Article

Name: The History of Moscow’s Art Life

Authors: E. Sh. Finkelstein

A. V. Topchiev Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis SB RAS, Moscow, Russian Federation

In the section A Plot in the 20 Century Artistic Culture

Abstract: Evgeny Finkelstein’s memoirs are dedicated to the Moscow artistic life of the 1980s through 2000s. They are focused on a close-knit community of art collectors and art connoisseurs, especially on Nikolai Khardzhiev and his wife Lydia Chaga. Finkelstein, who is not a professional art critic, had an advantage to capture the specifics of this community’s idiosyncrasies with the inquisitiveness of a natural scientist. He also notes a major role in these relations, played by Khardzhiev, a major specialist in the Russian avant-garde, and Chaga, an expert on Russian graphics of the 20 th Century and a scholar of Dmitry Mitrokhin. Finkelstein's reminiscences are most colorful in the descriptions of his infrequent, but memorable visits to the house of Khardzhiev and Chaga, and conversations he held with them. His memoirs reflect the complicated time period at the end of the 20th Century that he managed to record, as well as to record possible reasons which caused the tragedy of Khardzhiev and Chaga after their emigration to Amsterdam.

Keywords: Nikolai Khardzhiev, Lydia Chaga, Evgeny Finkelstein, arts in Moscow, art collectors, Russian avant-garde, Dmitry Mitrokhin, Soviet graphic arts, Kazimir Malevich, Vasily Kandinsky

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