MOSCOW.- The Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents “New Element”, an exhibition project comprising selected artworks from the collection of Umar Dzhabrailov who is an entrepreneur, a politician and a patron of the arts. He is also one of the few earnest and consistent collectors of contemporary art in Russia.
In the context of the relationship between private collectors and those of the gov- ernment establishments that provide a system-based support to modern culture, the exhibition is meant to mark a signific- ant event: Umar Dzhabrailov has gratuit- ously handed over a hundred and eighty artworks from his private collection to the Moscow Museum of Modern Art. The donation (painting, photography, graphics and video) can be considered the most important “new element” in terms of the museum holdings. The four floors of the MMOMA building in Ermolaevsky Lane will be used for displaying the most represent- ative part of the donated collection.
Dzhabrailov started putting together his collection more than 15 years ago. Guided by his artistic taste and knowledge, he was purchasing works from artists and galler- ies. It is worthy of notice that the present- day art was not just a good investment, a decoration for the interior or a status symbol for Dzhabrailov. He has always considered it a requisite, natural element of life for modern people, the element forming their daily environment.
The works of major Russian and foreign artists constitute the core of Dzhabrailov’s collection these days. Dating back to a period from the 1990s to the 2010s, the artworks of the collection demonstrate a broad range of art trends, interests and mutual interaction. The genres include lyrical abstraction and contemporary forms of realism and academism, lat- ter-day conceptualism along with ironic variations relating to the subject of lower culture. A conceptually eclectic collection, it inevitably reflects the personality of the collector, his temperament, energy and passions.
The exhibition design structure stems from the diversity of works on view. The design reminds the spectator of the four forces or elements out of which the material universe was thought to be composed i.e. earth, air, fire and water. The efforts of a collector can be viewed as his striving to find the quintessence that could combine his personal interests and desires, his ideals and expectations. In other words, it is a quest for elements keeping control over him.
The exhibition includes the works of Kon- stantin Batynkov, Alexei Belyaev-Gintovt, Piotr Bronfin, Alexander Dashevsky, Konstantin Latyshev, Pavel Pepper- stein, Veronika Ponоmareva, Svyatoslav Ponоmarev, Vitaly Pushnitsky, Leonid Rotar, Aidan Salakhova, Oleg Tistol, Natalya Turnova, Konstantin Khudyakov. The works of the art group Chetvertaya Vysota, Stanislav Shuripa and other artists are also part of the exhibition. Abstract paintings by the well-known Italian painter and designer Aldo Rota, a close friend of Dzhabrailov’s, are going to be the highlight of the exhibition.
