DOI Artikel:
Kachurin, Pamela Jill: Purchasing power: the state as art patron in early Soviet Russia
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48915#0177
vn
Pamela Jill Kachurin
included in the museums [...] and until very recently endured a life of poverty.
Weil known artists are already represented in all our museums and are also [...]
materially secure; conseąuently the Department considered that simple justice
demands [that] the purchases be madę in the first place from young and therefore
officially lesser known artists.13
The Museum of Contemporary Art was never realized, yet another museum was in the
planning stages in the Fali of 1918: The Museum of Plastic and Painterly Culture. The
museum was based on a novel principle: arrangement and display of art of all times and
trends not according to chronology, as in a traditional museum, but according to materials
and techniąues employed. The idea was to create one such museum in each major city, and
a network of these museums across the whole of Russia. Works of art for the museum
would be, again, acąuired by the Purchasing Commission under IZO and then distributed
amongst the museums by the Collegium. The plans for the museum were not madę public
and approved until the Museum Conference in Petrograd in February 1919, but the
Purchasing Commissions in Moscow and Petrograd began acąuisition activity on behalf
of the Museum of Painterly and Plastic Culture as early as December 1918. The IZO
Collegium drafted a list of 143 artists, approved by Lunacharsky, from whom it was
acceptable to acąuire art for the State collection. The list included a wide rangę of artists
representing a variety of trends and styles, including Realist schools, but the purchases
madę were almost exclusively of the artists associated with Futurism.
The initial activities of the Petrograd branch of the Purchasing Commission were
fragrantly nepotistic. The artists associated with Petrograd IZO, Natan Altman, Pyotr
Vaulin, Aleksei Karev, Alexander Matveev and Sergei Chekhonin, were not as radical
artistically as those in Moscow IZO. Natan Altman, in addition to being one of the few
Futurists who actively supported the Bolsheviks, never abandoned representational art for
complete abstraction, nor did his colleagues on the Purchasing Commission, Vladimir
Baranov-Rossine, and sculptors, Aleksei Karev, and Alexander Matveev. This is not to
imply that they were less inclined to take advantage of their position. On December 13,
1918 the Purchasing Commission, composed of Matveev, Karev and Baranov-Rossine,
approved the purchase of several works by Altman for 34,000 roubles.14 Later the same
day, the commission, this time composed of Altman, Baranov-Rossine and Matveev,
approved the purchase of four sculptures by Karev for 24,000 roubles.15 On the same day,
the purchase of six works by Baranov-Rossine for 35,000 roubles was approved
by Altman, Karev, and Matveev,16 while not to be left out of the buying spree, Matveev
sold six bronze sculptures to the Purchasing Commission, now comprising AFtman,
Baranov-Rossine and Karev, for 59,000 roubles.17 While this example of conspicuous
favoritism is atypical of the Purchasing Commission ’s activity, it does demonstrate the
lack of accountability to higher State organs, and the extent to which their activities went
unchallenged. This rampant self-promotion would ultimately exact a high price.
13 ibid. Although signed by both men, it is likely that Shterenberg wrote the piece alone, as the content closely resembles
Shterenberg’s budget reąuest from earlier that year. (GARF f. A-2306, op. 23, d. 27,1. 9.)
14 Leningrad State Archive of Literaturę and Art (LGALI) f. 244, op. 1, d. 1,1. 4.
15 LGALI f. 244, op. 1, d. 1,1. 7.
16 LGALI f. 244, op. 1, d. 1,1. 9.
17 LGALI f. 244, op. 1, d. 1,1. 9.
Pamela Jill Kachurin
included in the museums [...] and until very recently endured a life of poverty.
Weil known artists are already represented in all our museums and are also [...]
materially secure; conseąuently the Department considered that simple justice
demands [that] the purchases be madę in the first place from young and therefore
officially lesser known artists.13
The Museum of Contemporary Art was never realized, yet another museum was in the
planning stages in the Fali of 1918: The Museum of Plastic and Painterly Culture. The
museum was based on a novel principle: arrangement and display of art of all times and
trends not according to chronology, as in a traditional museum, but according to materials
and techniąues employed. The idea was to create one such museum in each major city, and
a network of these museums across the whole of Russia. Works of art for the museum
would be, again, acąuired by the Purchasing Commission under IZO and then distributed
amongst the museums by the Collegium. The plans for the museum were not madę public
and approved until the Museum Conference in Petrograd in February 1919, but the
Purchasing Commissions in Moscow and Petrograd began acąuisition activity on behalf
of the Museum of Painterly and Plastic Culture as early as December 1918. The IZO
Collegium drafted a list of 143 artists, approved by Lunacharsky, from whom it was
acceptable to acąuire art for the State collection. The list included a wide rangę of artists
representing a variety of trends and styles, including Realist schools, but the purchases
madę were almost exclusively of the artists associated with Futurism.
The initial activities of the Petrograd branch of the Purchasing Commission were
fragrantly nepotistic. The artists associated with Petrograd IZO, Natan Altman, Pyotr
Vaulin, Aleksei Karev, Alexander Matveev and Sergei Chekhonin, were not as radical
artistically as those in Moscow IZO. Natan Altman, in addition to being one of the few
Futurists who actively supported the Bolsheviks, never abandoned representational art for
complete abstraction, nor did his colleagues on the Purchasing Commission, Vladimir
Baranov-Rossine, and sculptors, Aleksei Karev, and Alexander Matveev. This is not to
imply that they were less inclined to take advantage of their position. On December 13,
1918 the Purchasing Commission, composed of Matveev, Karev and Baranov-Rossine,
approved the purchase of several works by Altman for 34,000 roubles.14 Later the same
day, the commission, this time composed of Altman, Baranov-Rossine and Matveev,
approved the purchase of four sculptures by Karev for 24,000 roubles.15 On the same day,
the purchase of six works by Baranov-Rossine for 35,000 roubles was approved
by Altman, Karev, and Matveev,16 while not to be left out of the buying spree, Matveev
sold six bronze sculptures to the Purchasing Commission, now comprising AFtman,
Baranov-Rossine and Karev, for 59,000 roubles.17 While this example of conspicuous
favoritism is atypical of the Purchasing Commission ’s activity, it does demonstrate the
lack of accountability to higher State organs, and the extent to which their activities went
unchallenged. This rampant self-promotion would ultimately exact a high price.
13 ibid. Although signed by both men, it is likely that Shterenberg wrote the piece alone, as the content closely resembles
Shterenberg’s budget reąuest from earlier that year. (GARF f. A-2306, op. 23, d. 27,1. 9.)
14 Leningrad State Archive of Literaturę and Art (LGALI) f. 244, op. 1, d. 1,1. 4.
15 LGALI f. 244, op. 1, d. 1,1. 7.
16 LGALI f. 244, op. 1, d. 1,1. 9.
17 LGALI f. 244, op. 1, d. 1,1. 9.