Measures of Space

The Moscow Museum of Modern Art launches a new project as part of the Collection. Vantage Point programme, the exhibition Measures of Space, opening at the Education Center. The exhibition explores space in art of the 20th and early 21st centuries based on works from the MMOMA collection.

A particular interest in studying space, its infinity, variability, and dynamics developed in the early 20th century. It was largely inspired by a new worldview, which arose primarily in connection with Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. For artists, the boundaries between image and viewer, conscious and unconscious, real and imagined became a focus of research. As a result, new types and forms of contemporary art emerged: sculptural painting, installations and video installations, kinetic objects, and more. The exhibition covers a variety of approaches to space as a key element of art, allowing visitors to see the evolution of artistic practices.

The exhibition includes works by Russian artists created in various media from the 1920s to the present day. Among the artists are masters whose works have become iconic for the museum’s collection: David Burliuk, Eduard Krimmer, Vladimir Sterligov, Andrei Goncharov, Erik Bulatov, Vitaly Pushnitsky, Sergei Shekhovtsov, Francisco Infante and Nonna Goryunova, Alexander Petrovichev and Platon Infante. Also, on display are works by Alexander Pankin, Alexander Sokolov, Maria Kulagina, Irina Totibadze, Ilya Evdokimov and Egor Plotnikov from the recent acquisitions.

The central figure of the exhibition is Vladimir Favorsky (1886-1964). The master worked in graphics, painting, monumental art, and book art, and also wrote a significant body of theoretical works. These include the groundbreaking Theory of Composition, which he wrote based on his famous lecture series at VKhUTEMAS. Favorsky mentored many artists from different generations, and his role in the history of Russian art is hard to overstate. He called space the main subject of painting and humans the “measure of space.” The influence of Favorsky’s ideas is still felt today, as evidenced by the works from the MMOMA collection.

The exhibition features works and archival documents from the collection of Favorsky’s heirs. The key item on display is his monumental sgraffito Female Profile (1932), which the artist prepared for the Museum of Maternity and Infancy Protection in Moscow.

The Measures of Space exhibition not only offers a new perspective on the concept of space in art, but also demonstrates the character of the MMOMA collection, reflecting its main principle — to study and showcase contemporary art in all its diversity.

Curated by

Oksana Voronina

Collection. Vantage Point is a long-term exhibition programme developed specifically for the MMOMA Educational Centre in addition to the series of large-scale thematic exhibitions that have become a highlight of the Museum. It is characterized by a different, focused and intimate approach to the study and presentation of the Museum collections, as well as a much more dynamic rhythm of display. The programme brings together exhibitions of various types: from monographic and archival to interdisciplinary. With the aim of exploring fragments of the collection, these essentially laboratory projects often turn to private, non-magisterial, artistic subjects and allow for the testing of new exhibition solutions. The programme provides an opportunity to examine from different perspectives a wide range of phenomena, names, trends, images and ideas in Russian art of the 20th and 21st centuries. The Museum collection as a unique resource becomes a convenient vantage point for discussing art, history, science and culture in general.

The programme was launched at the end of 2017 and is supervised by the curatorial staff of MMOMA Research Department. The programme was initiated by Andrey Egorov and Anna Arutyunyan.