UniCredit Bank announces the launch of a new series of exhibitions in the branches. This year, the expositions are scheduled to coincide with the Bank’s anniversary — 30 years of operation in the Russian market.

“The exhibitions of paintings from the Bank’s art collection in the branches have become a good tradition for us and are held every year. Last year, the guests of our branches were offered to see the portraits from our collection, and this year, we definitely could not ignore the Bank’s anniversary and we are happy to provide our guests with an opportunity to see some of the first artworks that we purchased for our collection,” says Laura Andronova, Head of Identity & Communications Unit at UniCredit Bank. “We laid the foundations of our collection in the first half of the 1990s and have collected over 120 works to date. These pieces are predominantly associated with independent art that was not officially recognised at a certain point, and yet is characterised by sui generis artistic merit. This is why we are happy to share the beauty of these paintings with friends of the Bank.”

The first exhibitions of this year will be held in two additional offices of the Bank: Pervomayskaya will display Street and Seaside by Sergey Rastorguyev and Ramenki will present Anton Yastrzhembsky’s Trees and Landscape with a Red House.

Sergey Rastorguyev (1895–1943) was a painter, landscapist and graphic artist. He studied in the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture (MSPSA) and worked for Gudok daily and Molodaya Gvardiya publishing house as an illustrator. He was a member of the Graphic Artists Association and Group ‘Thirteen’. He took part in the Soviet art exhibitions in London, Berlin, Stockholm, etc. His works are displayed in the State Tretyakov Gallery and in the other museums.

The painter makes part of a constellation of brilliant graphic artists whose lightweight expressive manner has been referred to as the ‘Style of Thirteen’ for several decades now. This style took shape in response to the exigencies of the time, but concurrently, it was the product of the artists’ living conditions in the 1920s: many of them made a living by publishers’ orders and work for periodicals. This kind of work required the skill to draw fast, a confident gesture and a keen sense of the present.

Anton Yastrzhembsky (1884–1960) was a Russian painter and graphic artist who studied in MSPSA in A. Vasnetsov’s class. He was a member of Makovets, Moscow Painters Association (MPA), and Russian Painters Union. He was among the ideologists and founders of Makovets art association. 

Anton Yastrzhembsky taught in the Moscow Pedagogical Institute, Moscow Textile Institute, in the painting and drawing studio in Sokolniki and in the Free State Art Studios in Nizhny Novgorod. Besides, he served as art director of the History and Revolution Museum and as director of Nizhny Novgorod Art Museum.

The exhibition is already open to public during the regular hours of the subsidiary offices (Mon — Fri.: 9:00 a.m. — 8:00 p.m., Sat: 10:00 a.m. — 5:00 p.m.):

• 1 February — 4 March: Pervomayskaya SO, 81, Pervomayskaya Street,
• 1 February — 30 April: Ramenki SO, 34, Michurinsky Avenue.