Since 2008, Charles Saatchi has used his collection of contemporary art to stage a series of exhibitions from emerging art scenes: first China, then the Middle East, India, Germany, Korea, and now Russia.

This month, the gallery opens two Russian art shows simultaneously, “Gaiety is the Most Outstanding Feature of the Soviet Union”, composed of Saatchi’s own holdings, and “Breaking the Ice”, with “non-conformist art” made during Soviet-era Russia.

The director of the Saatchi Gallery, Rebecca Wilson, says that organising a contemporary exhibition has been made possible by the recent proliferation of private Russian museums “giving greater opportunities for the two-way flow of artists”.

In reality, though, only half of the 20 artists included are based in Russia. “There is not one school or any kind of group that they form, partly because many artists from Russia and the former Soviet Union left to study or work elsewhere,” Wilson says.

Among the emigré artists are the Moscow-born painter Dasha Shishkin, now a New York resident, the recent Royal College of Art graduate, Yelena Popova, and the Vienna-based painter Tamuna Sirbiladze, widow of the recently deceased artist Franz West.

In Case History, 1997-98, the Berlin-based photographer Boris Mikhailov documents the lives of those left homeless in the town of Kharkov following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Organised by the foundation of London-based financier Igor Tsukanov, “Breaking the Ice” brings together works by many of the most important artists to have defied the enforced Socialist Realism, with around two-thirds of the work coming from Tsukanov’s collection.

The remaining works are on loan from ten private collectors as well as two museums, The Russian Museum in St Petersburg and the Zimmerli Art Museum in New Jersey.

There is work by Oscar Rabin, who was arrested after organising the 1974 “Bulldozer Exhibition”, so-called because the police destroyed the outdoor show, and by the Sots Art (Soviet Pop Art) originators Komar and Melamid, who also participated in the 1974 event.

Like some in the contemporary show, these artists have long since left Russia and many of their works are in collections in the US, France and the UK. Toby Skeggs Categories:

Venue details:

Saatchi Gallery

Date:21 Nov., 12 – 24 Feb., 13