The Future Generation Art Prize has been an occasion for Victor Pinchuk to showcase his evolution as a collector to the Financial Times:

“I’d started to collect Ukranian art, period art and contemporary, and then – since as a businessman, I like to work with the best consultants – I took advice. I got some very strong, very important advice: ‘Victor,’ they said, ‘if you want to promote Ukranian art, you have to put it in a very international context.’

“They were right. So then came the first acquisitions, step by step, it totally changed my taste. For example, in my offices it used to be beautiful classical, now it is totally minimalist; with my wife we’ve totally changed the decor of our new house. It came about like that.” […]

“What I found, and it wasn’t good news for me, was that our Ukranian artists were still not brave enough, still they have the mentality influenced by our post-Soviet schools, the thinking of that era – not so open, not yet ready for really strong experiment. Derivative of other people’s ideas. They’re nice, but a little bit more traditional.

“In this show there is only one painter – he is from Ukraine. For them it’s very educational, they have to be more pro-active, ready to take risks.”

Source of Energy (Financial Times)