From Russia With Doubt by Adam Lerner

Author:Adam Lerner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Published: 2015-02-11T16:00:00+00:00

Fig. 59

A painting in the style of Alexandra Exter that is similar to the works that French police confiscated from the exhibition in Tours, France

Nakov, who studied art history at the University of Paris’s Institut d’Art et d’Archéologie and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes, is the author of a Malevich catalogue raisonné. He organized an exhibition of the artist’s works at the Tate Gallery in London in 1976 and he has written countless essays, books, and exhibition catalogs featuring other Russian avant-garde artists, including four thematic books on the movement.6 According to Nakov’s biography in his four-volume set of books on the art of Malevich, he is “the leading world expert on the work of Kazimir Malevich and the Russian avant-garde.” 7

The exhibition that the scholar condemned was organized by art dealer Jean Chauvelin. Chauvelin studied ballet with a Russian instructor in the 1950s, which is how he made the connections that allowed him to acquire art of the Russian avant-garde. Though he does not have a formal education in art history, Chauvelin has “dedicated his life to the work of Exter.” 8 Galerie Jean Chauvelin has been exhibiting Russian avant-garde artists since 1969 and presented a solo exhibition of Exter’s work in 1972, along with a catalog written by Nakov. In 2003 Chauvelin coauthored a book on Exter, and his website suggests that his catalogue raisonné for the artist is forthcoming.9

Nakov does not mince words in his criticism of Chauvelin. An essay published by the Alexandra Exter Association, which Nakov presides over, implies that Chauvelin relied upon a fictional provenance to establish the legitimacy of the artworks he owns.10 According to this essay, the authenticity of this body of works hinges upon an account of a Berlin antique dealer, who allegedly brought them from Russia to Germany in the 1920s. As the essay states, there is no archival evidence that this antique dealer had any relationship to Russian avant-garde artists; Exter did not even have the dealer’s address in her address book, which Nakov personally owns as part of the Exter archive.11

In the face of Nakov’s attacks, England-based art historian Patricia Railing came to the defense of the Exter works in Chauvelin’s exhibition. Challenging Nakov to a kind of scholarly duel, she engaged in an online competition to prove or disprove the authenticity of the works. In this “Alexandra Exter Tournament,” she presented seven extensively researched essays (or “jousts,” as she calls them) that rigorously outline a new understanding of the artist’s creative achievement.12 In response, Nakov eschewed issues of style in judging the paintings’ authenticity and remained focused on the provenance of Chauvelin’s works, mocking the idea that so many works by Exter could have remained undiscovered until recently. A clear victor of their duel was never publicly announced.

Railing, like Nakov, practices art history outside of an academic setting, as the president of the International Chamber of Russian Modernism (InCoRM), which solicits opinions about paintings in question from experts and provides a written opinion if four of the experts agree.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.