History

By Julian Ravest

We started working with Russian artists by accident. I was working on some other projects in Russia in the early 1990’s at the invitation of the Russian Academy of National Economy. This gave me a privileged insight into the overall situation in Russia after the collapse of communism. Because communism had been such a central driving force in all aspects of Russian life, not only had a political system collapsed, but also the economic, cultural and ethical systems which had drawn upon it. It must be remembered that the communist system had been a great supporter of culture so this sector was very badly hit.

I soon realised that I would not be able to contribute significantly to the overall situation, but I had began to think about what I should concentrate on. Emerging was the idea that it art defines a society and that, when all else was failing, assisting creative people was important and, possibly, within my powers.

With these thoughts in mind, I found myself in St Petersburg buying a watercolour from a student of the Academy of Fine Arts. I later learnt, that, had I not bought this painting, the student would have had to leave the Academy since he had absolutely no money and, of course, there was negligible state support available. The accident of my being there at that time made the difference and he was able to complete his studies.

I consequently offered to help these very talented artists by acting as their agent, promoting and selling there work.

Since that time we have worked very closely with a range of artists, mostly, though not exclusively, trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg. Our network of artists has developed over the years but our approach has remained constant. Our objective is to work on behalf of the artists, selling their work and promoting awareness of its excellence. We have brought artists to the UK for varying periods of time so that they may engage with the current artistic scene here. During some of the harder times in Russia we provided artists with materials which were difficult or impossible to buy within Russia.