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USA Today: New American Art from The
Saatchi Gallery USA TODAY Exhibition location: General Staff Building Press Release The State Hermitage Museum announces an exhibition of new American art from the Saatchi Gallery, London, "USA Today", which will launch its 'Hermitage 20/21' project in October 2007. 'Hermitage 20/21' is an ambitious scheme to extend the museum's display of 20th century Western art and put high profile contemporary work on view in the Hermitage. The Museum already owns some great masterpieces of the 20th century - Matisse, Picasso, Kandinsky, Malevich - but the collection has very little created after 1917. 'Hermitage 20/21' aims to fill this gap and make the museum a leading force in the integration of Russia into the international contemporary art scene. "USA Today" is a natural first for the program, showcasing
an exciting new wave of American talent from the Saatchi Gallery collection.
The Saatchi Gallery is one of the leading contemporary art galleries in
the world. During the past two decades its pioneering exhibitions have
showcased work by over 150 artists and have provided a springboard to
launch the careers of many artists including Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin,
Jenny Saville and Jake and Dinos Chapman of the now well known YBA or
Young British Art Movement. "USA Today" was first shown at the Royal Academy of Art in London in November 2006. Norman Rosenthal, Exhibition Secretary of the RA and advisor to the "Hermitage 20/21" project, writes: "In this selection of the work of young artists, each confronts not only their own existential questions, but also global poverty and inequality and population migrations, not to mention the gigantic environmental problems that confront the USA and the world as a whole." A new selection was made for the Hermitage show by Charles Saatchi, Norman Rosenthal and Dimitri Ozerkov. New works were added to the RA version of the show. Charles Saatchi comments: "I am a Hermitage groupie - one of the Museum's greatest admirers. It is a pleasure for me to be able to provide the opening show for a project which, I know, will gather momentum in introducing contemporary art to a Russian audience." The exhibition will be shown in the recently renovated second and third floor galleries of the General Staff Building, the new wing of the museum which faces the Winter Palace across Palace Square. This magnificent Neo-Classical building, completed in 1829, originally housed the imperial Ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs. Allocated by the Soviet government to the Hermitage in the 1980s, it is now in the process of restoration scheduled for completion in 2014. The museum's collections of 19th, 20th and 21st century art will be displayed there with a new, purpose built, gallery space for contemporary art. Dimitri Ozerkov, the newly appointed Curator of Contemporary Art, has worked closely with the Saatchi Gallery in order to bring the show to St. Petersburg. "We are very grateful to Mr. Saatchi and his staff for the opportunity to create this challenging exhibition. It is a wonderful launch for our "Hermitage 20/21" program. Our aim is to make art accessible to all, closer to ordinary people, a wholly pleasurable experience - in other words to attract a new generation of art lovers into the museum." The architect of the new initiative is Professor Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of The State Hermitage Museum. "The Hermitage is one of a handful of universal museums whose encyclopaedic collections cover the whole range of cultural expression, across the world and over time", comments Prof. Piotrovsky. "The 20th century is now over and it is time for us to present its art in the same historical context that we already present the art of previous centuries. And, if the museum is to live, we must also present new art as it is created - the best that we can find world wide." The exhibition "USA Today" is organised with the kind support of the Coca-Cola Company (CIS) and sponsored by Bank UBS and Ilim Group. For further information and images, please contact: Lena Getmanskaya, Ph.D. INTERNATIONAL WEEK AT THE STATE HERMITAGE MUSEUM The exhibition "USA Today" opens in a busy week for the State Hermitage Museum. On October 23, 2007, an exhibition of English water-colours from the collection of Paul Mellon, the fabled American connoisseur, opens in the Twelve Column Hall, The New Hermitage. The collection comes from the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, and is the Russian contribution to a world wide celebration of the centenary of Paul Mellon's birth. On October 24-25, 2007, the State Hermitage Museum hosts an international conference in the Hermitage Theatre dedicated to the theme "The Museum and the Media". Speakers include Stephen Deuchar, Director of Tate Britain, London, Thomas Krens, Director of the Guggenheim Foundation, New York, and Alfred Paquement, Director of the Pompidou Centre, Paris. Some of the world's leading arts journalists will also be attending the conference, whose theme is subtitled: "A partnership to promote visual culture or a battleground?" From 25 - 28 October, 2007, the Hermitage plays host to the so-called "Bizot Group", a gathering of the directors of the 30 or so top museums of the world. Founded by Irene Bizot, the former head of the French Reunion des Musees Nationaux, the group meets twice a year in a variety of locations. This time it is the turn of St. Petersburg. The current chairman of the group, Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, London, also chairs the Hermitage's International Advisory Group which will be meeting at the Hermitage earlier in the week. For further information, please contact: Lena Getmanskaya, Ph.D. |
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Copyright © 2006 State Hermitage
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