Hello to all Russian Avant-garde Gallery visitors and subscribers.

The First Russian Art Fair

The first ever Fair devoted entirely to Russian Art is going to take place in London in the beginning of June 2009, to coincide with the major auctions held in that city. The Fair is to be held at the Ballroom Jumeirah Carlton Tower, Cadogan Place, Knightsbridge, London.

The Russian Avant-garde Gallery has placed a full announcement for the Fair, including some works, location, contact details and links (click here to see). You may also locate it at the Services section in the Avant-garde Community category, under Auctions & Fairs.

Tatiana Kofyan's Illustrations of the Book "The Word and the Deed" by V.Pikul Added

Another page of my mother's illustrations is done, this time for the book "The Word and the Deed", by Valentin Pikul. You may see it here or locate it from the About the Site Creator page, Illustrations section.

There are 28 illustration pages, double-spreads and covers in all on this page, including the cover and all the illustrations in the book, scanned from the linocut prints as they appear in the book, complete with the titles and the tail-pieces of the chapters.

However, this time I have decided to include a bonus: for some of the illustrations I have added photographs of the lino-cuts, the plates themselves.

A story about the illustration process of book appears at the bottom of the page. It includes my own recollections as well as several other people who knew us closely at the time.

Other activities

Although it seems to have slowed down, the work on the website continues. However, some time may pass before any significant changes will be perceived, as this is the time of tedious backstage work. The detailed library cataloguing takes its time, and without it adding new works that have been prepared is not actually possible: the processed pictures do not tell their name, size, material, location and other details important for their publication. They must be located in the various publications, and then added.

All the same, I have located a couple of boxes containing slides my mother made of her paintings. There are quite a few that are not present on this site, some long ago sold at exhibitions, some even painted in Leningrad. I have scanned them all and will process and add them to her page.

Vera Kofyan