Apraksin Blues № 15.
2008 - THE HEART OF THINGS
THE BEAUTIFUL MALADY OF COLLECTING. INTERVIEW WITH RUVIM BRAUDE
Irina Rapoport (translation
by James Manteith)
You draw, you draw,
it'll be to your credit.
Bulat Okudzhava
RUVIM BRAUDE
San
Francisco, Monterey Boulevard. I
approach a house that sooner recalls a miniature castle. It stands on a hill overlooking the ocean,
today as still as blue glass. Only white
sailboats in the distance enliven its placid smoothness. An improbable peace!
The
door is opened by the house's master—an energetic, graying, highly charming
man. It was he, Ruvim Braude, who
gathered in the house (later helped by his wife Inna) a unique collection of
the paintings and drawings of Leningrad artists of the second half of the 20th
century. Entering here, you immediately
feel the atmosphere of the intense life of Leningrad, in which the artists
lived and struggled, defending their right to express themselves in art.
The fight to establish an independent
art had begun in Leningrad by the 1950s and reached a peak in the 1970s. Its best-known events proved to be the famous
exhibits at the I. Gaz Palace of Culture in 1974 and at the Nevsky Palace of
Culture in 1975, held in response to the so-called "bulldozer"
exhibit in Moscow in 1974. The Leningrad
artists called their movement "Gaza-Nevsky culture" or Gazanevshchina. As a result of this movement, there emerged a
"Fellowship of Experimental Exhibitions" — TEV.
By the 1980s, due to pressure from the
authorities, many of the participants in Gazanevshchina were forced to
emigrate. The rest, along with artists
of the younger generation, organized as TEII, "Fellowship of Experimental
Fine Arts". TEII formed the basis
for a third formation — the Fellowship "Free Culture" along with the
art center "Pushkinskaya-10".
"Pushkinskaya-10", thanks to
the noble and tireless work of leading artists Sergei Kovalsky and Yevgeny
Orlov, has turned into a major cultural center, now known in many countries
throughout the world. The center has
expanded its activies to other areas of culture and has also created a
permanent Museum of Non-Conformist Art.
At "Pushkinskaya-10", great
care is shown to the cultural heritage of the Gazanevshchina artists. In 2004 in Petersburg, at the Central
Exhibition Hall "Manege", a "Festival of Independent Art"
took place, dedicated to the thirtieth anniversary of the exhibit at the Gaz
Palace of Culture. The organizers did a
tremendous job, gathering materials and showing the work of all the
participants of Gazanevshchina and "Pushkinskaya-10", connecting the
past and the present of the non-conformist art of Leningrad-Petersburg.
Braude's
collection in San Francisco happens to be devoted mainly to Leningrad
non-conformist artists. Assembled very
thoughtfully, it presents artists of many different directions. No artist, no work is here by chance. Each work bears the imprint of its author's
identity and has its own place in the collection. Rarely can one see such a clearly focused
private collection.
IRINA RAPOPORT (IR) — Ruvim, tell me, please, what caused you to start
collecting? Fine art probably wasn't a
central interest in your family. Your
grandfather was the chief rabbi of Leningrad.
RUVIM BRAUDE (RB) — The turning point and the beginning of my interest —
no, passion for art — was the exhibit in 1975 at the Nevsky Palace of Culture,
to which a friend happened to take me.
This had an aesthetic, moral, political impact that qualitatively
changed by life. I was also stunned by
viewers' interest in this exhibit: such
a conscious, collective interest in art.
Remember the unprecedented lines for the exhibit? I began to dream that one day I could have
one or two of those works.
Unfortunately, at that time I knew nothing about the apartment exhibits
of the 1970s.
IR — When did you start thinking about your own collection?
RB — In 1981 I happened to visit an emigrant household in Long Island where
all the walls were hung with works by non-conformist artists. This immediately awakened assocations in my
memory and a thought crossed my mind about a potential chance for
collecting. That same year, I learned by
chance about an exhibit of Y.Abezgauz at a synagogue in New Jersey. I remember him from the Nevsky exhibit, and
with my meager funds acquired his graphic work "Again a Pogrom. What's to
be Done?"
IR — So a chain of "coincidences" led you to the idea of
collecting. What was the first painting
in your collection?
RB — "Sabbath", by Alexander Manusov (Ill. 1). I still have a sense of awe when I look at
it.
IR — A beautiful start! Sasha, whose
life ended prematurely, was a brilliant colorist, as this work shows. He has a very serious series on the theme of
the Old Testament and the Holocaust.
1. A.
Manusov, Sabbath
Yes,
the art of Gazanevshchina truly left a deep trace in your mind. The well-chosen works by its participants, as
well as by members of the "ALEF" group that emerged from it, have
made the collection very focused.
RB — But I didn't limit myself, it just happened. And those weren't the only
"coincidences". An aquaintance
staying a few days in San Francisco met (again by chance!), in Chinatown, Alek
Rapoport and you. I remembered Alek's
art from Leningrad and just leaped at the opportunity to get to know him
personally.
The
late I.V. connected me with Zhenya Ukhnalyov, asking me to help him sort out
documents related to his stay as a guest in San Francisco. R.S., the widow of Sasha Manusov, acquainted
me with Sasha Gurevich, and this meeting was providential for both of us.
IR — You're a guardian angel for Gurevich's art. You've done everything a sponsor can do for
an artist: assembled a large collection
of his works, organized several exhibits at your home, presenting his art to
many viewers, part of whom in turn started getting involved in collecting. You also systematized his own collection and
organized the release of an outstanding album... You know, as Matisse's son said: "If it hadn't been a Shchukin, there
wouldn't have been a Matisse."
These words don't downplay the significance of the artist's creativity,
but express the well-earned thanks due to the sponsor.
The
painting reproduced here (Ill. 2) is very typical for Sasha. In the words of the wonderful art historian
B.M. Bernshtein, the art of the past "weighs on an artist like the
atmospheric column." Most of
Gurevich's scenes and compositions suggest old painting, much as this one
relates to a painting by the 17th century French artist G. de la Tours. The scene has an interesting detail: beside the sitting musician, who has
Gurevich's own face, rests a handful of small change. It's a symbol of the sad lot of most artists
in all times.
2. A.
Gurevich, Hurdy-Gurdy Player
RB — And here is my favorite artist from Gazanevshchina and the ALEF group —
Alek Rapoport.
IR — Alek is my favorite artist, too.
"The soul of my soul," with whom we were connected in 35 years
of love. Probably in the passion, the
intensity, the seeking after truth, the religious doubts, in which he lived and
worked, can be found the reason for his early death while at work in his
workshop in San Francisco. As B.M.
Bernshtein pointed out in studying the cycle "Angel and Prophet",
it's even hard to understood what the artist expected, releasing his progeny
into this world: "In the veins of
the outwardly calm and wise artist streamed the blood of Biblical prophets,
visionaries and heralds of truth."
M.Lemkhin compared Alek with Atlas, who "didn't even think of
tossing the weight of great traditions from his shoulders — art for him was
primarily responsibility."
You
have representations of all the genres Alek worked in: Biblical, "Images of San
Francisco," self-portraits, still-lives (Ill. 3). Here is also "Self-Portrait" from
the 1950s, which Alek did while still quite young, and soldier drawings from
the period when he served in the army in Birobidzhan. You even have his "Composition with a
Kwakintle Mask" — a result of Alek's brief study of the cultural heritage
of American Indians.
3. A.
Rapoport, Still-Life with Dictionary
RB — I know Alek admired the work of Sasha Arefyev. I greatly value this drawing of his, the only
one in my collection (Ill. 4).
IR — Yes, it is rare. Sasha Arefyev
was one of the most significant figures of Leningrad non-conformism. He was a remarkable artist and a born
fighter. By the 1950s he had already
organized the "Order of Mendicant Painters". The subject of the drawing in your collection
is very typical. The theme of the
"victim's suffering and the tormentor's delight" runs through all his
work.
4. A.
Arefyev, Lady and Two Hooligans
RB — And here's another artist from Gazanevshchina and the "ALEF"
group — Anatoly Basin, quite a different nature: sad, harmonious, intimate
(Ill. 5). I recall that Alek appreciated
his work. Did they have different
teachers?
IR — Yes. Basin belonged to the
"Sidlin school", well-known in the 1950s and '60s. O.A. Sidlin (1909-1972) taught at Leningrad
art studios and had an enormous impact on a large group of artists, many of
whom joined the non-conformist movement.
Basin is a typical "Sidlinite". The teacher's idea was to concentrate on the
painting process itself (not on depicting emotions, literary scenes, psychology
and so on). Sidlin taught to convey
impressions of the world only as organized blotches of color. Before his death, he destroyed all his works,
because he thought only the creative process itself was important, not its
result. Sidlin's remaining students
still pronounce his name with breathy reverence.
5. A. Basin,
Two
One
of Alek's fellow students in N.P. Akimov's class at the Leningrad Institute of theater,
music and cinematography, as well as his friend, was Misha Kulakov. Living in Italy, he didn't directly take part
in the Leningrad non-conformist movement, but was also a non-conformist by
nature, as well as in the manner of his work.
He was one of the first among his peers to start studying the work of
Jackson Pollock and to make his own abstract compositions. Unlike most emasculated American abstraction,
his works are spiritual and carry a charge of unorthodox religiosity (Ill. 6).
6. M. Kulakov,
Composition
You
have many works by Yevgeny Ukhnalyov.
Alek called him an "honest artist." Among the works of his that I know,
"Boxcar" stands out (Ill. 7).
It has so much symbolism, which I don't always understand. Tell me about it, please.
RB — "Boxcar" is an extremely interesting triptych, which consists
of three separate parts. Zhenya himself
named this work with a line from a song by Galich, "Kadish": "And somewhere on the rails, on the
rails, on the rails — wheels, wheels, wheels, wheels..." An old,
fire-scorched boxcar, depicted in three parts that reflect three different
periods of the history of the 20th century, with the horrors of revolution and
civil worn; the Second World War and the Holocaust; the Stalinist repressions.
On
the left side of the boxcar is a symbol of the outgoing government in the
emblem of the czarist empire—a double-headed eagle—and sloppily written
fragments of revolutionary slogans:
"All power...", "Give..." and so on. In the distance is a dark smoky glow.
7. Y.
Ukhnalyov, Boxcar (triptych)
On
the middle part of the boxcar's wall is a Nazi swastika, fragments of
inscriptions in German, including a sprawling "only for Jews,
1944". The door is open, the boxcar
is empty, only over its edge hangs one end of a prayer shawl. In the distance is a row of gloomy camp
buildings and the smoking chimney of a crematorium.
On
the right side is the stamp of the October Railroad, an indication of the
destination, "Rechlag", 1948 and the camp number that was assigned to
the 18-year-old inmate Yevgeny Ukhnalyov.
In the distance is the "smoking hill of Vorkuta".
IR — Thank you, Ruvim. I think it's
Ukhnalyov's most significant work, and I'm glad it's in your collection.
Michael
Iofin came to the exhibit at the Gaz Palace of Culture as a 14-year-old
boy. It was then, he said, that he
realized that besides "Soviet" art there was also "different and
real" art. In his subsequent work,
Misha preserved the best traditions of "dissident" artists and became
an original and mature artist. His
typical topics deal with the artists of the past, as well as the theme of the
theatrical and dramatic carnival of Petersburg-San Francisco. He pays tribute to Petersburg in almost all
his works. But the painting in your
collection, Ruvim, focuses completely on the city's image and on conveying its
hidden spirit. I like this work very
much — "Pushkin over Petersburg" (Ill. 8).
The
northern, pale, quiet dusk. The stern
geometry of five horizontal lines: the
embossed line of the black lattice of iron railings powdered with snow; the
line of the single-toned, motionless surface of the Neva; the clear line of the
opposite shore; the unbroken line of slightly tinted buildings, the monotone
line of their upper boundary, enlived by the verticals of the spire domes,
chimneys. And over this landscape — the
horizontally soaring figure of A.S. Pushkin, overshadowing and personifying
Petersburg, the city mirage, frozen in its perfect and eternal harmony.
8. M. Yofin,
Pushkin over Petersburg
It
also seems remarkable to me how precisely the artist captured the idea of Peter
the Great, the principle of of strict regulation in constructing the city —
exemplary, proper, regular, geometrically calibrated. This work is so close to my heart!
RB — Several other artists in my collection have ties with Gazanevshcina —
V. Weiderman, Y. Abezgauz, S.
Ostrovsky. And with
"Pushkinskaya-10" — V. Gerasimenko, Y. Tikotsky, B. Borsch.
9. B. Borsch,
Petersburg Landscape
IR — Boris Borsch may be one of Petersburg's best contemporary landscape
artists (Ill. 9). But this graphic sheet
by Y. Tikotsky, "Fragment" (Ill. 10), strikes me as unusual. I don't know his work very well, but it seems
to me that this drawing, describing the details of routine life in a
"mestechko" townlet, falls outside of the main line of his work with
its Semitic theme and spirit.
10. Y.
Tykotsky, Fragment
Yakov
Feldman. Ruvim, I've never seen his work
before, and I like them very much. Who
is he?
RB — He's a young artist, born in Vitebsk, and now living in Jerusalem. It's interesting that his grandmother was a
niece of M. Chagal.
IR — His "Adam and Eve" (Ill. 11) is painted skillfully and its
technique reminds me of the work of the old masters — on a board, dark and rich
paint on the surface, the use of glaze.
Yet the traditional Biblical subject is brought nearer to modernity with
two kitsch details — Eve, instead of a fig leaf, is shielded by an image of scissors,
and Adam, by a spoon. It's a wonderful
acquisition, and a perfect fit for your collection.
11. Y.
Feldman, Adam and Eve
Ruvim,
in what direction will you continue — increasing the number of artists the
collection already represents, or will you emphasize Jewish artists, or
contemporary non-conformist art from Petersburg?
RB — I'm still collecting.
Fortunately, my wife Inna supports me.
She understands that collecting for me isn't a hobby but a passion, born
during the rise of non-conformist art.
It's a unique phenomenon in the history of development of art, a entire
movement arising as a consequence of unprecedented violence against art. The bitter irony is that art was born not in
spite of but because of persecution.
I
don't approach collecting for a purely aesthetic position — this I like, that,
no. I don't approach it with a
commercial outlook, either — selling the next day what goes up in price. What's important to me is art's combination
of historical, political, psychological, aesthetic significance. I think I'll expand my collection of artists
I already have. They're going through
transformations on their creative path, and I'll go with them, on the same
road. I also want to expand my collection
by acquiring art by contemporary artists connected with
"Pushkinskaya-10".
IR — How many works are included in your collection? What part of them are you able to display on
the walls of your home?
RB — About a hundred paintings, plus drawings and some sculpture, and
probably a third of that is on display.
IR — Do you acquire works, as did your famous predecessory P.M. Tretyakov,
while visiting the workshops of unknown artists?
RB — I guess so.
IR — Are artists generous with gifts?
RB — Yes, they're generous. The thing
is, some of my favorite artists also become favorite friends, with friendships
lasting many years. A gift is always
nice, but one has to keep in mind that an artist's work is also his way of
making a living.
IR — I'm delighted that your collection doesn't included any emasculated
Moscow "dip-art" — "art for diplomats", which almost no
Russian collection or gallery is without.
It worked out, in the 1960s and '70s, that namely diplomats in Moscow,
often with no understanding of art, became the main judges, the final authority
deciding whom to promote and whom to ignore.
In this way they tossed out worthy artists and advertised unworthy ones,
and thus did great harm to the objective assessment of art in general.
A
provocative question — do you have, for example, Oscar Rabin?
RB (in mock embarassment, lowering his eyes) — Yes, even two (Ill. 12).
12. O. Rabin,
Landscape with a Roll
IR — Yes, I understand. Rabin is a
purely Moscow phenomenon, looking back to the Wanderers. Unattractive paintings, monotonous
subjects: vodka and herring; bread and rolls;
shreds of newspaper or something else; the crooked cottages of the impoverished
provinces; poor, hopeless Russian... But
of course, his role as a mastermind and organizer of the non-conformist
movement in Moscow is beyond question.
RB — From what I know Moscow art, I can't relate to it as well, it's not so
close to me. But Petersburg art — it's
my own, personal art, I feel kinship with it.
IR — So, closing our brief conversation, I'd like to note that Ruvim Braude
is a very serious collector with his own firm concepts. His standard is his own, straightforward
assessment of a painting, without checking on others' opinion. It's very important that he loves and values
artists' own personalities, as well as their creations.
The
collecting of contemporary art is an occasion for special respect, in that the
collector doesn't know what commercial category the artist will end up in. The collector makes a personal investment in
art whose eventual fate is impossible to know in advance.
Sometimes
modern private collections grow to form large parts of museums, as happened
with the collection of professor Norton Dodge, which became the most complete
gathering of Russian non-conformist art, as part of the Zimmerli Art Museum in
New Jersey. Who knows what the current
collection of Ruvim and Inna Braude may turn into?
In
conclusion, I'd like to express heartfelt recognition to both of them for their
philanthropic work and to wish them never to be cured of the "beautiful
malady of collecting."
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Ill. 1
Alexander
Manusov (1947-1990)
Sabbath, 1989
Oil on canvas
100 x 120 cm
Ill. 2
Alexander
Gurevich (b. 1944)
Hurdy-Gurdy
Player, 2003
Oil on canvas
127 x 94 cm
Ill. 3
Alek Rapoport
(1933-1997)
Still-Life
with Dictionary, 1982-1997
Mixed media
on canvas
91.5 x 71 cm
Ill. 4
Alexander
Arefyev (1931-1978)
Lady and Two
Hooligans, 1955
Gouache,
pencil on paper
20 x 15 cm
Ill. 5
Anatoly Basin
(b. 1936)
Two, 1989
Oil on canvas
61 x 51 cm
Ill. 6
Mikhail
Kulakov (b. 1933)
Composition,
1975
Mixed media
56 x 76 cm
Ill. 7
Yevgeny
Ukhnalyov (b. 1931)
Boxcar
(triptych), 2001
Oil on canvas
91.5 x 183 cm
(three parts together)
Ill. 8
Michael Yofin
(b. 1959)
Pushkin over
Petersburg, 2003
Oil on canvas
23 x 30.5 cm
Ill. 9
Boris Borsch
(b. 1948)
Petersburg
Landscape, 1989
Oil on canvas
53 x 66 cm
Ill. 10
Yevgeny
Tykotsky (b. 1941)
Fragment,
1975
Dry quill,
paper
Ill. 11
Yakov Feldman
(b. 1969)
Adam and Eve,
2002
Oil on board
(diptych)
52 x 21.2 cm
(each part)
Ill. 12
Oscar Rabin
(b. 1928)
Landscape
with a Roll, 2001
Oil on canvas
61 x 76 cm
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