Anna Akhmatova Museum x LUDA Gallery

“WAS, WAS NOT” is an exhibition project at the Anna Akhmatova Museum and LUDA Gallery dedicated to the Russian avant-garde. Here, the past meets the present: contemporary artists engage in a creative dialogue with the legacy of Malevich, Tatlin, Matyushin, and their contemporaries, finding in their search a response for the art of the 21st century. The key figure of the project is Nikolai Punin (1888–1953), an outstanding art critic and theorist, who was the head of the State Russian Museum’s new trends department in 1926. He was the first to introduce the public to the achievements of the Russian avant-garde, distinguished by the absence of dogmatism and prejudice, seeing open horizons in art. His legacy became open to the general public only in the post-Soviet era, thanks to the research and publications of his descendants. The “WAS, WAS NOT” project was initiated by the Fountain House in 2023. It unites the eras of the Silver Age, avant-garde and modern times. During the first year, 15 exhibitions were held, revealing the continuity and energy of the Russian avant-garde tradition. According to curator Petr Bely, he works with marginal artists, and for them avant-garde is a radical and living source of inspiration.