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Museum - Odessa Museum of Modern Art
THE MUSEUM of ODESSA MODERN ART  
 

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ODESSA FINE ARTS
AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURIES
IN THE MUSEUM of ODESSA MODERN ART

Whatever the name of the state was, the city in it called Odessa was always different from any other. It was different with its style, its inhabitants and, definitely, its culture. Art, including painting, made no exception. The traditions of Odessa, its cultural myth, combining intellect and cosmopolitism with kindness, humor and tolerance, significantly defined the nature of the Odessa painting, broadened the views of the authors, gave their works some southern charm, European shine and chamber elegance.

1. Formation of Odessa Art School, its Leader Yuri Yegorov. 6. Modernism without Nonconformism
2. Oleg Sokolov. Artist, Poet, and Dissident 7. “Perestroika” of art in Odessa. Postmodernism. Transavantgarde
3. Fantastic Folklore of Yuriy Kovalenko 8. Conceptualism in Odessa
4. The Legend of Odessa Underground Valentin Khrusch and Stanislav Sychev, their «Fence Exhibition» 9. Art of the XXI Century
5. The Second Wave of the Odessa avant-garde. Apartment exhibitions of nonconformists of the 70s Expo hall

At the end of the ХIХ century the best masters of the Association of South-Russian Artists – the followers of the Itinerants in their modernized version, updated according to the tradition of Barbizon School – Kiriak Kostandi,Tit Dvornikov, Pyotr Nilus and their pupils brought up new generations of talented painters, laying down the basis for the future art school.
Other Odessites, who began their creative activity in the 10s of the XX century as members of avant-garde groups, added a new spirit to the classical school – that is how the modern art of Odessa was born.
Alongside with the successful development of Classic South-Russian School of Painting in the 30s-50s of the ХХ century, avant-garde was always natural in Odessa fine arts. Its Odessa features are confirmed by the history of exhibitions held here in the beginning of the XX century and the names belonging to the world culture such as: V.Kandinskiy, V. Baranov-Rossine, brothers Burlyuks, A. Exter, N. Altman and others.
Of course, Stalinism managed to “smash bones” in some artists and make some others forget about the “mistakes of the youth”. But, fortunately, it was only a temporary victory of the totalitarianism. The spirit of avant-garde and yearning for the freedom of creative activity have survived. Renascence was predetermined. The death of the Chief of All Nations only made it closer.
In the 60s unrest in the Soviet society changed approach to creativity. Both in Moscow and in Leningrad, and then in Odessa as well, underground started to form, later it was given a name which became its traditional term -“nonconformism”. Odessa non-official art was distinguished by its significant political indifference at that time of development. The main assessment criteria of a work of art were formal refinement of the technique, originality of the composition, color and light expressiveness.
It is certain that much of what was created by Odessa nonconformists, had already been developed by their great predecessors – modernists, both in the West and in Russia (as well as in Odessa itself) at the beginning of the century.
However, the informational void prevented Odessites from using these discoveries and forced them to go all the way by themselves, creating their own model of modernism, which appeared to be very individual due to their talent. For them, for the culture of Odessa and the whole USSR this creative work was avant-garde. That is how in the 60s-70s “the second wave of Odessa avant-garde” appeared.
It is natural, that the entry to the official exhibition halls was closed for such artists. The way out of such situation was found in such actions as “apartment exhibitions”.
The main participants of apartment exhibitions were, of course, the artists of the nonconformists’ group, called so by Lyudmila Yastreb. Nearly all the Odessa artists having works, which didn’t correspond the Soviet standards (but no talented and honest artist could correspond those standards) took part in apartment exhibitions, independently of their membership in the Union of Artists.
Exhibitions in the apartments and workshops were not clubby. They were real exhibitions: with continuous, “carpet” hanging, with participation of many authors; the doors were open and inside there were lots of visitors. Music was heard all the time, which was usually jazz, there were western art magazines and albums lying. Those gatherings became real cultural centers of their time, new creative impulses and trends, future collections and galleries originated from there.
The revolutionary changes in Soviet society that began in 1985 with Mikhail Gorbachov's coming-to-power introduced qualitative changes in state information and cultural policy.
With the beginning of “Perestroika,” the organizational and ideological barriers that choked “art for the masses,” gradually faded out of existence. Art work outside the rigid parameters of the Union of Artists became officially acceptable. It was at the end of 80’s – the beginning of 90’s that some new names, which became popular at the turn of the centuries, appeared in Odessa Art coterie. Changes in the society caused an avalanche of artistic exploration and experiments. Creative young people were looking for new ideas.
The target of their attack was no longer Socialist Realism, which was almost a myth at the time, but modernism, which failed to catch wind in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The creativity of Odessian non-conformists (classical modernists) quickly grew old in the eyes of young artists looked with the irony of a generation of punks.
The absurd reality of “developed socialism,” which were predominantly composed of simulacra (at which one could only laugh), coupled with the search for support in the experiences of world culture, hastened the advent of postmodernism.
The meeting in 1982 Leonid Voytsehov and Sergei Anufriev was the classical, generally accepted starting point for "Odessa conceptualism".
In the infant underground state "Odessa conceptualists" rarely brought their ideas to an exhibition or any events. Their art existed in a hangout "hippie" version. They looked at art as at a way of life, and regarded their works mostly not as works of art, but as the attributes of the style, a way of communication, a byproduct of their communications system, signs and signals sent to each other.
As a consequence of these meetings some series of joint works appeared, performances, collective street actions. The Odessites were fast enough to established contacts with Moscow conceptualists. The central figure in the process of establishing a "dialogue with Moscow” was Sergey Anufriyev. The first steps of still very young Sergey in the Capital were supported by another Odessite, who had settled in Moscow before and had become an active participant of Moscow avant-garde hangout - Vladimir Naumets. The contacts of the young Odessites brought a number of artistic interchanges between the two cities, which included arrivals of Moscow art groups in Odessa and their participation in Odessa events, as well as participacion of Odessa artists in a number of Moscow exhibitions.
After the "shuttle" period of temporary residence sometimes in Moscow, then in Odessa, in the late 80's, almost all the representatives of the "circle" settled in Moscow and played a prominent role in the Moscow art situation. .
Unfortunately, after the departure of the main group of conceptualists to Moscow and later all over the world, the development of this art trend nearly stopped in Odessa. Only at the beginning of 2000’s the interest to their creative work and ideas revived.
Toward the end of the 80s a pleiad of young artists, who focused on transforming the ideas of the Italian transavangarde, gathered in Odessa. Introduced to the city's art scene by the young artist, Aleksander Roitburd from Kiev, the practice of transavangarde quickly won several proponents. References to the great ancestors, a synthesis of different stylistic traditions and a half-ironic, half-respectful attitude toward the classics, all were widely celebrated in Odessa, and logically so. The emergence of “new southern Russians” at the end of the 80s struck Moscow and Kiev with an explosion of images and symbols, mixing objects on canvas.
Unlike other post-modernist movements, transavant-garde, though somewhat modernized, settled in Odessa for a long time and exerted considerable influence on the style of ХХI century works of numerous Odessa artists, what you can see in the Museum of Odessa Modern Art .
MoOMA was established on the 10th of April, 2008 by a young businessman, intellectual and patron V.Morokhovskiy on the basis of a unique collection of painters of “the second wave of Odessa avant-garde” of the famous collector M.Knobel. This collection has been considerably extended and added by art works of other painters. The art works of leading Odessa painters and sculptors of the turn of the XX and XXI centuries are exhibited in the MoOMA presently.
Sections dedicated to nonconformist art of Odessa are the pride of the Museum. Separate halls are dedicated to “apartment exhibitions” of nonconformists in the 70’s and the legendary “fence” exhibition of Valentin Kchrusch and Stanislav Sychov, who laid the foundation of illegal exhibitions in the USSR in 1967.
The rooms dedicated to the events in Odessa Fine Arts of the 80s-90’s are no less interesting, they reflect the formation of the group of conceptualists and “new wave” represented by “new South-Russian” transavantgarde within Odessa underground.
The rooms dedicated to the the establishment of Odessa School, its leader Yuri Yegorov and the evolution of modernizm in Odessa at the end of the ХХ century give the viewers a sense of deep sensual pleasure.
The rooms dedicated to the Art of the XXI century, prove the famous saying that life goes on – new artists appear in Odessa, with new ideas and subjects, able to glorify our city.