Tags: art | avant garde | Russia

And They're Gonna Paint the Town RED!

If your offshore bank account is getting full and you need to hide some of your vast wealth from the tax man, AND you want to penetrate to the very heart of the Bohemian experience, you'll be a very lucky person indeed if you come across a lovely piece of art to invest in.

Originally introduced to Prague by Natalie Melnikoff of Art Gallery Prague fame (her gallery is directly across from the chill cafe Moravska Vivarna, directly under the northern most part of the bridge, Malostranské nábřeží 1 Praha 1, 11000, Czech Republic, +420 602 32 69 83, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it www.art-gallery-prague.cz), comes a rush of very talented Russian artists.

Browsing the gallery after a couple of nice red wines, (art buyers should always get liquored up before deciding on any major purchases) I was stopped in my tracks by a collection of Russian Avant Garde pieces, a remarkably fresh body of works which only confirms many rumors that the Avant Garde has split Paris and New York and is settling in the East, most notably in the ancient city of Praha.

A little research will familiarize you with the different style of many Russians like Nikolai Korelov, Roman Zuzuk, Taras Loboda, Valeriya Emets, Pol Nikitchenko, Edward Belski, Ivana Belski, Tatyana Rogacheva and many others. They are 'Ruskies' all right, but instead of pushing the Iron Curtain westward, they are busy conquering other new frontiers in an exhibition that manifests hysteria, a rebellion with a cause. There predominates an incurable respect for and struggle with possibly the finest academic training in fine art.

These works involve both ideal and the antithesis of the Pop-Culture of Andy Warhol and his troupe d' genesis. I'm sure the likes of David Bowie could do worse than to make his emphatic presence at the exhibition, should he be out this way. The artists represented in this collection have had, on average, about thirteen years of the strictest academic training, mainly at the Kiev Academy of Art. This accounts for technical competence which is undisputed, and even those collectors who fear artists that have taken too much poetic license will be amazed by the perfect blend of passionate idiosyncrasy and perfection.

The emotions and moods that grace these walls is real and apparent, as each art and their medium hammer out a fragile negotiation between love of art and respect for training, mixed with liberty and the new found freedoms of a society unleashed from their social realism and myths.

The works of these Russian artists, many of whom have been living in Prague since 1990, are a flutter upon the human soul. The works are contemplative and colorful, and very alive. Even the still-lifes place more emphasis on the 'life' than the 'still'.

Within this milieu, there is a face of a lively, synchronized eclecticism, which is itself a testimony to a capacity for the appropriate; I am seduced by a screaming underbelly of a somber sobriety, a tear of testimony.

The display is part of a rotating group exhibition and the works persist for the speculator with an intensity, as well as a quite meditative escape; jazz stories, the sea, mystical realism, all fill the eye and the heart.

And unlike a museum, you can buy one of these pieces - a small investment in your peace of mind. The Art Gallery Prague (aka The New Prague Gallery) is more than just a quaint little gallery, or a show space for modern Russian art; it is a place where the artists themselves are able to network; to speak their minds and empty their hearts, to give and receive inspiration and catalyze the creative experience.