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ANDREI EROFEEV'S official title is Chief Curator of the Contemporary Art Collection of the Tsaritsino Museum.
Unofficially he might be called "protector of Russian contemporary art." |
Curator Erofeev outside the "Bunker Museum" |
| The "museum" is an underground storage shelter built to withstand an atomic blast. | |
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Erofeev was born in Paris of a diplomatic family. His education as an art historian prepared him for what has become an obsession. He has assembled the only collection that tracks the last fifty years of Russian contemporary art.
The collection is currently under siege, as various government bodies angle to appropriate the works for their pet projects. |
As matters stand the collection would survive an atomic attack, but not bureaucratic squabbles.
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Erofeev took London on a guided tour of the collection that he gathered with limited acquisition funds.
The accompanying Acoustiguide RealAudio and Video is the French language version. |
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The beginnings of Russian contemporary art, from 1950 to Kabakov
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 Action painting, Igor Kukles, 1956 |
 Kabakov, the mind-body problem |
The present era of Russian contemporary art begins in the 1950s. The Early Days video includes Ilya Kabakov's Head and Ball, 1965. |
Geometric Minimalism |
The "underground period" is surprisingly conservative. Contemporary artists took their cue from the government: Party hacks trumpeted the new and desecrated the past, so artists stood in opposition by advancing traditional ideals.
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 Pop Art Times
(3:33 min. RealVideo clip, in French) |
 Pop Art is Number One |
Russian artists sought a Russian context for Pop Art. |
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Sots Art is the hybrid offspring of Soviet Social Realism and Western Pop Art.
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 A night on the town for Uncle Joe and Marilyn, Leonid Sokov, 1992 |
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Few works of Komar and Melamid remain in Russia. |
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 Beavis and Butthead in Moscow, Georgij Ostreov, 1987 |
Russian authorities brutally suppressed the psychedelic-inspired artists of the 1980s.
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