Russsian Art Gets a Boost from Women Promoters

Published June 20, 2009 at 2:28 p.m.
When Dasha Zhukova, the glamorous girlfriend of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, opened her Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in a converted bus depot in Moscow last autumn, art connoisseurs scoffed. What did a 27-year-old socialite, born in Russia but raised mostly in Los Angeles, know about the international contemporary-art scene? As it turns out, quite a bit; Zhukova quickly won over critics with the quality of her exhibitions. The opening show featured the rarely displayed works of expat Russian conceptual artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, including the large-scale installation (1992), which is made up of a series of platforms and ladders decorated with various socialist-realist murals and ramps that lead to nowhere. Next month, Zhukova will exhibit the English artist Antony Gormley's striking , an installation of 287 sculptures made from body molds. Zhukova, who is also the editor of the British fashion magazine , and her boyfriend are clearly determined to bring international contemporary art to Russian audiences; last year Abramovich spent more than £60 million on paintings by Lucien Freud and Francis Bacon. But the purpose of Garage is also to expose the world to Russian contemporary art. "I think there is a perception in Russia that if something is Russian it is generally not as good as something that is from America or Europe," says Zhukova. "That is a complete misconception."

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