Доклады Международного конгресса ИИСАА. Т. 1

44 Proceedings of the International Congress on Historiography and Source Studies of Asia and Africa.Vol. I. 2020 Nika V. Lavrentyeva (The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia) African Art in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts: The Beginning of Collecting and Perspectives of Development Summary: Art historians studying objects ofAfrican art in the museum collections face a number of problems. Moreover, the ways to solve them are quite different from those familiar for classical art historians, such as describing, evaluating the artistic significance and style features of an object. Even such a fundamental concept for European art criticism as “original” here takes on a different meaning. Given the time of the receipt of the vast majority of its objects, the collection of African art of the Pushkin Museum is a “new” collection, but it has been developed on an old basis. The first 7 items were received by the Museum along with a collection of paintings collected by Sergei I. Shchukin. Despite the fact that one of them is not an object of the African art, and another is a copy made in bronze, the other five are interesting examples of African sculptures of the Bambara, Senufo, and Chokwe. These are the objects that formed the basis of the collection of African art and made it an integral part of the museum funds to be developed. These “old” objects came from Sergei I. Shchukin; his task was to illustrate the origins of the forms of the early 20th century avant-garde . Despite the fact that this process was not so straightforward but rather complex and versatile, the direct influence of the African art on the European artists of the time has been postulated by many researchers. This idea was popular among French art objects sellers and collectors of the early XX century; and it was also shared by Shchukin. In 2015, five more items were donated to the museum by N. V. Myasi­ shcheva: three Dogon sculptures as well as female figurines of Ashanti and Baule. Mrs. Myasishcheva is the widow of A. D. Frolov, who worked in Mali in late 60s of the XX century. The objects are of significant interest, though unfortunately there is no detailed information about the circumstances of their acquisition. As a result of the expedition of the Institute of Oriental Studies under the direction of P. A. Kutsenkov to Mali (2017), in 2018, 27 objects brought from the expedition to the Country of Dogons were donated to the Pushkin Museum by N. V. Lavrentyeva: wooden sculpture, door-locks, stool, fabrics, ceramics and metal objects. It is planned to expand the collection as well as to continue the work on its descrip- tion, however, the most important task is the creation of a methodological basis for the development of the African art collection of the Pushkin Museum.