Moscow Museum of Art Deco opened its doors to the public on December 19, 2014. The museum is located in the former Imperial Mint on the Moscow River embankment. A young businessman Mkrtich Okroyan, graduate of Faculty of Mathematics of Moscow State University, has become one of the first serious collectors of art deco in Russia. The collector admits that he is passionate lover of Russian culture of the early twentieth century and the World of Art movement tradition. This passion led him to Paris. Here the young collector discovered the Art Deco in all its diversity and splendor. Mkrtich Okroyan feels the connection with a style of 1925 Russian culture, particularly Russian Seasons ballet of Sergei Diaghilev. That’s why one of the first acquisitions of the collector was the sculpture by Dmitry Chiparus “Russian Ballet”.
Over time, interest in collecting art deco sculpture turns into a systematic activity and the desire to create a full collection of works of the era of the last century. Today the exhibition includes the largest number of works in bronze and ivory period of 1920-1930 – more than 900 works. Among them, about 100 sculptures by Dmitry Chiparus – most brilliant representative of decorative sculpture of 1920-1930. The remaining 800 works – works by German sculptor Johann Philipp Ferdinand Preiss (February 13, 1882 – July 29, 1943), French architect and designer Paul Philippe Cret (October 24, 1876 – September 8, 1945), German visual artist Otto Poertzel (October 24, 1876 – January 16, 1963), French Art Deco sculptor Pierre Le Faguays (1892 – September 8, 1962), Austrian art deco sculptor Bruno Zach (6 May 1891 – 20 February 1945), and other artists.
The collection also includes works by famous designers of the time, Jacques-Emile Rulman, Jules Lelё, Paul Follo, Louis Sue, Andre Mara and Edgar Brandt.
Gallery arranges exhibitions and educational activities: a series of lectures and seminars, organized the exhibition “Images of Art Deco”, “Erte and Golden Twenties”, etc. Simultaneously the Gallery presents its works at international exhibitions in Paris, together with the auction house Sotheby’s for the 100th anniversary of Diaghilev’s seasons in 2007. In the framework of the Year of Russia in Spain (2012), the Museum of Art Nouveau and Art Deco presented the exhibition “Russian Seasons of Sergei Diaghilev and their influence on Art Deco” in Spain.
I would say this is the interior of the late art nouveau, in which appeared geometry. The picture does produce misleading. This above arch in general is associated with sketches by Erte. But in the aggregate, if disassemble each part, we have what is called modernity in Russia.
Mkrtich Okroyan spent years traveling from auction to auction in London, Paris and other world capitals, building up a collection that is now worth over $100 million.
Stepping into the museum is like stepping back in time into a mansion decorated in 1925 by a very affluent patron of the arts. The exquisite collection is exquisitely displayed, and the museum’s curators will happily answer visitors’ questions.
Most of sculptures are created by the Romanian sculptor of the era of Art Deco Demetre Chiparus. Inspired by the “Russian ballet of Diaghilev”, the Master miraculously made the move of graceful dancers and sophisticated dancers to freeze. And it seems, in a moment they will move in the dance, as soon as they hear a melody.
