Official Art Organizations in the Emerging Markets of China and Russia

Turning the Pushkin Museum into a ‘Russian Tate’: Informal creative labour in a transitional cultural economy (the case of privately funded Moscow art centres)

“…To summarize, in the mid-1990s, an artistic community that had grown out of the unofficial artistic tradition had formed an industry, which although risky and lacking in resources, was nevertheless independent from the state. 3 In contrast to Kharchenkova et al (2015), who consider the newly emerged Moscow galleries first and foremost as an extension of a western-style art market, I stress the art centres’ embeddedness in the local context.…”

“…For instance, there are still no public grant competitions from the Ministry of Culture that an individual can apply for (unlike, for example, the Arts Council in the UK). Moreover, as Kharchenkova et al (2015) rightly argue, there are institutional reasons for maintaining Soviet-like cultural institutions in a market economy. As a case in point, they looked at so-called ‘official art organizations’ (OAOs), Soviet-style institutions that did not disappear with the collapse of Soviet Union, but took their place on the open market.…”

“…As a case in point, they looked at so-called ‘official art organizations’ (OAOs), Soviet-style institutions that did not disappear with the collapse of Soviet Union, but took their place on the open market. One of the interpretations in their work that I find most convincing concerns the non-financial resources that help the OAOs to be so resilient: for example, OAOs have access to property and other material resources that can be used for the needs of an organization, as well as ongoing relations with cultural administrative bodies: ‘the structure of OAOs inherited from the past, as well as the type of art that is produced by the majority of artist members, makes them familiar and attractive subjects for various cultural policies’ (Kharchenkova et al, 2015: 8).…”

Ups and downs of art commerce: narratives of “crisis” in the contemporary art markets of Russia and India

“…While a number of new contemporary art markets from different parts of the world caught wide attention of the international art communities in the past twenty years (see, for example, Goodwin 2008;McAndrew 2009;Robertson 2011), in depth academic research into how these new art markets develop is still limited (see, for example, Poulsen 2012;Ithurbide 2014;Komarova 2015;Sooudi 2015-for India andMilam 2013;Kharchenkova et al 2015;Komarova and Velthuis 2017-for Russia). By looking at the Indian and Russian art market narratives, the article shows how actors of emerging markets make sense of their environment and recent history.…”

“…Many, including novice art dealers, took this rupture as a possibility to start business from scratch (see more in Komarova and Velthuis 2017). The new government released control over private commerce for art (that was previously forbidden) and over legitimate artistic styles (that were previously censored via an elaborate system of official art organizations-see more in Kharchenkova et al 2015;Yankovskaya and Mitchell 2006). Thus, no commercial gallery existed in Russia until 1988 and unofficial art could only be exhibited underground (Kholmogorova 2014;Slovaeva 2014;Starodubtseva 2014).…”