Kabakov as a brand

[SergeiSK]

Article Valeria Igumenova in "Forbes"

7 secrets of success most expensive Russian artist

1. Value
"Many now forget that Kabakov first 30 years working in Russia. He brought to the U.S. from the Soviet Union a lot of pictures "- tells the painter's wife Emilia. Career Ilya Kabakov, who is 76, began in the mid 50-ies. The official graduate work Surikov Institute for many years was an illustration of children's books, but at the same time he did work "for themselves." He and his like named nonconformists and artistic dissidents, it was unofficial Soviet art. Kabakov is considered one of the founding fathers of direction, called Moscow romantic conceptualism - about him in the 1970's were written by research and books. Since the mid 1960's Kabakov has participated in many exhibitions (residential) in the Soviet Union and abroad, and by early 1980 he was one the best known outside the country "unofficial" Soviet art.
2. Emigration
In 1987, Kabakov has received its first grant - Austrian non-profit organization supporting artists, Grant was then the French government, then - the German service exchanges. Grants are allowed to live abroad, create installations, exhibits. Kabakov less time spent in the Soviet Union and finally decided not to return completely: the house he did not have and a small proportion of features such as abroad. At the end of 1980 had the peak of "perestroika" of interest to the Soviet alternative art, so Kabakov went very timely. "Of his generation he left, in general, the latter, he had accumulated here and went to the international scene with a huge luggage", - said Head of Department of Contemporary Art at the Tretyakov Gallery Cyril fireflies. Not the fact of emigration helped his career - many of them were considered promising Soviet artists were not popular in the West - is more important than the fact that Kabakov left as the established master and specific projects for specific audiences, "explains fireflies. Moreover, it was abroad meeting took place, largely thanks to which the international career of Kabakov's place in its current form.

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3. Emily
In 1989, Kabakov began working with his future wife, Emily leks, to leave the Soviet Union in 1973. «Few artists could be found in his wife not only a trustworthy friend and manager, and co-author, comes to mind only Dali. Examples of such a tandem in art history at present, but less successful, probably no », - said General Director of Sotheby's Russia and CIS Michael Kamensky. Since 1990, all new works are signed "Ilya and Emilia Kabakov. Emilia becomes a manager, promoter and treasurer of the creative duo, while Ilya appears happy opportunity to create, without being distracted by household items. "Many people do not believe me, but in fact it is absolutely an idealist, he never knows how long we have money in the bank, do we have all the money - he gave me all right and all the controls" - Forbes says Emilia. Kabakov was brought from the Soviet Union a large number of works, but the maximum price at which they at the first stage managed to sell, was $ 50,000, and most of the works went for about $ 15,000 - later Kabakov tried to buy the work back . Emily decided to change everything, having taken the artist's relationship with the market.
4. Strategy
"In 1994 I decided to correlate prices with those at other authors and to increase them - up to $ 250 000-450 000 for installation and $ 200 000-350 000 for the picture. Our dealers agreed to this, and since then we have slowly increased the price "- recalls Emily. One of the postulates of the new strategy Kabakov - work in the market should not be much . Of the 600 with some works created by Kabakov in his life, about half is still in a family of artists. "I can not tell him that he did not make the picture - in the last month, for example, he made three, there is no calculation can not be, but I can not put on the market right away a lot of work, and this is calculation" - explains Emilia . She also agreed that a non-profit artist Kabakov should not do on demand. "We are beginning to understand one thing: we survive together as a couple, if I'm not going to say this: I did have to sell. If we do not have money, this is my problem, we will reduce costs, but not going to sell, except in extreme situations ", - explains Emilia. But the strategy Kabakov is only one exception: they are in order, if it makes the museum.
5. Museums
"Most artists are doing" what they want "or" what sells ". Kabakov is perhaps the most insidious of our artists: left Russia, came up with its original strategy to move based on the need to please do not anyhow anyone, but people who make decisions in contemporary art: a museum, curators, collectors and big, etc. ", - says collector and owner of the Museum of Modern Art ART4.ru Igor Markin. If the museum can not pay market price for the work Kabakov, this work will be sold to him for less money, or even donated - with the condition that will be exhibited in the permanent exhibition, said Emilia Kabakov. In general, according to her, one work sold account for about two donated . The strategy has yielded results: working Kabakov is in the majority of the largest contemporary art museums - the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in the U.S., the Centre Georges Pompidou in France, the Ludwig Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in Germany, in the Tate Modern Museum in England, etc . Altruism is more apparent, because getting into the collections of leading museums directly affects the cost of the work of the artist, gallery owner said "Aidan" Aidan Salakhova. "For example, the price of Dubosarsky - Vinogradov at the time exactly what impact that their work had bought the Pompidou Centre, and not the fact that 25 works bought some other people - it is getting into the museums is the lever of price movements" - explains Salakhova.
6. Code:
One collector told Forbes: « Kabakov gives the curators the image of Russia which they want to see, and often this image is a fake» . Collector applies to such tactics negatively. Igor Markin, by contrast, notes that this is normal: "With exceptional talent, putting yourself in their place, he just counted their expectations and brilliantly executed." Cyril fireflies from the Tretyakov Gallery and did see this as a huge plus Kabakov, artist. "Yes, he worked with the Soviet material, like many, but it is in the interpretation of Kabakov's Soviet material is read, because he spoke the international language", - explains fireflies. Genre "total installation" in which Kabakov works with museums and large exhibition hall, implies the ability to organize the huge space, with which the Soviet unofficial art has never worked, so many of his colleagues lost in the vast halls of the Western Museum. "They just increased the object itself, for example instead of the 10 paintings have written 1000, and Kabakov was looking for ways to master the space, and he, one of the few that managed to climb out of the apartment size", - says fireflies. "Kabakov first able to translate the Soviet consciousness in the code and offer the keys to decrypt it, opening his work world and the world - his work. He was the first in the second half of the XX century, moved from the category of "Artist of Russia" into the category of the international art stars "- explains Kamensky. "By virtue of its artistic and conceptual originality, he came to symbolize Russian, elevated to the level of the international context that has created him a huge audience of viewers and the market", - he adds.
7. Russian Money
By the time the mid-2000's prices for contemporary art began to grow wildly, Kabakov, of course, was the most celebrated Russian representative at the international level. Prices for his work stayed about the same level as said Emilia Kabakov - several hundred thousand dollars, without making sudden jumps up or down. "And when contemporary art has become more rapid growth and the number of stars not only the market impressionists and modernists, but also the neighboring market of show business, it was here that he ascended to unprecedented heights," - says Kamensky. is not one Kabakov suddenly risen in price - jumped dramatically up the entire market for contemporary art, which at some point and drew a lowly position in the world market of Russian art. And the fact that his rise was so sharp - the merit Russian collectors, be sure to fireflies. Until Kabakov and others have sold at international auctions as international artists, prices fluctuated in a predictable range, but as soon as they become sold as Russian artists, the situation got out of control. "When the Russian auctions have become involved in mostly Russian, prices leapt so that he could not have been comparable to any reality. How would we justify to ourselves that we are part of the world community, as a result of this somersaults we were in a parallel reality ", - said the firefly. «Beetle, for example, bought the owner of" Akron "Vladislav Kantor (№ 48 in the" Golden Hundred ", $ 1.3 billion) . To date, the "Beetle" and "Suite" are two of the most expensive ever sold works by contemporary Russian art. However, since there was no auction, offering the work of comparable scale, but sooner or later we will know how those prices are consistent with reality.
Valeriy Igumenov
(www.forbesrussia.ru)