Anatoly Zverev. On the Threshold of the New Museum

“EVEN FOR THE PERSON WHO NEVER KNEW THE ZVEREV’S NAME, NOW IT’S CLEAR THAT THE PAINTER IS GENIUS. THOSE WHO KNEW HIS ART (AFTER SUCH EXHIBITION), WOULD WANT A MUSEUM OF ZVEREV TO BE ORGANIZED!”

Our ”guest book” imbued with similar reviews during the exhibition ”Zverev in Flames” in 2012. Created by the chief curator Polina Lobachevskaya with the collector and patron Natalia Opaleva, it took place in the New Manezh exhibition space. The exposition became a sensation not only due to the unique material (Zverev’s paintings from the Costakis’ collection that were miraculously saved from the fire), but also to the scale of 20th century art, which is destined to enter the 21st century not with dusty (though expensive) antiques, but with modern and contemporary art. Experts that created the exhibition and assembled Zverev’s art scattered all over the globe had no doubt that the Anatoly Zverev Museum could (and should) embody the decades of Zverev’s creative life and return the artist to its viewers.

That is why the exhibition project "Anatoly Zverev. On the threshold of new museum" was not only "declaration of intent". This accomplished promise is a presentation of what has been done, and what is going to be done within a matter of months after the event. It became the museum laboratory, where discoveries had already happened: starting from the design of future AZ Museum rooms to the examination of the just obtained paintings, unknown even for the specialists.

The value and significance of Zverev’s oeuvre was revealed by the multimedia installation that combines all manezh space. It was aimed at delving the viewer’s mind to the artist’s world, capture attention of a viewer of the 21st century, letting him come through the diversity of genres, artistic forms of one of the most talented painters of the Russian art world.

The exhibition was shocking for most of visitors, because no one have seen yet Zverev in this role – absolutely unacademic, highly avant-guard. A separate hall, saturated with sense and technique, was dedicated to the results of the publishing project of the AZ Museum. It issues the unique catalogues and books with artworks of the artist that were never published before, that saw their viewer for the first time. It also refers to the archive-stored drawings for the literature classic (Gogol, Andersen, Apuleius) and to publishing of the Zverev’s self-portraits that are equal in power with Rembrandt’s and Van Gogh’s ones.

More than 300 works (painting and graphic) of the 1957s–1960s were displayed at the exhibition.

Also, the catalogue . was issued specially for the exhibition.