The gallery will exhibit classics of Soviet constructivism: Boris Ignatovich, Jakov Khalip, and Mikhail Prekhner, whose innovative techniques can be traced in rhythmically accented photographs of parades and athletes taken from an unconventional point of view by Lev Borodulin, an outstanding sport photographer from the 1960s. Borodulin’s vintage prints will be on view along with a selection from his own collection featuring foremost photojournalists from the 1930s such as Pyotr Otsup, Arkady Shaikhet and Max Alpert.
Used mainly as a means of propaganda during the prewar period, over time, works of Russian constructivists and social realists became notable for their artistic value and considered as chef d’oeuvres of world art and highlights of museums’ collections. The gallery will exhibit a selection of photojournalists from the 1960s and 1970s, a period known as the Thaw: Yuri Lunkov, Andrey Knyazev, Vladimir Lagrange, Yuri Krivonosov, and Sergey Petrukhin whose works, permeated by postwar optimism and sense of freedom in the wake of reforms of the 1950s, became a sensation of the FotoFestBiennal in Houston in 2012.
In addition to reportages, the gallery will present a variety of Moscow vistas spanning from a poetic cityscape from the 1930s by Markov-Grinberg to an iconic view of postwar Moscow by Naum Granovsky. Romualdas Pozerskis, an important but not yet familiar to European market representative of the Lithuanian school, which the gallery has been associated with for over 15 years, will be also exhibited.
Contemporary Russian artists Vadim Gushchin, renowned for minimalistic still life photography rooted in Russian avant-garde painting, and Anton Lyalin, who has been expressing his fascination of pristine African nature in spectacular panoramas notable for their meticulous detail, will be on view along with Soviet classics.
The gallery will show some iconic works by the mid-century West Coast modernist Wynn Bullock, including famous Child in forest featured in Edward Steichen’s landmark exhibition “The Family of Man”.
A particular highlight will be nude studies and street-photography by the important figure of New York photography scene, Photo League participant, Harold Feinstein. Honored with a major retrospective at the ICP in 1990, the photographer will be presented in Europe for the first time.
A selection of celebrity photography will include works by the prominent photojournalist from the 60s Steve Schapiro, eloquent pictures by the most celebrated American portrait photographer of Hollywood stars Greg Gorman, portraits by Sasha Gusov, whose flair for theatricality traces back to his first series on ballet, which brought the photographer into limelight.