The exhibition project “Dad, the helmet is pressing on me. Contemporary art from NAMU collection.” is not only the first full-scale presentation of art from the second half of 1980s till nowadays but also a reflection of the artistic process throughout the last thirty years from the classic museum’s point of view. The project aims at making a critical overview of the recent past and within the discussion about the museum of contemporary art to outline a direction into the realm of collecting contemporary art.
The exhibition “Dad, the helmet is pressing on me” is unfolded within five halls where more than 50 works are presented. The archival documentary hall for the first time provides the overview, systematization, and analysis of the museum’s history within the context of contemporary art development and its representation at the exhibitions in the 1990s.
The viewers will be able to witness for the first time the civic collection of contemporary works of art, which was submitted to the National Art Museum of Ukraine thanks to the auction “Philanthropist time” in 2004. Initiated and fulfilled by “Mazokh fund” (Ihor Podolchak and Ihor Diurych), this event united museum workers, cultural figures, artists, and art critics who aimed to support the museum and its task to create the civil collection of Ukraine’s contemporary art. The exhibition presents works by Pavlo Makov, Oleksandr Hnylytskyi, Hlib Vysheslavskyi, Illia Chychkan, Viktor Marushchenko, Oleksandr Hliadielov, Andrii Sahaidakovskyi, Yurii Solomko, Dmytro Dulfan, Ihor Husiev, Vasyl Tsaholov, and others.
The exposition also presents selected works from the former corporate collection of “Hradobank”, which after numerous court proceedings finally became part of NAMU collection in 2016. Among them are works by Oleksandr Roitburd, Yurii Solomko, Yana Bystrova, Valeriia Trubina, Tiberii Silvashi, Mykola Kryvenko, Dmytro Kavsan, Serhii Panych, Maryna Skuhareva, Oleh Tistol, and others.
The exhibition project represents the media art of 2000s as well as the last submissions to the museum collection of 2010s among which are works by such artists as Nikita Kadan, Volodymyr Kuznietsov, Daniil Halkin, Alevtyna Kakhidze, Taras Polataiko and the art association “Open group”.
The exhibition is available until February 6th, 2022.