American friends of Tretyakov Gallery charity opens in New York

A concert of outstanding pianist Vladimir Feltsman and an exhibition of the greatest Russian artists of the 20th century (from Marc Chagall to Natalia Nesterova) will accompany a party at the Russian General Consulate in New York on Monday, dedicated to the opening of the American Friends of the Tretyakov Gallery charity. The Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg are the largest collections of Russian art.

The aim of the new charity is overall assistance to the national art museum in its expositional and publicist projects, deputy director of the State Tretyakov Gallery Lidia Iovleva told RIA Novosti.

The New York charity intends to present the Tretyakov Gallery with paintings by Grigory Brusnikin, Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid for the collection "Art of the 20th Century".

The works of these Russian painters, living in immigration, are presented at the largest US museums.

Famous art figures - conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, pianists Vladimir Feltsman and Gary Graffman, legendary soprano Anna Moffo Sarnoff, baritone Dmitry Khvorostovsky, ballet-dancer Julia Kent and outstanding psychiatrist Robert Cancro - became members of the honorary committee of the American Friends of the Tretyakov Gallery charity. USSR ex-president Mikhail Gorbachev and his foundation sponsored the opening of the charity.

Architect Alexander Gertsman, the founding father of the International Art Foundation of the former Soviet States /IntArt/, was elected chairman of the charity.

The charity is not only to find sponsors for the Tretyakov Gallery projects, but also to participate in the organisation of the State Tretyakov Gallery's exhibitions in the USA and expositions of outstanding American artists of Russian origin in Moscow. The State Tretyakov Gallery is to show the legacy of famous painters Arshile Gorky, Lee Krasner and Mark Rotko and works of Soviet non-conformist artists, who immigrated to America in the 1960s-1980s.

The charity is to publish children's books on the 20th century art and albums of famous painters.

The educational aspect of the charity's work is also very important. Famous Russian art figures are expected to deliver lectures in the USA.