Caroline Rossiter looks at Russian artistic influence in a different way in this article posted on The Faster Times:

The recent Kandinsky retrospective at the Guggenheim was “generously supported by” Baibakov Art Projects; France is celebrating l’année de la Russie in 2010, with a variety of cultural events; and London, long favoured by the Russian gliteratti, will see at least two major shows of Russian contemporary art this spring.

Aktis, a new gallery for Russian contemporary art, is to open with an exhibition of ‘non-conformist’ artist Vladimir Yankilevsky, on February 23. The label loosely describes art produced from the 1950s to the 1980s, that didn’t fit into the Soviet regime. […]

Another exhibition, opening at the Haunch of Venison in London this April, is to provide a major overview of the more overtly politicized ‘non-conformists’ of the 1980s. “Glasnost: Soviet Non-Conformist Art from the 1980s” will focus on the propaganda-fuelled, satirical aesthetic of the transitional Gorbachev era.

A similar show was held at La Maison Rouge in Paris in 2007 in partnership with the State Tretyakov Gallery.  The artists featured may not have conformed with the Soviet regime but they were quickly recognised for their artistic value. “Museum curators were aware of the non-conformists” said Dianne Beal, director of Galerie Blue Square in Paris, “they just couldn’t buy their work”. Cultural policy evolved with the political upheaval in the 1980s and now the Tretyakov boasts a rich contemporary art collection.

Bear Awakens from Hibernation, Heads for Art Market (The Faster Times)