About the Archive

The archive of photographer Igor Mukhin comprises around 900 digital copies of analogue images made by him from the mid‑1980s to the 2010s. The archive was acquired by the Museum in 2021.

The photographs include documentation of performances, concerts, exhibitions, and other cultural events. The earlier shots show the migration of unofficial art of the USSR from apartments and palaces of culture to the new art galleries: musical performances by the group Sever, actions by Avdei Ter‑Oganyan, and exhibitions in the squat in Tryokhprudny Lane make way for exhibition openings at XL and Aidan galleries. The photographs of the mid‑1990s record the life of Russia’s first educational institutions in the field of contemporary art‑the Institute of Contemporary Art and the School of Contemporary Art‑and those of the 2000s depict open‑air art festivals (such as Art Klyazma), the participants of which include graduates of those art schools.

The photographs of the 2010s are once again immersed in the atmosphere of underground art, such as concerts by the Punk Fraction of the Red Brigades or meetings in the studios on Ulitsa Burlakova.

The artist’s studio is a frequent subject for Igor Mukhin. Garage Archive Collection now includes photographs of the studios of Valery Bashenin, Erik Bulatov, Oleg Vassiliev, Eduard Gorokhovsky, Alisa Ioffe, Alexander Sokolov, Ivan Chuikov, Nikolai Etsis, and Andrei Yakhnin. Many studios were located in the artists’ apartments.

The main part of the archive is portraits of cultural figures who form the history of unofficial art in the USSR and of Russian contemporary art. The photographer’s lens captured artists Yuri Zlotnikov, Marina Perchikhina, Ludmila Gorlova, and Sergei Shutov; poets Lev Rubinstein and Anna Alchuk; writers Vladimir Sorokin and Eduard Limonov; musicians from the group Obermaneken; photographers Georgy Pinkhasov, Tatyana Liberman, and Boris Mikhailov; directors Evgeny Yufit, Avdotya Smirnova, and Boris Yukhananov; curators Irina Gorlova and Joseph Backstein; art critics Alexander Panov and Andrei Kovalev; art historians Sasha Obukhova and Milena Orlova; and gallerists Elena Selina, Aidan Salakhova, and Alexander Yakut. The archive also includes portraits of Russian artists based abroad, such as Erik Bulatov, Yuri Albert, and Alexander Gurevich.

About Igor Mukhin

Igor Mukhin (b. 1961, Moscow) is a Soviet and Russian photographer. From 1977 to 1981, he studied at Kuibyshev Moscow Engineering and Construction Institute. Since 1990 he has been a member of the Moscow Union of Photo Artists, since 1993 the Russian Union of Photo Artists, and since 1994 the International Federation of Artists. He has been awarded the Silver Camera (2000, 2003). He teaches at Rodchenko Art School. He lives and works in Moscow.

Ирина Меглинская