Records of Private Art Collections in the USSR
Collections of underground art in the USSR in the 1960s and 1970s formed semi‑legally thanks to the efforts of a small circle of enthusiasts largely consisting of foreign diplomats and the scientific and cultural intelligentsia: physicists, literary historians, translators, and engineers who shared an interest in art that stood in opposition to the doctrine of socialist realism. Collections were stored at home and shown only to selected guests. Although collecting art was not officially prohibited, it was still risky: works could be confiscated and collectors suspected of speculation and prosecuted. Collectors visited studios and apartments of underground artists, bought paintings for modest amounts in antique shops, exchanged them for scarce goods or received them as gifts. It was a form of resistance against the suppression of avant‑garde art in official culture.This selection contains records of private collections and the lives of collectors and is built around photographs taken by collectors. An important part of the selection is made up of materials from the era of perestroika that reflect the institutional context of the time: exhibition plans and documentation of exhibitions that featured works from private collections, as well as rare ephemera.
The letters and diaries of Leonid Talochkin shed light on the experience of an underground art collector of the time and in particular contain mentions of the collector Ilya Zilberstein, whose activities contributed to the legitimation of private collections in the 1980s. Other materials include a business card of literary critic and collector Sergei Grigoryants, a draft of a George Costakis biography by Igor Golomshtok, and newspaper clippings on the collection of Nikita Lobanov‑Rostovsky. The selection also includes publications on the collections of Nikolai Khardzhiev and Michail Grobman, as well as a catalogue for the exhibition Other Art that featured works from Leonid Talochkin’s collection. It also features texts by art historian Alexander Kamensky, one of the first authors to focus their attention of the status of the collector in Soviet society.
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- Time span2020 – 2029