Concerning the Spiritual Tradition from Kolodzei Collection - Chelsea Art Museum, NYC

Concerning the Spiritual Tradition in Russian Art:

Selections from the Kolodzei Art Foundation Collection of

Russian and Eastern European Art

 

Curated by Natalia Kolodzei

 

Opening Reception Thursday, April 14, 6-8 pm

The exhibition continues through May 7, 2011.

at

Chelsea Art Museum

Home of Miotte Foundation

556 West 22nd Street (@ 11th AVE), New York          

 

Concerning the Spiritual Tradition in Russian Art: Selections from the
Kolodzei Art Foundation examines the intersections of artistic and religious
consciousness that explore spiritual expression in the Soviet Union and
Russia.  This exhibition confronts the historical collisions of the sacred
and secular, the conflict of government censorship, and freedom of
expression under the Communist regime. During the Soviet era, such works of
religious subject matter were often banned from public display, and in some
cases, they were even confiscated.  

 

Images of Christian churches or objects of veneration, as in the works of
Oscar Rabin, Dmitri Plavinsky, and Anatolii Slepyshev, were considered
religious propaganda.  Art that was supportive of religion in any way was
unacceptable to Soviet authorities. Regardless, a number of Russian artists
turned to religious themes as a protest to government restrictions, an
escape from Russian day-to-day life, or a private expression of faith.
While some artists embraced traditional imagery depicting Russian churches,
religious icons, or images from the Old and New Testament, other artists,
such as Leonid Borisov and Gennadii Zubkov, expressed their spiritual ideas
in more abstract, geometric forms.  By the mid-1990's, after Russia had
emerged on the international art scene, artists shifted their focus to new
subjects and ideas like digital media, as is used in the work of Konstantin
Khudyakov and Alena Anosova. 

 

This selection of 50 works by 35 artists, spanning from the 1960's to the
present, illuminates the progression of various artistic and political
movements in Russia.  Featured artists from the 1960's and 1970's
participated in significant, unofficial exhibitions that challenged the
official, approved style of Socialist Realism.  Artworks from the 1980's to
the present reflect the emergence of a free and democratic Russia, after the
era of Perestroika. Concerning the Spiritual Tradition in Russian Art offers
the viewers a glimpse into artistic traditions of Russian artists who,
despite oppression, fervently re-appropriated sacred imagery as a way of
conveying rebellious expression.

 

The title for the exhibition alludes to Wassily Kandinsky Concerning the
Spiritual in Art of 1911.

 

 

Featured Artists

Alena Anosova, Edward Bekkerman, Farid Bogdalov, Leonid Borisov, Olga
Bulgakova, Irene Caesar, Mihail Chemiakin, Valeriy Gerlovin, Rimma
Gerlovina, Dimitry Gerrman, Francisco Infante, SanSan Kara, Vyacheslav and
Anna Koleychuk, Konstantin Khudyakov, Yefim Ladyzhensky, Valentina Lebedeva,
Tatiana Levitskaia, Komar and Melamid, Ernst Neizvestny, Vladimir
Ovchinnikov, Valeri Pianov, Dmitri Plavinsky, Petr Pushkarev, Oscar Rabin,
Eduard Shteinberg, Alexander Sitnikov, Anatolii Slepyshev, Yakov
Vinkovetsky, and Gennadii Zubkov

 

The Kolodzei Collection, founded by Tatiana Kolodzei in Moscow during the
height of the Cold War in the 1960's and continuing today with her daughter,
Natalia, is one of world's largest private art collections, with over 7,000
pieces by more than 300 artists from Russia and the former Soviet Union, and
chronicles four decades of nonconformist art from the post-Stalinist era to
the present. The Kolodzei Art Foundation, Inc., a US-based 501(c)(3)
not-for-profit public foundation started in 1991, organizes exhibitions in
museums and cultural centers in the United States, Russia and other
countries, often utilizing the considerable resources of the Kolodzei
Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art, arranges cultural exchanges
and publishes books on Russian art. In 2011 the Kolodzei Art Foundation
celebrates 20 years of supporting Russian and Eastern European Art. 

 

For additional information visit  <http://www.kolodzeiart.org/>
www.KolodzeiArt.org or email  <mailto:[email protected]>
[email protected]

 

Chelsea Art Museum, home of the Miotte Foundation, presents contemporary
thematic exhibitions that foster critical thinking about today's world. CAM
strives to cultivate respect for the world at large, exhibiting seminal, but
relatively unexplored dimensions of 20th and 21st century art, particularly
focusing on international artists that have less exposure in the United
States. The museum is founded on the legacy of abstract expressionist
painter, Jean Miotte, whose foundation is housed within the museum. 

 

Chelsea Art Museum
556 West 22nd Street | New York, NY 10011
(212) 255.0719 ~  <http://www.chelseaartmuseum.org/>
www.chelseaartmuseum.org

 




Museum hours:

Tue - Sat 11am - 6pm

Thursdays 11am - 8pm

 

General admission: $8 for adults

Directions: C/E to 23rd Street and 8th Ave.




Closed Sunday and Monday








 

Natalia Kolodzei

Kolodzei Art Foundation, Inc.

tel 1-732-545-8425 fax 1-732-545-8428

 <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]

 <http://www.kolodzeiart.org/> www.KolodzeiArt.org

1991-2011: Supporting Russian and Eastern European Art for 20 Years!

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