Zhukova and Roman Abramovich caught off guard leaving Nellos restaurant in New York City
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“unprecedented opportunity.” With a proposal for a Guggenheim in Helsinki, a few hours away by high-speed train, the renaissance of St. Petersburg as a cultural capital with close links to Europe is an enticing possibility. Zhukova’s interest in international (and particularly Western) art prompts some interesting questions regarding the continuing appetite of Russian audiences for the work of foreign artists. For a country that has a capital so closely connected to the heartland of Europe, but which stretches across the globe to China, an international cultural outlook is perhaps unsurprising. Historically, there have been two schools of Russian collectors, those interested in Russian art and those with a passion for the best and the new from the international art scene. For the past 20 years the Russian market has seemingly been concentrated on local artists, but with the success of the Garage Center and its continued developments in Gorky Park and New Holland Island, the Russian artistic outlook is once again beginning to focus on international artists. This duality of interests is an element that Zhukova’s Garage Center excels at promoting. By 1919 the Russian Constructivist Movement led by the sculptor Tatlin and designer and architect El Lissitzky represented the forefront of artistic expression, heavily influencing the Bauhaus and De Stijl movements throughout Western Europe. It will be interesting to see what the work of Zhukova and a new generation of Russian patrons and collectors will give rise to. As Nic lljine significantly emphasizes, Zhukova’s Garage project is one of a few platforms in contemporary Russia where it is possible to “introduce both the international and the local art scene to a Russian audience.” International art stars, an impressive venue and new ideas; Zhukova has clearly discovered the essential elements necessary to be a modern-day patron and cultural innovator. You could do a lot worse than to keep an eye on the work flowing from the banks of the Moika in the years to come. And with brains, beauty and a seemingly bottomless bank account, Zhukova is already well on her way to being this century's Peggy Guggeheim.
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Zhukova has clearly discovered the essential elements necessary to be a modern-day patron and cultural innovator.”
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