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The triumph of private collecting in Moscow museums

Today, the demonstration of personal collections has become the leitmotif of the exhibition activities of the largest Russian museums. Collectors have come out of hiding and seem to be fighting for audience interest. As a result, all parties are happy: museum workers do not need to put in any intellectual or technical efforts to organize exhibitions (the owner of the works does everything himself), the viewer gets the opportunity to see something unprecedented, which was recently stored in a private apartment or country house, the collector extinguishes the fires of his ambitions. As a result, the end of the 1990s - mid-2000s will forever remain in the history of Russian art as an era of triumph of personal accumulation of art capital and presentation of what was acquired. Moreover, the current heirs to the work of Pavel Tretyakov and Sergei Shchukin, continuing traditions, can not only use museum sites, but also create them.

From the freshest and most extravagant examples. If the Moscow Frenchman Pierre-Christian Brochet occupied the building of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art in Ermolaevsky Lane (four floors, 800 sq. m.) with his collection of works by “current” Russian artists for just a month, then Igor Markin himself opened the public museum of contemporary art Art4. ru in the Khlynovsky dead end (the name contains an intricate play on words and languages: 4 is both the number of the house in which the museum is located, and the English preposition for - “for”, pronounced the same way as a numeral, that is, “art for Russia”, and a reference to fashionable Internet terminology). This is the first private museum of contemporary art in Moscow, and perhaps in the country. However, MMSI, despite its municipal status, is also called the “Tsereteli Museum,” but this is still on the sidelines. And the capital's galleries of Shilov, Glazunov and Burganov, lifetime memorials of the favorites of the authorities, are also under the tutelage of the mayor, and everything hanging and standing in them is bequeathed to the city. Markin demonstrates his personal acquisitions. Besides, he is not an artist, so there is no ambiguity in his endeavor, just altruism. Like, look what you collected. Although this altruism is coupled with healthy vanity.

The lists of artists that Brochet and Markin collect are exactly two-thirds the same. The exposition at MMSI, although it is an exhibition in its genre (it even has a name - the well-known advertising slogan “The future depends on you”, an ironic offering to the sponsor), does not have a strict conceptual and intellectual intrigue: everything collected by Brochet is distributed by year, territory (St. Petersburg has a separate floor) and technologies (“non-painting”, i.e. new media, a special nook is allocated). Well, Igor Markin created a simply chaotic and impressive museum, the highlight of which is the absence of labels with the names of authors and titles of works: the viewer is required to vote at the exit for the thing he likes, and here a famous name can spoil the purity of the experiment. And for those who are especially curious, displays with a computer version of the exhibition will be available: there are both facts and comments about each work. That is, these two projects are formally very close, despite the difference in the duration of their existence: two collectors opened their storerooms, which contained similar treasures.

And yet nothing is more different than these exhibitions. More precisely, their character, which reveals the mentality of the owner. This is the most interesting thing, given the aforementioned avalanche of demonstrations of private rarities. We look not at art - old, avant-garde, new or wildly radical, but at the one who collected it all. And the more clearly the image of the collector is revealed through the diversity and diversity of what is on display (in this case, it would be even more appropriate to say “Author” - given all the multitude of authors), the better the exhibition. Well, or a museum - now you can think in these categories.

So Pierre-Christian Brochet and Igor Markin are authors with a unique individual style. The first, a foreigner art critic who found himself in perestroika Moscow, has been collecting Russian contemporary art for more than fifteen years. The second, a native Muscovite, a former radio engineer and successful businessman, took up collecting only five years ago. Brochet has a professional education, refined taste and an inquisitive look (as well as glasses on a sharp nose, an eternal black suit), supported by acquaintance with the majority of those whose works he bought (selected, took out from closing workshops, received as a gift, exchanged for printing services, fortunately he owns his own publishing house). Markin has the flair of a manager, strict calculation, orientation to the advice of gallery owners and experts, the excitement of a neophyte (as well as a completely bohemian appearance - long hair, an untucked shirt, free manners).

And so Brochet assembled a surprisingly personal (albeit very representative) collection, about each item in which he is ready to talk for hours (or write, which is what was done in the exhibition catalogue). The collection is surprisingly coherent, despite the fact that it contains many “passing” and random works, actually rescued from the trash heap.

Markin really took aim at the museum. Who (and what) does he not have! If anyone has not seen the reporting exhibitions of the Tretyakov’s department of newest trends with classics of “other art” and perestroika stars, who has not systematically visited exhibitions of the leading metropolitan galleries, who is not familiar with the Russian participants of the largest international art reviews, a visit to the Markin Museum will be a very useful experience. It seems that the principle of acquisition here is: “We need to take it, and then we’ll figure it out.” The only important thing is the size of the work, which must be at least meter by meter in format. Here one can see the rollicking nature of the collector-merchant, who is controlled by instinctive desire, and not by gallant feelings. And it is important that the catalog contains an interview with the owner of the museum, but does not contain those reverent personal remarks that accompany each reproduction in Brochet’s album.

Yes, they are very different, these gatherers. And they prepared very different projects for their viewers, who are, in essence, members of the same “recipient group”. So don’t sigh: “Well, here it is again, a personal collection.” It's time to feel the difference when going to the next exhibition. Or to another museum.

Fedor ROMER