The Art Russe foundation hosted and exhibition preview of Andrey Filatov’s Soviet Art collection at Banqueting House Whitehall a few days ago.
The exhibition is moving to the Tower of London where it will be on public display before returning to its new permanent UK home at Beaulieu Palace House.
Filatov is quietly passionate about Russian art and his collection reflects this, but its depth and richness surpass the collector because it covers quite a substantial period (early twentieth century to 1991), an impressive number of artists, and different styles.
Filatov has managed to accumulate a number of important works by some of the most significant artists of the 20th century, in fact – from Repin to Maximov, Laktionova, Reshetnikov, Roerich, Alexei and Sergei Tkachev, Fechin and Mukhina, to name just a handful.
As I looked at the Tkachev brushstroke, reminiscent of the French Impressionist school, yet at the same time unmistakeably Russian, I was struck by the timelessness of the collection.
Content and narrative of the Soviet art school aside, the works are underpinned by skill and a powerful sense of culture that will guarantee the collection a place at the grand table of fine art at its best and most enduring.
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