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On the wall: Natalia Grabar and her favorite painting

2017-03-09

In our new section we tell about interesting characters and their favorite picture at their house. Our new hero is art critic Natalia Grabar

A beautiful “Pinocchio” is a picture of Igor Makarevich, a important member of Moscow conceptualism. Igor had a significant exhibition at the State Tretyakov Gallery, where one of the main characters in action was Pinocchio, who traveled the world of the avant-garde. And one of my favorite incarnations was the appearance of Pinocchio in the peasants of Malevich. Many people, looking at this picture, think: “there is something familiar in it.” I love Igor’s work for his sense of humor. When modern art, besides the fact that it is really good, also with a sense of humor — for me it is very important. “Pinocchio” Makarevich for me a picture of the era. More than a hundred years have passed, and we are still arguing about the importance of Kazimir Malevich. But only in Russia — for the rest of the world its magnitude is clear and obvious. Makarevich just through the prism of humor reminds us what the modern art is … And since we still argue about such things, it becomes clear how little attention we pay to contemporary Russian art. The works of Igor Makarevich are in collections of such museums as the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg or the Pompidou Center in Paris. His solo exhibitions at different times were in the most important museums in the world, and we still do not see what is in front of us and continue to argue about the obvious things.