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Collection of Victor Bondarenko at the Museum of Modern Art of the Russian Academy of Arts
The exhibition “Always Different Art”, which is open in the halls of the MMSI on Gogolevsky Boulevard, is remarkable for several reasons. Firstly, it allows you to see the latest art of Russia in the form of a brief historical overview, quite suitable for illustrating general courses taught today everywhere for those waiting to meet beautiful rich ladies and advisers. Secondly, the organization of the exhibition itself leads to the philosophical conclusion that no matter how much we puff ourselves up, the full perception of contemporary art (at least domestic) depends on a correctly constructed context, internal communication between artifacts that need to say something to each other. that's significant. At the new exhibition, this context was outlined only in places. Therefore, communication with things fails, and all quality problems come to the fore.Perhaps the third reason is the main one. Any good collection is a self-portrait of the owner. In this case, the owner is very charismatic. Viktor Bondarenko started his own business (I mean collecting) since the late 80s. He is personally friends with many artists. Has an impressively wide interest in various collecting topics (in particular, the Rublev Museum presents an excellent collection of icons from his collection; both exhibitions - modern and ancient - are dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the owner). Having formed his attitude towards contemporary art when complex multi-level sophisticated discourses about this art had not yet been built (in late Soviet times), Viktor Bondarenko got used to trusting himself and seeing in his works, first of all, not conceptual abstruseness, but a well-known form-creative hedonism, tasty texture and An interesting incident in the field of plastic surgery. And this is where the problem area arises.
You walk through the solemn enfilade of a mansion on Gogolevsky and see, for example, the following: a composition by Alexander Kosolapov with the profile of Lenin inscribed in the yellow “M” of McDonald’s, the “Mona Lisa” floating in pixels by Georgy Pusenkoff, an imitation of torn scraps of painting along the perimeter of the canvas with a barely outlined a drawing on a white field by Ilya Kabakov, a stencil Spasskaya Tower, red on gold, by Alexey Belyaev-Gintovt, a photo collage with a naked Kulik on a horse on Red Square, a stylized caricature in “Crocodile” with a pioneer and girls on the beach by Konstantin Zvezdochetov... And that’s all in frowning ceremonial interiors. And all in heavy black frames. And everything is united by some themes similar to “Chaos and Cosmos”. A bad thought creeps in: the claims are too great, the answer is too timid. According to the plastic principle and “imperishable” formulations, such things obviously cannot be combined. Still, contemporary art is in most cases the area of intellectual design, and it is in this territory that all the most interesting things happen.
In the prepared setting of anticipation of large aesthetic meetings, the works that explore the gravitational field of the painting itself are fully perceived - Bulatov, Vasilyev, Shablavin, Infante, Pankin... Well, the sixties artists who honestly make their way to the essence of visuality are appropriate. And to reveal the meaning of the actual contemporary assembly of this collection, it is advisable to make a different one.