Waiting for round -headed

The Art-Moskva Modern Art Fair in the Central House of Artists and Disciplined Modern Fans appeared at the Central House of the Artist (CDC) by four o'clock in the afternoon on Wednesday-as indicated in invitation tickets, which during the days of the Art-Moscow become a solid currency in the capital. The ticket can be bought at the checkout, but the possession of one way or another obtained by a branded piece of glossy cardboard means a special involvement in what is happening.

A day before the vernissage of the halls of the fair, the audience was already filled, which studied the expositions at the stands not as carefully as it happens under similar circumstances at European art forums, but still with a noticeable interest in the subject. There are many foreigners-not nominal people in the list of participants in the current Moskva, who, at the dawn of the existence of the art forum, brought exhibits in the portfolio or rolled up and gave the organizers a positive dynamics of the “international” of their undertakings, and allocated from year. It is difficult to say whether participants from France, Germany or Finland (34 foreign galleries reached Moscow) for commercial success in the Russian capital. Perhaps we are just talking about a line in a biography. But they prepared for the shows quite thoroughly, even if we consider only organizational efforts: both large -format paintings and sculpture were delivered to the Central House of Sciences.

Another thing is that the guests are not quite represented by the specific circumstances of the local art market - in particular, they do not inflate cheeks about the innovation of their exhibits and honestly write prices right on labels. For example, at the stand of the German Lumas gallery you can easily find out that the price of large -format color photographs can be approximately 10 times less than the work of comparable artistic merits at the stands of the Russians. Square landscapes with a side of 60 cm are sold 200 euros, a photo of a little more than a meter - 380 euros each, genre “nudges” do not reach 600 euros per pair, and even almost a two -meter imprint, which panoramously depicts numerous beach cabins, slightly exceeded a thousand euros. This, however, does not mean the desire of foreigners to trade in Russia exclusively at low prices: the early picturesque landscape of the French Dadaist and surrealist Francis Pikabia (1879-1953), written in 1909, the Helsinki gallerys estimated at 675 thousand euros, and the price of its meter-scale semi-automatic composition created in the 1936th, created in the 1936th, created in the 1936th, created in the 1936th, created in the 1936th Passed over a million.

However, the art-Moscow public, even if it has such money, is focused on a different, new water repertoire. A year ago, the fair celebrated its 10th anniversary, and now the expert council celebrates the anniversary, which was created in 1997 and diligently monitors the purity of the ranks of the Art-Moscow participants. If the work of Picabia, the author of the famous statements that “our heads have a round shape, so that thoughts can change their directions,” are offered not foreign participants, but some advanced Russian gallery, and a refusal could also be collapsed. Unlike Europe in Moscow, for some reason it is not customary to mix Modern Art in the first half of the twentieth century and Contemporary Art of its last decades. In Russia, the latest history of art was written in specific circumstances, even as a response to the European pop art, we had a social art at one time. During the existence of Art-Moscow, Russian contemporary art has made a whimsical path from non-conformism to office glamor. However, none of the experts seems to be concerned with such evolution. Well, okay - until the completion of the next fair is left for three days.

05/17/2007 / Sergey Safonov, the material was published in the "newspaper" No. 88 dated 05/18/2007.