Russian Icon Collection Launches Its First-Ever Comprehensive Catalog

    NEW YORK, NY, May 15, 2023 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The launch of the book "Russian Icons from the Mid-17th to Early 20th Centuries: The Collection of Oleg Kushnirskiy" took place at the Mikhail Abramov Museum of Russian Icon in Moscow. The event was attended by art community members, including art historians, collectors, museum workers, and friends of Oleg Kushnirskiy, who traveled from the United States with his son and the collection's director Ilya Kushnirskiy.

The event was kicked off by the director of the Museum of Russian Icon, Nikolay Zadorozhny, who highlighted the book's significance in introducing many lesser-known monuments of Russian icon painting to the academic community. Other speakers included Russian icon collector Sergey Khodorkovskiy, the book's translator Sergei Brun from the Museums of the Moscow Kremlin, and art historian and academician Alexei Lidov.

The catalog's author Anna Ivannikova, a specialist in Russian icon painting from the 18th to early 20th centuries and an expert of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, sent a letter congratulating Oleg Kushnirskiy on the publication of his thirty-year-long work. Cultural sociologist Dr. Alek Epstein, who also contributed an article to the book, sent a letter co-authored by his colleague Dmitry Sanoyan, emphasizing the importance of the collection as a link necessary for rebuilding broken ties between Russia and the West.

Oleg Kushnirskiy thanked everyone who made the book a reality and extended his thanks to the Museum of Russian Icon for supporting him throughout the catalog's creation and providing a venue for the book launch. He expressed hope that the guests and a wider audience would have the opportunity to see the collection not only in the book but also through exhibitions in the near future.

In addition to the formal part of the event, guests enjoyed a baroque music concert by the cello duo of Alexander Listratov and Asia Adiatulina, as well as a tour of the Museum of Russian Icon, an emblematic place for the book launch, as the museum grew out of another private collection brought together by the late patron of arts Mikhail Abramov, whose name it now bears. Russian Icon Collection is proud to have the continued support of the museum.

Oleg Kushnirskiy's Russian icon collection includes forty-six rare works from the 17th to early 20th centuries. Most of the collection comes from the icon-painting villages of the Vladimir province: Palekh, Mstyora, and Kholuy. Some works also come from Old Believer Guslitsy and Vetka, as well as Central Russia workshops.

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