Pierre Christian Broher Biography

The French collector Pierre-Christian Blace is about contemporary art, collecting and the main problem of Russia Photo: provided by Pierre-Christian Pierre-Christian Broshe-curator of the "Modern Art" direction at the School of Design of the Higher School of Sciences, the head of the profile "Curatorism and art management" at the Institute for the Development of Creative Industrials, the Collector and Organizer of Exhibitions of Modern Art.

He has been living in Russia since the year and has been collecting the work of modern Russian artists for 36 years. His collection is considered one of the largest and most valuable both in historical and aesthetically.

It is important to know that art has always been the prerogative of the elite. This situation was preserved before the French Revolution, when the public was not at all interested in art and had nothing to do with it. The art was a product that the elite acquires: princes, kings, kings. In the XVII century, due to the fact that the world becomes more open and a lot of money appears in Europe, a bourgeoisie is being formed from the new merchants.

She realized that being a collector of art is a kind of social status, which allows you to approach the king or elite. And the French revolution greatly changed this concept. Then there was an idea that art is not only for kings, princes, and so on, but that art should be for the general public. In addition, since the middle of the 19th century throughout Europe, including Russia, the idea of ​​a nation has been promoted.

In Europe, new states appeared with a more democratic or simply different form of government. Then the countries began to open museums that are intended for the general public. Previously, only artists who taught at the Academy, and students who studied there, saw these art subjects. And Catherine at one time collected this collection thanks to the princes Golitsyn and Yusupov. As you may be known, Yusupov was a lot of collection for Catherine.

And when he saw that in Europe there are paintings by Rembrandt, he took one for the queen, and one for himself. And thus, his collection was at the level of the collection of Catherine II. Because possession of arts of art is a respected status. Provided by Pierre-Christian Broch-are now collecting objects of contemporary art for the same purpose? What is an elite? The elite is a community that has financial capital, which means money.

These are people who have cultural capital, and therefore education. And these are people who have social capital. Social capital is what? These are acquaintances, friends, and so on from one layer of society, from the elite. Only that community that has all three components has the right to choose what will become symbolic capital. That is, art. I like their choice for the public or do not like it - it doesn’t matter at all.

Look, what is the Louvre? This is a collection of the king of France and his family, they were the largest collectors. In the Louvre were works of art that belonged to aristocrats. One of them remained without a head during the French Revolution, someone escaped to England. And their private collections appeared in the Louvre. The same situation in absolutely all museums that opened in the 19th century, including Russia.

The Hermitage consists of private collections. The Pushkin Museum is also private collections. Stroganovs, Sheremetevs, Shchukins, Morozov and so on. So who writes the history of art? The history of art is the story of the choice of the elite, a very small circle of people who collected these things. Moreover, they bought them during the life of artists.

Pierre Christian Broeshe. Provided by Pierre-Christian Broch-is the situation changed now? This is wrong. This is still a choice of a small elite. Why speak with such confidence? Because I began to collect art in Russia in the year. But I collected only contemporary art, I was offered a hundred times to purchase Korovin and Shishkin. But this is not mine. These are artists who have already received the title of classics.

And I was interested in gathering young artists. I still did not know whether their work would be art or not. They say that Pierre is not mistaken, laughs. There are only a little more than ten people, people who have made art history for the last 35 years. These people have chosen what is exposed today in museums and galleries. Collectors are a microealite. Artists are also a microealite.

And one microealite reaches for another, they really appreciate each other. Look, the Wanderers were a microgroup. Representatives of cubism, surrealism and all those areas that appeared in Russia were also microgroups. If the artist is in this group, then he has a chance, because this group is integrated into the social group of an educated and financial elite.

And only these artists fall into history. After all, there are a lot of creators in principle. And there are collectors who support only certain artists. But there is another important point. And then for the first time the director of the museum began to decide that he would show the public.Now it was no longer necessary to wait for the death of the collector to get his meetings to the museum.

After the Second World War, new institutions appeared - museums of contemporary art, where employees for the money of a state or cartridge, along with collectors, began to choose what could become in the future classic, which means that this must be bought now. After all, if the artist’s works can be found in 10, 50 and 1 thousand. Therefore, many museums begin to panic and collect objects of contemporary art, as soon as they feel the beginning of the artist’s success.

The history of art was studied in schools, by periods, in countries, focused on the genius of the artist. For a hundred and fifty years, the Louvre did not write the history of the origin of the picture, its belonging. The picture from whose collection is presented? No one wrote about it. As if the paintings from nowhere became art, classic. And I want to remind you that until the x, in Russia, they also did not write the subject of art to the collection of Likhachev, Stroganov, Shchukin or Morozov anywhere.

These names simply ignored. And they spoke only about the genius of the artist. Almost no one says that Matisse became Matisse because he was Schukin. When Schukin acquired a “dance” and “music”, Matisse was able to afford to buy a new workshop and work with large canvases. It is scary to say what would happen if Schukin had not appeared in Matisse's life.

Because before that, Matisse was ready to abandon creativity. He believed that it is pointless to engage in art, because no one needs it. And it is clear that no one needs, because it is symbolic capital. Exhibition "Creation of the World" in Octava, Tula. Provided by Pierre-Christian Blash-recently I noticed that people with money have begun to pay more and more attention to objects of modern art.

They buy them home. Although it was hard to imagine this ten years ago. Is this an attempt to approach the microgroup of the creators? Why did this fashion appear to collect contemporary art? The first boom of collecting objects of contemporary art in Russia fell on the beginning of the zero and lasted until - years. Due to the crisis of the year, a decline took place, and in the past five years, businessmen again had enough money.

But being rich is not a status. Only units become eternal. Why so? This is a long conversation, but I will try to be brief. Back in the XIV century, to become rich - it was dangerous. Everyone thought that if you get rich, you get into hell. Therefore, rich people tried to justify their position.