The Non-Conformists: The History of a Russian Collection

Paintings, installations, sculptures
and photographs from around fifty artists compose a chronological
course of the different currents of non-conformist art in the former
U.S.S.R and Russia.

The Tretyakov Collection was created between
1983 and 2008 on the initiative of Russian art critic Andrei Erofeev to
create a museum of the history of art mavericks in Moscow, as no Soviet
institution was interested in the avant-garde. Originally composed of
more than 5000 pieces, a selection of this collection eventually became
part of the Tretyakov National Gallery, making it the first institution
to house a department of Russian contemporary art.

The exhibition
thus allows a new dive in to this ‘Underground’ of the years 1960-2000.
Each chapter brings together artists from the same movement and
highlights their affinity with Tachism, kinetic art, Pop Art, conceptual
art, or performance.

The composition of the collection, revealing
the sometimes-complex relationships between artists, official art of
the Soviet era and institutions, will be evoked by historical documents,
chronological friezes and an educational program.

Text in English and French.