Ark Gallery

The Ark Gallery arose on the basis of the eponymous city exhibition hall in the Timiryazevsky district of Moscow in 1988. Over the years, Alexei Erokhin, Sergey Safonov, Yuri Petukhov, Dmitry Smolev, Vadim Garshin, Igor Chuvilin worked on the Ark projects. Since February 2016, the permanent exhibition space for the gallery has become space at the address: Moscow, 22 Trubnikovsky Lane, Building 2. The curators of the gallery are Sergey Safonov (since 1988) and Igor Chuvilin (since 2003).

The Ark Gallery has implemented over 300 various art projects: curators were equally attracted to the study of fine art of both the 20th and 21st centuries, which was reflected in the formation of the main directions of the exhibition.

The first, at the time of its origin, is the elimination of gaps in the history of fine art of the twentieth century: the publication of the artistic heritage of unjustifiably forgotten artists and entire creative dynasties. Regular appeal to this practice resulted in a series of exhibitions “Unforgettable Names”, which began in 1993. As a result of systematic work, such authors as Valery Kapterev , Boris Chernyshev , Alexander and Lidia Naumovs, Olga Eiges and Igor Polyakov, Maria Myslina were reintroduced into cultural life. , Tatyana Kotsubei, Alexander Pomansky, Maria Vladimirova, Leonid Kazenin and others. Dozens of works by masters of different fame are transmitted by the gallery to museums in Moscow and Russia.

The second direction was made by the author's curatorial projects embodied in thematic exhibitions.

Among them, one can single out large-scale expositions in which curators examined the specifics of the emergence and existence of art genres and their varieties, as well as the peculiarities of stylistics in Russian art - from the Soviet period to the present. Such were the "Promises of style" dedicated to the "kitchen" of Soviet artists of the 1920-1950s, who developed the official "Soviet canon"; “Museum”, in which the works of contemporary artists were combined with the works of the 1920s and 1930s. As well as “Still Life: Museum and Workshop”, shown at the international art Moscow 2000 fair “Small Pictures by Big Artists” (from Kazimir Malevich , Natalia Goncharova , Mikhail Larionov to the present day), “The Debate on Abstract Art” with the works of Alexander Maximov other.

A special line in the series of thematic expositions of the “Ark” was the exhibition-interpretation of the cultural phenomena of everyday life in Soviet and post-Soviet art. Among them are “Memory of the palate” (about food), “Fortress” (about alcohol culture), “One hundred years with a twinkle” (about smoking and smokers), “March of enthusiasts” (order - turn - crowd - crowd), “Yellow Pages” ( about newspapers and the visual arts), “Everything to the kindergarten!” (about kindergartens as the first experience of socialization), “Insurance case” (force majeure in Russian art), “Watercolor and time” (evolution of “watercolor lyrics”). And also: “Kitchen”, “Alleys of culture, lawns of rest”, “Sweet life”, “On a sunny beach in June ...” and many others. other

Work on many thematic projects took place in partnership with leading metropolitan (with the A. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and the State Tretyakov Gallery) and regional art museums in Yaroslavl, Tver, Vologda, Nizhny Tagil, Penza, Istra, Ivanovo, Krasnoarmeysk and other cities. Along with museum exhibits, materials from the State Archive of the Russian Federation, from private archives and collections have been attracted more than once.

In parallel with the in-gallery exhibitions, the “Ark” actively carried out inter-museum projects at other exhibition venues, as well as exchange exhibitions.

From 1993 to 2000 and, after a break, from 2009 to 2016, the Club of Moscow Painters gathered in the gallery to discuss professional problems.

The curators of the gallery initiated the creation of the non-governmental annual professional Prize "Master", which was awarded to Moscow artists for their creative achievements. From 2003 to 2008, its winners were Mikhail Roginsky , Nina Kotel, Konstantin Batynkov , Irina Zatulovskaya , Viktor Pivovarov , Andrei Krasulin , Yuri Norshtein and Francesca Yarbusova , Alexander Dzhikia , Eric Bulatov , Dmitry Tsvetkov , Vladimir Yankilevsky .

Since 1996, the “Ark” has repeatedly participated in the Art Moscow International Art Fair, the Russian Antique Salon, and parallel programs of the Moscow International Biennale of Contemporary Art .

Since 2009, the "Ark" regularly represents its authors on the international art scene. In 2009, in the city of Kuopio, Finland, the exhibition “Artists of the Ark Gallery” was held. Later the gallery took part in the International Fair of Contemporary and Contemporary Art ART.FAIR (Germany, Cologne; 2010, 2011, 2012), the International Contemporary Art Fair Selection Artfair Basel (Switzerland, Basel; 2010), the International contemporary art fair artbygenève (Switzerland, Geneva; 2010), the International contemporary art fair ArtVilnius (Lithuania, Vilnius; annually from 2015 to the present).

2002 - diploma "For contribution to the Art Moscow Contemporary Art Development Program" - award from the Art Moscow Foundation.

2004 - diplomas "For the implementation of the program" Unforgettable Names "- awards to the curators of the gallery from the Russian Academy of Arts (PAX).

2008 - diploma "For the thematic selection of the collection" - an award from the XXV Russian Antique Salon.

Encyclopedia of Russian avant-garde. / Auto-comp. V.I. Rakitin, A.D. Sarabyanov. / Volume III, - M.: RA, 2014 - 281s.

Album Gallery "Ark". Favorites. " - M., gallery "Ark", 2004-216 p.

Album Gallery "Ark". Post-war and contemporary art. ” - M., Ark Gallery, 2011 - 48s.

Album Gallery "Ark". Art of the 1900-1950s. ” - M., Ark Gallery, 2012 - 62 p.

Valentin Dyakonov. Labor makes rich // Kommersant, 05/21/2015 http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2731041

Zhanna Vasilieva. The “Ark” showed the work of Nikita Favorsky // Rossiyskaya Gazeta, 05/07/2015 http://www.rg.ru/2015/05/07/favorskij-site.html

Maya Kucherskaya. From transformation to transformation // Vedomosti, 02/09/2015 http://www.pressreader.com/russia/vedomosti/20150209/282110635031566

Fedor Romer. Visiting Kafka // Novaya Gazeta, 02/13/2015 http://www.novayagazeta.ru/arts/67254.html

Anna Tolstova. At a high unprincipled level // Kommersant, 01/31/2015 http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2390360

Velimir Moist. Growth // Gazeta.Ru, 01/23/2014 http://www.gazeta.ru/culture/2014/01/23/a_5862513.shtml

Anna Tolstova. The art of free time // Kommersant Weekend, 08/30/2013 http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2260977

Valentin Dyakonov. High-calorie images // Kommersant, 01/29/2013 http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2114931

Fedor Romer. Trivia of revolutionary life // Moscow News, 06/18/2012

Anna Tolstova. Entertaining eschatology // Kommersant, 02/18/2012 http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/1876604

Anna Arutyunova. Personally and in absentia // Vedomosti Friday, 05/06/2011

Nadezhda Nazarevskaya. It is easier to breathe here // Culture, 2 - June 8, 2011

Sergei Safonov and Igor Chuvilin: “The Ark was invented for a different life in another country.” Anna Savitskaya // The Artnewspaper Russia, 02/27/2018: http://www.theartnewspaper.ru/posts/5412/

Elena Dyakova. “The history of our art may be different” // Novaya Gazeta, 07/23/2018 https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2018/07/22/77255-istoriya-nashego-iskusstva-mozhet-byt-inoy

Official site of the gallery "Ark": http://www.kovcheg-art.ru/

The Ark Gallery on Facebook.com: https://www.facebook.com/kovcheg.art

The project of the gallery "Ark" - site of the artist Alexander Maximov: https://alexandermaximov.ru/