Re-encounter: The Art Collection of Yakov Rubinstein

The book has been published in English.

The book accompanies the exhibition Re-encounter: The Art Collection of Yakov Rubinstein (01.10.2022–30.04.2023) – both are part of the programme dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Mikkel Museum.

The current exhibition and the catalogue introduce one of the most outstanding, even legendary, art collections assembled the 1960s–1970s. Jakov Rubinstein (1901–1983) was among the first collectors in the Soviet Union who started collecting art immediately after Stalin’s death and devoted their collections to the works of Russian avant-garde and contemporary underground artists who were still officially banned. It was especially valuable because it demonstrated how diverse Russian art was before the onset of Stalinism and how it still existed under the totalitarian regime. Rubinstein’s pursuit of not only works by famous names but also works of high artistic quality resulted in the collection obtaining pieces by artists little known in the 1960s–1970s. The items displayed at the exhibition and reproduced in the book can be easily divided into the three groups that Rubinstein himself considered most important works of distinguished artists, sketches of stage sets and costumes, and graphic portraits of art and culture figures. With a few exceptions, the current exhibition contains the works of art which Rubinstein used to select for exhibitions during his lifetime.