"The collection! Contemporary Art in the USSR and Russia, 1950-2000: a unique gift to the museum" - the grand opening of the exhibition will be held today at the Centre Pompidou

The grand opening of the exhibition "Collection of Contemporary Art in the USSR and Russia, 1950-2000: a unique gift to the museum", organized with the support of Vladimir Potanin Charitable Foundation, will be held on Tuesday evening at the Centre Pompidou in Paris with the participation of a special representative of Russian President for International Cultural Cooperation Mikhail Shvydkoi and the Pompidou Center President Serge Lavigne.

"We needed to identify a system in the Russian art of XX century indicated if not detailed, but at least a contour map, to the white spots may continue to close and the Centre Pompidou, you can work with individual artists." - Said TASS Director of Multimedia Art Museum Olga Sviblova, which, together with Nicolas Lucci-Gutnikova of the Centre Pompidou has acted curator of the project.

For this ambitious project took place, it was necessary to consolidate the efforts of 40 donors - the largest Russian collectors, artists and their families, as well as purchase the work that you could only buy back - in this part of Vladimir Potanin Charity helped fund. As a result, a collection of the Centre Pompidou replenished 250 exhibits (about 400 units of museum storage, clarified Sviblova). At the moment, it is the most representative collection of Russian art outside the country, although some work there and in the Tate Modern, and New York's Museum of Modern Art. The works of non-conformists, Sots artists of the Moscow conceptualist and Leningrad artists are not placed in a separate space, and integrated in the permanent exhibition of the Centre Pompidou.

Among the donors collectors - Ekaterina and Vladimir Semenikhin, Igor Tsukanov, Inna and Dmitry Bazhenov Samorukov, Igor Markin. His work in the Centre Pompidou, in particular, gave art group AES + F, Vadim Zakharov artists Gregory Bruskin, Yuri AVVAKUMOV Vladimir Yankilevsky. Donated works, as reported previously director of the museum Bernard Blistene, continue to be exhibited on a rotating basis, and after the close of the exhibition.

"Our global objective is to ensure that such collections were in all the museums of the world then our contemporary Russian art will be known as well as the Russian avant-garde It deserves..", - Concluded Sviblova.

The exhibition, which opens to the public on September 14 and will last until 27 March, will launch the Year of the cross-cultural tourism Russia - France.