Former model and clothing designer, Dasha Zhukova now has her sights on the art world
Roman Abramovich’s girlfriend, the beautiful and understated Dasha Zhukova, 27, was featured in a New York Times piece, “Russian & Rich: Art’s New Tastemaker.” The 41 year old Abramovich is already a power player in the international art world, having set auction records for Degas, Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, and Giacometti, among others.
Now it is Ms. Zhukova’s time to shine when her Garage Center for Contemporary Culture opens next month in Moscow. The first show will be a retrospective of Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, followed by a visit from the Pinault collection housed at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice.
Ms. Zhukova explains her reasoning behind the transformation of the former Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage: “I thought Moscow should have a space like this for contemporary art…there is a huge thirst for knowledge among the younger generation for contemporary art, but most of them learn about it by going on the Internet. Admission will be free to the art space with the ultimate goal making contemporary art accessible to the general public.
Ms. Zhukova admits that she didn’t formally study art history in school and that the more she learns, the more she realizes she needs to learn, but she seems very organized and determined in her quest to absorb as much as knowlege as possible by seeing lots of art and meeting notable artists.
Read Bloomberg’s enlightening interview with the very private Ms. Zhukova about her goals for the Garage Center for Contemporary Art, opening on September 16.