The significance of establishing an art gallery in Japan for the exhibition of contemporary Russian paintings

The manuscript dated April 17, 2021 was newly revised on December 31, 2021.

This is the essay that I put together, omitting details, from the stories that my brother, working as the curator of my art gallery, told to me occasionally from time to time about his research on realistic style of contemporary Russian paintings. Idea to demolish his house in Shinkawa, Tokyo occurred to him long ago to build a new three-storied house, namely an art gallery on the first floor and on other flats for the use of our two families.

The contemporary Russian paintings that we have consist of 230 works, which my brother collected for the period of 13 years from 2nd year of March, 1990 during first four-year stay (1989-1993) till the end of 2nd 5-year stay in Moscow and he selected the works in which he felt the mental power of the authors on the foundation of his sensibility. The painters, having painted these 230 works, number 84 in all. According to the conviction of my brother, anyone of them coincides with the criteria representing high artistic level of contemporary Russian painting circles and also surpasses the ranking level higher than “4” of the Professional Artists’ Union (thereafter to be referred as Union). For particulars, please refer to page No.145 of his book, “Consideration of Contemporary Russian Paintings” or page No. 96 of the revised edition of the book, which you can read for the time being free of charge by visiting my website. URL: https://www.ishii-gallery.com/

My brother has long clung to an idea to establish artistic gallery in Japan to permanently exhibit contemporary Russian paintings and I several times heard from him such affairs that seemed to me exaggerated words: “If we build an artistic gallery, permanently exhibiting highly artistic works of the prominent Russian painters, it becomes an epoch-making, social contribution to the advantage of our country.” or “It is also valuable for Russia, because it increases number of Japanese to understand Russian culture, which surely promotes mutual understanding for peace between nations.” In the meantime, several months ago, (it was around the beginning of December, 2019), the conviction of my brother turned out to be obvious in more concrete form, because almost all of them were admitted to have joined Union and have got the high ranking grade. The newest ranking evaluation of these 84 is as follows: 1 person for rating “3”, 69 persons for “4” and 4 persons for “5”, while on the other hand 10 persons nonmember of Union. (By the way, as for 4 persons for “5” and 10 persons of nonmember my brother affirmed that he selected them by the criteria of rating “4” and their works were at least on the level of “4.”)

According to my brother’s explanation (I’d like to introduce what he handed to me in just the same form.)
◎Union regards a painter with ranking level higher than “5”as a professional artist and once he became a professional painter, then the transition of his ranking grade, which is to be made every three months, is conducted by following method, that is to say, the transition is decided by the sales result of his painting works on the market 3 months ago. For the painter with ranking level “5” his revaluation is made to the direction of higher grade and also for artist with level higher than “4”―to the direction for lower grade till “5”. For example, 5 persons of our 84 painters who once occupied ranking “3” at least till the time of early 2003 were shifted to the lower ranking “4” by the time of June, 2003.

◎Union set up an international ranking level of painters in June, 2003 on base of Russian inner ranking grade higher than “3”, adding to them famous foreign painters from XVIII century till now, whose artistic levels are equivalent to the aforesaid Russian ranking grades. (Union selected them according to the working period of the said Russian painters) The number of painters in Russian inner ranking continued to increase year by year and accumulated to 52,956 persons. However, on the other hand the member of the international ranking remained unchanged. They altogether 10,067 persons, in which foreigners amounted to 1,650 persons. (Nevertheless, there appears an inclination that the number of foreigners decreases, while that of Russians increases.)

◎It is especially characteristic that the restriction to the age of painters is applied to the evaluation of Russian inner ranking, namely the ranking level “1” is not given to an alive artist, the level from “2” to “4”―in no way to the painters younger than 50, and the level “5”―to the artist younger than 35. I think it quite apparent that the style of realism paintings does require such a　long-period of training with no interruption. In conclusion I’d like to mention as briefly as possible about what I did in connection with the significance of establishing our art museum in Japan:

◎The paintings of high artistic level were prohibited to carry out of the country as national asset just after the October Revolution, and the same rule was applied to all the works of the excellent painters in total about 100 persons. This prohibition had continued till just before the beginning of perestroika since then. In a painting art an original work only makes it possible to understand true value in essence, therefore it has never recognized in the west that the traditional style of realism paintings is on a very high artistic level and this is exactly very agonizing dilemma for contemporary artistic circle of Russia, which has annoyed them till now. In any case, my first stay in Moscow overlapped with a dynamic era in history, when the prohibition against carrying the contemporary painting works out of the country had been cancelled for the first time since the aforesaid revolution and under such social environment I was strongly absorbed in paintings to collect more than 200 works for the period of several years of my stay.

◎Later, when I returned to Japan after final accomplishment of my long-stay service in Moscow(it was at the end of July, 2003), I instantly noticed the unpopularity of realistic style of paintings in Japan and so I decided to try my best to eliminate the prime cause of such unpopularity as much as possible. However, this work demanded incredible efforts from me. If expressing it figuratively, the situation surrounding me was like this: a big mountain stood up just before me and blocked the road, through which I was driving a car, therefore my task was equivalent to building a tunnel through the mountain. Such big works I have done by two stages. At first stage I wrote up the aforesaid book based on my study on the Russian paintings in Moscow. The 70% portion of the manuscript I wrote in my house in Tokyo for the period of 6 months from September, 1997, namely just before the departure for my second long stay service in Moscow. The book was published in Japan at the end of May, 2005.

◎At second stage I established my homepage, where anybody can read revised edition of the said book in three languages. It required 3 years to realize this plan and I opened *homepage at the beginning of July, 2013. The reason why I made this reading free of charge was that I chose the way of how effectively accelerate our activities for increasing number of art lovers who appreciates an excellence of Russian paintings. On the way of my preparation of such tasks I came to desire to have our own museum in future. In any way, the number of readers at the time of 28 October, 2020 accumulated in total as follows: Japanese original―28,150 persons, English translation―9,160 and Russian one―10,200. However, after that time the counter began to start once again from zero because of the change of a program soft into a renewal one, and afterward, maybe, because the existence of our art gallery little by little was known to the public, the counting tempo of the expansion of readers increased, and so the total amount of the aforesaid readers which required 7 years and 3 months shall be achieved in 4 years or so. In this way, although readers’ figures are so many at present, they are not connected to our gallery’s customers due to the bad effects of new type of corona-virus. Nevertheless, the role which our activities have played till this time in the expansion of persons to understand Russian art is worthy of attention as the aforesaid results were shown and it will surely serve in future as a strong helper for the activities of our gallery, if the frequency to read our homepage is maintained at a similar level.
URL: https://www.ishii-gallery.com/artgallery

◎Finally I would like to mention more fundamental matters which became a source of my vitality for accomplishing the aforementioned tasks till this time and I would also express the measures to have been taken by me to cope against the mentioned anxiety and other treatment:

• The reason why I thought to establish an art museum, making use of my own collection lies in the desire to share the pleasure to appreciate the excellent paintings with the art lovers. If this desire is realized, it would be beneficial and pleasant not only for art lovers, but also for authors of the exhibited works. If so. I can carry out this job, enjoying it for a long time. Thinking so, I made myself accept to engage in the business of the gallery. However, if somebody asked me whether I am confident of sustaining the management of our museum according to a long-range plan, availing myself of such intention as a spiritual support, then my answer will be “I am not sure, if not tried”, namely it means that confidence struggles with anxiety in my mind and the latter is predominant in the ratio of more than 60%. But why? This is because an art museum in itself is not at all a profitable sort of business. All other private museums without exception are supported by big companies, in contrast to which our company is too small and is not enough to support the management of our gallery for a long period. In spite of such situation, or rather on the contrary, because of it I would like to always treasure such initial mind to share the said pleasure jointly with others. And also if I will not drive all my effort to what I really wanted, it is quite obvious for me to regret when I will have to bid my own life farewell. Therefore, in view of such feeling that “in anyhow, I have to do it”, I made my move ahead.

• The remainder in ratio of less than 40% was occupied by my action to overcome the anxiety in question and these big works were carried out by thoroughly think-out preparations by two different stages. I had more than enough confidence in myself to cope with the mentioned anxiety. But why I could have such strong confidence? This is because any work of an excellent painter obviously does reflect in a condensed form all the things he had acquired through long-term training till this time. I could grasp these things instantly till such a degree as gaining insight into the creative concepts of the authors. That’s why I could absorb in my brain all the things that the author had expressed in his work, that is to say, the tradition of realistic style of paintings and also the skills of each painter. In this way, the knowledge having been obtained through my close appreciation of the works of the outstanding masters did serve as “my university” so to speak for me who had not received a formal higher education of the fine arts. And I dare to say that such self-confidence was strongly supported by the conviction that the higher education I received directly from the works of the excellent painters was quite authentic one.

• I together with my sister established an art museum, which opened on 1 June, 2019. Therefore, the die is cast, anyhow. The aforesaid determination that “in any case, I have to do it” naturally combined with the way of thinking that I did choose this way by my own desire and I always make an explanation in my museum about exhibited works, reproducing by way of reason the aesthetics grasped by intuition of right brain. Such way of explanation by my own way has a good reputation from the customers and when leaving from the museum, almost all of them, with shining eyes, remark their impression, “I‘ve got a healing from the paintings.” How glad I am to hear that. I make it a rule to give a commentary on the exhibited works, because realistic work is painted in general about the situation surrounding the artist. However, there occasionally remains something which is not understandable for person who has not lived in Russia for a long time, therefore on the way to my
  explanation, when necessary, I try to make an additional explanation about the living habits of Russian people, for example, their reaction to the change of four seasons, or about the importance to take into account the title of this work for gaining insight into the author’s creative plot.

• Such way of business promotion is a major activity of our galley which specializes in the presentation of an excellence of Russian realistic paintings. By the way, I write an essay from time to time for the purpose of deepening the comprehension of Russian art. By this time such essay has accumulated 8 pcs, including this piece. For our business promotion I not only make an explanation on the exhibited works< but also give the customers such essay one by one. I intend to write up such essay in future, too, expecting that the recognition of the outstanding quality of contemporary Russian realism paintings is spreading out from hand to hand.

For myself I think that for small art museum like ours it is important to exhibit
the specific works which cannot be seen in other museums, demonstrating their uniqueness. Although I once again repeat, our museum exhibits at every exhibition about 30 works, which not only coincides with the level of contemporary artistic circle of Russia, but also corresponds to the ranking level of Union higher than “4”. We hang up every work on the wall in the hole with inner measurement about 133㎡ so that each of them looks more attractive. In this way we confidently introduce every work, therefore on this point please trust us. Any of them can be recommended, because each has its own specific
individuality.

Anyway, we have very difficult time at present. However, when the confusion by new type of corona virus is calming down, why not coming to our museum and kindly enjoy appreciating excellent exhibits of Russian paintings to heal the accumulated stress. We’d sincere ask you to come to our gallery.

PS: The mark of ◎ at the beginning of the paragraph indicates that it’s the statement by my brother, while the paragraph with no mark means that it is my statement.