Efim Pivovar, rector of the Russian State University for the Humanities, and Mikhail Piotrovsky, general director of the State Hermitage at the press-conference
At the opening ceremony
Nadejda Prigova, artist's widow
Andrey Prigov, artist's son
Irina Prohorova, chief editor of the Publishing House New Literary Observer
Dmitry Ozerkov, curator of the project
First visitors
Artist's Room in the Hermitage
Installation with the names of artists
Bestiary series
Publication to the exhibition
Dmitri Prigov
Fifty Drops of Blood in an Absorbent Medium
A major exhibition of works by one of Russia's greatest modern artists, Dmitri Prigov, featuring an important gift of works donated by the artist's family, will launch The State Hermitage Museum's new wing in the General Staff Building on 6 November 2012. Known as the father of Russian Conceptualism, unlike other artists of the period, Dmitri Prigov never emigrated from Russia and therefore did not became as famous in America and Britain as his expatriate contemporaries. He is perhaps better known as a poet, the author of 36,000 poems. The donation of works to the Hermitage by his family includes almost 400 individual drawings, prints, installations and videos of the artist's performances.
It forms part of the "Hermitage 20/21" project, an ambitious program aimed at showcasing the best of contemporary art in the Hermitage and expanding the display of 20th century art.
The new wing in the General Staff Building contains the museum's first permanent galleries of contemporary art. Located across Palace Square, it is a magnificent building of the 1830s with around 800 rooms and 5 internal courtyards. It will be devoted to 19th, 20th and 21st century art and will open in stages with the final, celebratory stage in 2014, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the foundation of the Hermitage by Catherine the Great in 1764.
This is one of the first galleries to be opened and devoted to contemporary art (the first one was the Kabakov Room which was opened in The General Staff Building in 2004) and will be dedicated to the Prigov gift, part of which was already shown by the Hermitage with great success at last year’s Venice Biennale. The opening will be celebrated by a symposium on the artist's work attended by international academics, artists and art historians. A week long celebration, known as the "Prigov Days at the Hermitage", will also include lectures, poetry readings, film shows and concerts. The opera 'Two Acts' conceived and written by Prigov and Vladimir Rannev will be staged for the first time by German ensemble "Mosaik" that is specially arriving to Russia.
The project is curated by Dr. Dmitry Ozerkov, the Head of Contemporary Art Department, The State Hermitage Museum. It is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, both in Russian and in English (The State Hermitage Museum Publishing House, 2012), which includes an introductory essay by Prof. Mikhail Piotrovsky, General Director of The State Hermitage Museum and essays by Dimitri Ozerkov and Sergey Shapoval.
The project is organized by the State Hermitage Museum in cooperation with Prigov Foundation; Hermitage Foundation UK; Natalia and Alexander Bulgakov.
Dmitri Prigov (1940-2007)
Dmitri Prigov was an artist, poet, and performance artist. His output included drawings, objects, videos and installations as well as poetry, novels, and essays on matters of philosophy, art, literature and politics. These disparate streams of creativity were welded together by his fascination with language, in particular the slogans of contemporary 'Soviet speak' which he used with bitter humour to create unforgettable images.
Born in Moscow on November 5 1940 to an engineer father and pianist mother, Prigov spent his early years in Sverldlovsk where many families were evacuated during the Second World War. It was here that he contracted encephalitis and polio and nearly died of dystrophy. Confined to bed the child developed the habit of concentrated thinking and muscle exercise which he was sure would help him to overcome his disability. As a result on return to Moscow after the war he was able to go to school and later to attend the Stroganov Art Institute to train as a sculptor.
However his experimentation and 'decadent avant-garde practices' were enough to get him expelled and sent to a car factory to "learn workers' discipline". The experience added to his knowledge of real Soviet style life and broadened his horizons. Not to be cowed, he continued to pursue his engagement with radical art, and the Soviet authorities blacklisted him during the 1970s.
He was well respected by his contemporaries for his vast knowledge and independent thinking and widely popular for his subversive poetry circulated through the Samizdat network and for unofficial exhibitions of his art work organised in lofts, basements and friends' flats. During the 1970s Prigov became a leader of the Russian conceptual art movement. He published over 36,000 poems and created thousands of drawings over the course of his career. In 1986, his dissident tendencies led to an enforced spell in a KGB psychiatric hospital, from which he was released following protests from prominent figures in art and literature both in Russian and in the West.
Subversive to the last, on the day he died Prigov was due to be carried up 22 flights of stairs in a wardrobe, reading his poetry, at Moscow State University. The stunt had been arranged with the Voina Collective, a Russian street-art group known for their provocative and political works of performance art and containing future members of the Pussy Riot group - a testament to his enduring relevance within the Russian artistic debate.
His fame and international recognition have been growing since his death in 2007. 2008 saw the first International symposium dedicated to his legacy in Berlin and a large scale exhibition of his art at the Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art. International Prigov symposia have since been held annually at major museums and universities round the world.
In 2011 the State Hermitage Museum, for the first time in its history, participated in the Venice Biennale with a major exhibition of Prigov's works, "Dmitri Prigov: Dmitri Prigov". In November 2012 the State Hermitage will open a permanent gallery to display the collection of Dmitri Prigov's art works owned by the museum.
THE STATE HERMITAGE MUSEUM
Housed in the former Winter Palace of the Tsars and in few more added palaces, the State Hermitage Museum is one of the world's greatest museums - the largest by the sheer extent of its buildings, with a collection of more than three million works of art and antiquities.
The Hermitage traces its history back to 1764 when Catherine the Great made her first bulk purchase - 225 paintings from a Berlin dealer. It remained an Imperial collection, with each Tsar making new additions, until the Revolution of 1917 when it was nationalised and became the 'State' Hermitage Museum.
The New Wing
The magnificent yellow and white General Staff Building of 1830, the former headquarters of the Imperial Foreign Ministry and the Imperial Ministry of Finance, faces the Winter Palace across Palace Square. It is being transformed into a museum of 19th, 20th and 21st century art. Comprising around 800 rooms and five internal courtyards it will open to the public fully in 2014. So far only two courtyards have been renovated which include the new galleries for 20th century and contemporary art. The permanent display will be opened on 6 November 2012.
Hermitage 20/21 Project
An ambitious new initiative to extend its displays of modern and contemporary art, known as the Hermitage 20/21 Project, was launched in 2007. Its activities include temporary exhibitions, lectures and seminars. A new Department of Contemporary Art was established in 2009 and has already attracted significant donations from artists including Louise Bourgeois and Antony Gormley.
The generous donation by the family of almost 400 works by the late Dmitri Prigov opens a whole new chapter for the collection.
