes such as Beryozka and gigs by Russian pop star // www.indiaenews.com // more...

4-th International Video Art Festival in Public Spaces in 11 Russian Cities

OUTVIDEO'07, a video art festival has launched in eleven Russian cities at the same time. Till August 5 the outdoor advertising screens of these cities will demonstrate a 30-second long video art work every five minutes, every day a new work. // www.russia-ic.com // more...

Saori Kan . Art and ballet in a Russian pas de deux

Featuring innovative designs from the Russian theater of the early 20th century, the exhibition A World of Stage: Russian Designs for Theater, Opera, and Dance will open July 26 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum in Tokyo. // www.yomiuri.co.jp // more...

Colin Gleadell rounds up the latest developments in the art market

A drawing by Modigliani that was shown at the 20/21 International Art Fair earlier this year has become the first work by the artist to enter a Russian museum collection. // www.telegraph.co.uk // more...

Monument to Aivazovsky to be Set Up in St. Petersburg

A monument to the famous Russian artist Ivan Aivazovsky will be set up in Kronstadt. The unveiling ceremony will be timed to the 190th anniversary since the birth of the famed marine artist on July 29. // www.russia-ic.com // more...

I'll buy it, especially if it's Russian
The art scene in Russia is buzzing as local collectors snap up great works, particularly by their own countrymen

"FORGET the diamonds, buy me an art gallery." Do Moscow beauties really say this to their sugar daddies? Given the
current mood in Russia's capital it is almost likely. At home, at the Venice Biennale and in the galleries and auction
houses of London and New York, Muscovites are suffering from art mania, and loving it. // www.economist.com // more...

Russian Sots Art in Paris

The exhibition "Sots Art. Political Art in Russia" will be held in Paris. Maison Rouge will host it on October, 21. It was the idea of the State Tretyakov Gallery to show an exhibition of such a high level abroad. // www.russia-ic.com // more...

CAROL VOGEL. Hirst's Shark Moving to New Home in Met

ROSTROPOVICH'S PARIS HOUSE
"They recreated Czarist Russia," said Jo Vickery, senior director of Sotheby's Russian department in London. "They were big buyers way before Russian art and objects became so popular. In the 1980s and '90s they helped drive the market." // www.nytimes.com // more...

Doug MacCash. Iconic Images: Russian icons are right where they belong at NOMA

Russian icons generally are small paintings of the savior and the saints, rendered in a stiff, playing card style and
often encased in a golden jacket to protect the surface from the ritualistic touching and kissing given the icons in
churches and home shrines. // http://blog.nola.com // more...

Rostropovich's collection of paintings to be sold at Sotheby's

Sotheby's department in London has announced an auction devoted to sale of masterpieces of Russian Art collected by world famous cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and his widow Galina Vishnevskaya. // www.russia-ic.com // more...

Russian poet Dmitri Prigov, leader of conceptualist school, dies at age 66

Dmitri Prigov, one of the most influential poets of the post-Soviet era, died early Monday in a Moscow hospital, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported. He was 66. // The Associated Press – The International Herald Tribune // more...

Victor Sonkin. Salon
Dmitry Prigov writes of an universe where nothing is decided and everything is happening here and now

Dmitry Alexandrovich Prigov, one of the most influential poets of the post-Soviet era, was hospitalized last weekend with a massive heart attack, and the doctors fear for his life. Hoping for the best, his faithful fans all over the world will be re-reading his poems and recalling the joy and laughter of their youth, when Prigov's poems first became widely known. // The Moscow Times // more...

John Varoli. Sotheby's to Sell Rostropovich's Art for Up to $14.6 Million

Rostropovich died on April 27 at the age of 80. The art to be sold is only a portion of the couple's extensive holdings, most of which are in their residences in Moscow, St. Petersburg, London and Paris, Jo Vickery, head of Sotheby's Russian department in London, said in a telephone interview. The decision to sell was made before Rostropovich's death, she said. // www.bloomberg.com // more...

Maev Kennedy. The power and the passion: letters from great names sell for millions
Collection sold at Christie's sparks bidding in person, by phone and via internet

The estimate for Napoleon's lament from a cruelly misjudged lover began at £25,000 – but bidding at Christie's yesterday started at £30,000. It eventually made a world record price for one of the Little Corporal's letters, from an internet buyer, of £276,000. The letter to "incomparable Josephine" is one of only three which survive from the wild affair between their meeting in December 1795 and their marriage the following March. // The Guardian  // more...

Tatyana Antoshina. Art Without Shores

Kassel saw the 12th opening of Documenta – the largest and most prestigious international exhibition, which takes place every five years. Events that take place under its aegis include the Second Lives film festival, musical concerts, performances, lectures and educational programs, guided tours, a fashion show by the African designer Oumou Sy, the participation of Ferran Adrià, a Spanish restaurant chef, and numerous other activities. more...

Painter Malevich's heirs can sue Amsterdam for art

A U.S. court has ruled that the heirs of Kazimir Malevich, a noted Russian painter of geometric abstract art, can sue the
city of Amsterdam to recover 14 artworks worth tens of million of dollars, a lawyer for the family said on Friday. // reuters.com // more...

Chris Gordon. Hopper's highway

Dennis Hopper, the American actor, director and artist, was in St. Petersburg last week to open an exhibition of his work at the State Hermitage Museum. Known primarily as an actor, Hopper's biography reads like a catalogue of some of the most celebrated films made in Hollywood in the last 50 years. But that didn't stop him from also becoming an artist; making photographs, paintings and assemblages that share the same concerns as some of the most important art of the 20th century. more...

Return of the Memory / New Art from Russia
Natalja Perchina & Olga Chernysheva, Red Sails, videostill, 2006. Curator – Viktor Misiano

On Tuesday, May 15th at 12 AM a press conference introducing the exhibition is taking place at the Kumu Contemporary Art Gallery. In connection to curator Viktor Misiano's staying in Italy the press event will be conducted by Estonian organizers of the exhibition Sirje Helme and Eha Komissarov. Viktor Misiano's visit to Estonia will be postponed to June – curator has agreed to introduce the exhibition in the form of a lecture and press meetings. The concrete plans concerning his lecture are being introduced later. more...

Kate Taylor. Who Was Natalia Goncharova?

The most expensive woman artist is one you may not have heard of until last week: the Russian avant-garde painter Natalia
Goncharova. more...

The best Venice for years
The French and American pavilions are among the highlights of the Biennale, says Richard Dorment. What a pity Tracey Emin lets Britain down

I did not meet a single person at the Biennale who wasn't impressed by Last Riot, a film by AES+F (Tatiana Arzamasova, Lev Evzovich, Evgeny Svyatsky and Vladimir Fridkes) that was being shown at the Russian pavilion. Mingling live actors and superbly realised computer animation, it was about nothing less than Armageddon, the last throes of a world in which androgynous teenagers spend their final moments mindlessly trying to kill each other with swords, baseball bats and golf clubs – all this to the strains of Wagner's Götterdämmerung more...

The hottest month for art in a decade
As modern art's four key events prepare to open, Alastair Sooke previews the first – the Venice Biennale

Surprisingly, given that the exhibition examines what it means to be Ukrainian, only four are from there – and two are British. Sam Taylor-Wood, best-known for her 2002 video portrait of David Beckham sleeping, will unveil two new films: one of a Ukrainian ballet dancer suspended in mid-air, the other of a decomposing swan. Mark Titchner, who was nominated for last year's Turner Prize, has come up with a banner bearing the slogan "We Are Ukrainians, What Else Matters?", as well as a sculpture of a trident – Ukraine's national symbol – to which he has added a pair of glasses. more...

Louise Jury. Whose art is it anyway?

Olga Sviblova, the dynamic blonde curating the Russian pavilion, wants to transform her homeland's reputation with a show financed for the first time by private businessmen as well as the government. Business, she claims, is seeing the point of art for the first time. She has a track record: Chelsea Football Club-owner Roman Abramovich backed her last two exhibitions in London, both at the Gilbert Collection at Somerset House. more...

Venice takes flight

War is bad, we're all going to die, and men with bird heads are a very bad sign... in a special report from the world's biggest arts jamboree, Adrian Searle reveals what the Venice Biennale has to teach us more...

Sometimes the world makes sense

Russia knocked people for six with its half-dozen artists. A coruscating media shower in which zillions of TV images glittered down the cubicle walls was so up-to-speed it featured Gordon Brown alongside Paris Hilton. The butterfly-effect of Hong-Kong stock exchange riots caused a tidal wave that literally plunged, in its tank, towards you. And the biggest crowd at the Biennale was for a three-screen film combining live actors with superb animations that dramatised Armageddon: trains tumbling from cliffs, teenagers fighting to the death – a cross between Manga movies and Paolo Uccello. more...

Venice Biennale bigger, but not better

Bitchy political humor was the order of the day in many, perhaps even most, of the pavilions. It's a very political biennale. In the impressive Russian pavilion, Alexander Ponomarev has a good laugh at George Bush's attempt to dance like the locals during a state visit to Africa, in a clever video piece that combines absurd scenes from world affairs with a recurring image of the sun setting over Venice. I think the artist's point is that out there in the real world, a global madness has set in, but in Venice, nothing ever changes. He's not wrong. more...

Lisa Scherzer . As the Ultra Rich Eye Art, Sotheby's Garners a Second Look

Robbert van Batenburg:
"I believe it was two weeks ago, Christie's had an auction of Russian art, which drew in record amounts in sales. The demand for Russian art was high from this new class of wealthy Russians. There's a new emerging class of wealthy people and they find great pride and status in the acquisition of art. They're looking for status-enhancing tools. A car is one example, a big house is another, and art is another." more...

Russian buyers accounting for 40% of top end homes for sale

In 2005 Knight Frank and Seddons Solicitors produced a property buyers guide for Russians as a response to the increasing amount of Russian buyers in London. Designed to clarify the purchasing process it included information and advice on the London property market. more...

Paul Abelsky. Sense and Religious Sensibilities
Russia's Orthodox Establishment Takes on Modern Art Again

Russia's Orthodox Establishment Takes on Modern Art Again
A growing number of cases in recent years has kept contemporary art – along with homosexuality and popular culture in general – as the lightenining rod for religious censure. more...