The Moscow City Government
The Moscow Department of Culture
The Russian Academy of Arts
Artist A. D. Tikhomirov Heritage Foundation
The Moscow Museum of Modern Art
Life and Theatre of Alexander Tikhomirov
In the Moscow Museum of Modern Art exhibition halls (10 Gogolevsky Boulevard) on 9 December 2015 was the grand premiere of the exhibition entitled “Life and Theatre of Alexander Tikhomirov”. It encompassed more than a hundred works of art and graphics, documents and photographs from the archives of the artist, as well as two biographical films.
Project curator: Elena Kamenskaya
Architect-artist: Alexey Podkidishev
At the premiere
Taken from the Chairperson of Moscow State Duma Alexey Valerievich Shaposhnikov’s speech:
Prior to this speech I had the opportunity to carefully observe the exhibition. I am astounded by the artist’s ability to work with such different techniques, creating a multitude of series of paintings. It is imperative to safe-keep this heritage to show our children and grandchildren; this is our essential task – to carry art forward to show future generations.
Taken from the Executive Director at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art Zurab Konstantinovich Tsereteli’s speech:
I have this feeling that the creator is about to enter the room, if you understand what I mean. We live in the present day and age, and I am amazed at how accurately he thought. For Russia, this is a factor of utmost importance – it is a unique museum valuable. When you observe through a professional eye, you are simply awe-struck – both the science of plasticity and of volume co-exist in one piece. The composition is so unordinary – his own impressions. Also, the work is two-dimensional, yet even here volume is created; this is a whole philosophy. This is a most important issue – that professors at art institutes show their students such exhibitions. Museum valuables and a tradition for museum-related thinking formed itself in Russia, the Russia created under Peter the Great, and all of this was instilled in the generations that followed. In America and Europe, there is a salon and gallery art; here, art that befits a museum, and I fight for it so that we do not lose it.
Taken from the Vice President of the Russian Academy of Arts Mikhail Mikhailovich Posokhin’s speech:
For me, today is a remarkable day. I believe I have seen a lot in my lifetime, I know a lot – and all of a sudden, a completely unexpected page of art opens up for me. Of course, I give my thanks to the organisers of this exhibition and, naturally, to the artist, we pay tribute to his genius. Yet I would also like to express immense gratitude to the foundation, which, together with the Museum of Modern Art, allowed this exhibition to take place. I opened my eyes to something new in my life. And revealing something new in life is the most pleasing, the most wonderful. This art, which we see here today – it is characterised by the fact that it will never become obsolete, because a man placed his philosophy, his philosophy of life, into it. I think that future popularisation of this fantastic artist, the publication of books, journal articles, is immensely important. I wish this exhibition great success!
Taken from the Chairperson of the Artist A. D. Tikhomirov Heritage Foundation Gennady Anatolievich Zhigarev’s speech:
Dear friends!
I want to give my thanks to the museum, which has helped us organise this exhibition, to our main partners – Sberbank Russia, GlavUpDK under Russia’s MFA, and to all of you for coming to the exhibition. And most importantly, I want to show my gratitude to Alexander Dmitrievich Tikhomirov – I hope he can hear me. His dream has been realised, his paintings are now in a large, important, and good museum. Thank you so much!
Taken from the “Life and Theatre of Alexander Tikhomirov” exhibition project’s curator Elena Kamenskaya’s speech:
I likewise want to start with words of gratitude for the trust, which the foundation placed in me; of course, a huge thank you to the museum, which took into its welcoming halls the art of this complex, in many aspects unknown artist. I feel that our attempt to show this artist from a multitude of different angles has been successful. The artist’s life was divided between two hugely contrastive roles. He was a master in visual propaganda; he was the creator of the largest portraits of Lenin, the legendary “cult of Lenin”, which was replicated throughout the 60s and 70s. As an artist, he was little known; few of his works were owned by collectors; his studio was practically unvisited by curators and art historians. Everything that we see here today is the collection in full, a collection of works that we can keenly observe, and I hope that it will stay either in this museum or with the foundation, and thereby our kin will be able to see these works in the future.
Taken from the Executive Director of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art Vasili Zurabovich Tsereteli’s speech:
I want to once again thank Gennady Zhigarev, the Tikhomirov Foundation. Each artist dreams to have such a foundation, which is devoted to the deep study of his heritage. This is already the second project which we have worked on together – a work of professional standard. I want to thank all those that have come today. Thank you for your support.
