Timur

about the exhibition

Paintings, Drawings, Collages, Panels, Videos, Installations and Historical Documents from Timur Novikov’s Archive, the Museum of the New Academy of Fine Arts, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, Museum Art4.ru, and Private Collections

Moscow Museum of Modern Art in collaboration with curator Ekaterina Andreeva present a large-scale retrospective of Timur Novikov (1958-2002), St-Petersburg’s most celebrated artist of the late 20th —early 21st centuries.

The display includes paintings, drawings, collages, panels, videos, installations, historical documents from Timur Novikov’s archive, the Museum of the New Academy of Fine Arts, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, Museum Art4.ru, and private collections. The exhibition is timed to the 55th anniversary of the artist and fully reflects his biography and artistic career. It is a story of constant research, passion for art, sudden turns of fate and adherence to the aesthetic principles, chosen at a young age. It is a story of the short dramatic life of the brilliant artist, who lost his eyesight at age 39, but continued to be a leader of the newest art movements despite his illness. At the same time, it is an amazing success story. Novikov was barely 25, when he became a leader of the young unofficial art group The New Artists and established principles of his art, the idea of independence and graciousness. At the age of 30 he invented and implemented his «additional element», the theory of recomposition and semiotic perspective, in the Horizons series. The semiotic perspective became the new art language, in like manner akin to the the modern computer aesthetics, ancient hieroglyphics, archaic art, and various social aesthetic phenomena, i. e. tattoos, children’s art, etc.

The recomposition, creation of a new art form based on those of older period, has brought dramatic change to creative life of the New Artists, revealing a new method of working with sources of contemporary images and materials. Developing the idea of recomposition, in 1990, Novikov came to the need to promote images of the classical culture considering art to be aimed at the transforming the world to ideal. Both art movements initiated by Novikov became popular. In Novikov’s archive, there are letters to him by Maria Spendiarova, a keeper of the Russian avant-garde traditions, by Andy Warhol, by the world celebrated curator Jürgen Harten, and by Brian Eno — the widely praised techno musician.

In less than 44 years of his life, Novikov alone achieved as much as an entire institute would. He created the first Russian art squats (named after Sts. Cyril and Methodius) and the ASSA gallery. He donated high-class collections of paintings and photos to the State Russian Museum and the Hermitage. He organized several hundred exhibitions of Russian and international artists, among which were Oleg Kotelnikov, Alexander Samokhvalov, Pierre et Gilles, Karl Lagerfeld, Denis Egelsky, Georgy Gurianov, Vladislav Mamyshev, Wilhelm von Gloeden, Sergei Shutov. Novikov published numerous books, articles and proclamations. Together with the New Composers, he attributed to the development of techno music. Together with Konstantin Goncharov, he promoted avant-garde fashion. In collaboration with Yuris Lesnik Novikov launched the first project of the Russian video art «Pirate TV». Thanks to Timur Novikov it was doubtless that art could one`s adrenaline for life. His oeuvre and behavior had a strong influence — over the past 10 years after his death, interest in Novikov’s art has been steadily increasing.

Artworks for the MMOMA exhibition, altogether over 125 pieces, are brought from main Russian museums and 15 Russian and European private collections. Most of them, about 100 works, will be exhibited in Moscow for the first time. The exhibition sections are devoted to main stages of Novikov’s career, such as expressive paintings and drawings of 1978-1980s; the Horizons series of panels, 1987-1991; neoacademism, the 1990s; «new seriousness», the 1990s-2000s.

The exhibition is curated by Ekaterina Andreeva, the leading academic researcher at the State Russian Museum, author of Novikov’s biography titled Timur. Lie only the Truth!, curator of the Brushstroke project (the State Russian Museum, 2010), recognized as the best 2010 project of the State Russian Museum. Main solo exhibitions of Novikov were hosted at the State Russian Museum of Ethnography (St-Petersburg, 1992), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, 1993), Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (1993), the State Russian Museum (1998), Museum Art4.ru and the Hermitage (2008).