The first major auction of artworks, posters, porcelain and sculpture will be held by the Sovcom gallery. Pre-auction exhibition will open on September 5th and auction sales will take place on September 20th.
The first major auction of artworks, posters, porcelain and sculpture will be held by the Sovcom gallery. Pre-auction exhibition will open on September 5th and auction sales will take place on September 20th. Idyllic landscapes, urban sights, virgin lands, blacksmiths shops, metal-makers, gooseherds, women-gymnast at sea, nude figures of both sexes – after seeing all this at the exhibition it will be difficult to resist the temptation to bargain for seen pieces of art. This action will be the first specialized auction for the young Sovcom gallery. Usually sale of artworks, porcelain, sculpture is only an additional option accompanying sales of the main goods – pictures. However this time the buyer is ready to perceive them. More and more collectors wish to have rather cheap but bright classical pieces of Soviet Art. Nevertheless, Yury Tyukhtin, Director of the Sovcom Gallery, has mentioned another reasons of conduction of the auction: “First, any advanced collector collects artworks besides other pieces of art. Second, Soviet Artworks have been clearly underestimated in our country”.
200 lots to any taste will be put up for auction: ranging from Vladimir Sutsev’s illustrations for children to Lev Lapin’s graphical engravings, Alexander Labas`s and Ivan Puni’`s water-colour paintings and Nina Vatolina’s posters. At the exhibition there will be pieces of art that are sure to attract attention of most sophisticated collectors but the majority of pieces of arts put up for sale are represented by works of art which were produced in the Soviet Union on an industrial scale. It is needless to say that during that time the works were not put up for sale, but distributed by one of socialistic ways. Paintings used to be created by government order, represented an artist’s activity report and gave him/her a possibility to be awarded the titles “Honored Artist” and “People’s Artist”. Today these pieces of art cost as much as they are worth and their current price significantly differs from that which was offered therefor just 5 years ago: During the auction of 2001 hold at the Leonid Shishkin Gallery the author of this article bargained for illustrations for children with starting price of $50 per sheet which will cost $700-800 at the forthcoming Sovcom auction sales and seem to be not so affordable as earlier.
Soviet art has easily become marketable at present market conditions not only because it represents сurious artistic phenomenon but also because our market – to put it mildly – is still in a formative stage. There can be little doubt that pubic auctions will make the process of its selling more civilized. Current prices for soviet art are also the result of effective promotion. Yury Tyukhtin talks about the present success of the caricaturist of the magazine “Crocodile” Leonid Soyfertis with pleasure: “We purchased works of this artist from his relatives and then started to promote – now you will not find a single work of his at a price lower than one thousand dollars”.
New customers are in search of pieces for interior ornamentation. Industrial landscapes in offices is order of the day: images of oil derricks, metallurgical plants find a quick sale
New class of purchasers seeking for pieces of soviet art are looking for interior ornamentation. Industrial landscapes in offices is order of the day now: images of oil derricks, metallurgical plants find a quick sale. I wonder if lovers of such paintings reread “Cement” by Gladkov or “The Way Steel Was Tempered” by Ostrovsky ? Chinese collectors have quite unexpectedly become competitors of the Russian collectors of soviet art. The gallery owner says that 20% of the all purchases of goods in question are made by Chinese: “Because it were our academicians who taught present-day Chinese artists whose works cost now tens of thousands dollars there”.
Yet the main thing in auctions of soviet art is exciting atmosphere and judging by starting prices of lots cost of adrenaline is quite acceptable so far. The Sovcom auction will be followed by auction sales of soviet paintings which are to be conducted by the Leonid Shishkin Gallery on September 28 and another Sovcom auction scheduled for October 4. We cannot but enjoy such regularity.
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