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| Patti and US Ambassador |
|Adventures in Russia
The American Ambassador's Residence as Art Gallery
By Christopher Rutty
Spasso House is the American Ambassador's residence in the center of Moscow's Embassy district. Patricia is on the cultural invitation list and we have visited on four occassions, one of the most prestigious lists in Moscow's social life. However, the ambassador is a rather standoffish character with a smile like a puppet. Nowhere near as personable as the Australian Ambassador. Although, John Brown, the American embassy's cultural attaché, is more approachable and he and Patricia have a working-friendship that involves reading contemporary Russian literature.John is a funny, slightly eccentric American; dressed in his trench coat he looks a little like Colombo. He is very passionate about reading Eugene Onegin and each time we see him he smiles, shaking his head with some exclamation about the joy he finds in the work.
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| Patti & John Brown |
He is a marathon runner as well and, well, they are a strange bunch anyway! Patricia and John's favorite contemporary Russian author, after Pelevin, is Boris Akunin, a very successful crime writer who uses 19th century Russian history to underpin the scenario in each of his books. His characters usually have some relationship with the present as well. We met Akunin here, at the Ray Charles reception, given by the ambassador after his Kremlin concert. He speaks perfect British English
A few weeks after this, John Brown and the American ambassador wanted to host an exhibition of paintings by the children from the orphanages that Patricia works with. Irina and I took 25 of the best paintings and had them framed at the Central House of Artists framing gallery. They looked so professional under glass, with blonde timber frames. Irina and I took them, early one morning, to the ambassador's residence in the orchestra's car.
| Photographs by Robert Maplethorpe: Grace Jones's face, and Andy Warhol |
The security at American embassies is at the paranoid stage. If you enter as an invited guest, with a printed card carrying the American seal printed in gold at the top, and your name, you get the bag search and body search with the metal detector. Naturally, you need your passport checked by the American and Russia security guards. If you arrive in a car with a delivery - uninvited - even though they are expecting you, after telephoning ahead to arrange a time to drop off the works; they get out the car metal detector and run it under the guards and sills, search the boot and engine bay. One of the guards hoped in the back seat with me as we drove around the back of Spasso house.
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| Ambassador's Residence |
The ambassador's residence is large and the downstairs area is arranged for entertaining. It is decorated with contemporary American art, (From American Art in Embassies program) most of it the unfriendly post-Warhol realism. Those large portraits that leave you wondering why artists paint such ugly large canvases. It made me think highly of all the losers in the Archibald Prize; Australia's premier portraiture prize.
There was an ugly, odd, thing sitting on the black grand piano, three cutout faces of the artist, life-size. They were three different angles of her face, painted in acrylic, and sitting in a perspex rail to holding them. It was obviously out of place, it should have been it the rubbish bin that I past at the rear of the building. The only art that spoke of quality, were the photographs by Robert Maplethorpe, one of Grace Jones's face, the other, the pasty looking face of Andy Warhol.
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| Patricia & Irina |
We arrived several mornings later to hang the children's art in the same rooms.
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| Smile!! |
Three men were taking down the previous exhibition of photos of early wooden churches, and they agreed to hang ours with the extension ladder. Patricia and Irina sorted out what-went-where, while I took photos and wondered if a hidden camera was watching me. I got away with it, so I guess not.
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| Arranging the Paintings |
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| Paintings &Carpet! |
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| Hanging the Paintings |
The exhibition and reception for the children's paintings was a special invitation evening. It was the first time any children had been invited to the ambassador's home. All the children whose paintings were hung were invited. It was one of the largest receptions the ambassador hosted with about 300 people. Some of the chairmen from the multi-national corporations that support
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| Left Wall |
The evening was very special for the children and for the guests to see the artists whose work was on the wall. Then, two days before the exhibition Irina telephones Patricia with bad news from the director of Home #11.
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| Patricia & Chris |
Other homes had been working with Patricia's program for 5 years, and no black Packard arrived to whisk away the director in the middle of the night. The following day Patricia telephoned to assured him the cold war was over.
The ambassador welcomed everyone with a short introduction on why we were all there. Praising Patricia for her work, if it weren't for her efforts the program of integrating art into the lives of forgotten children, would not exist. [detail]
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| Right Wall;1 |
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| Right Wall;2 |
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| Left Wall 1 |
A small ensemble from the orchestra performed. There was 'Vlad the piano opener as I called him. A stagehand for the orchestra, who played very good classical guitar (Not in the Orchestra). I met him originally in Sydney when he was strumming backstage at the Opera House. The flute player joined him to perform a duo. Then Sergei (The one I romped around naked with at his dacha) and 5 other double bass players performed some famous tunes transposed for 6 double basses; including Gershwin, Strauss, Mozart, and blues tunes.
The children loved seeing and hearing the music.
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| Left Wall |
The ambassador warmed up -after the more official guests departed- and laughed about the kids putting food in their pockets. Patricia explained to him that the children are raised with the idea of sharing things with the others in the home. They live in dormitories with about 25 kids in each section; he was taking the radishes back to share with his friends who were not invited. |
This initiative is totally Patricia's, the orchestra tours the world raising money for its 'Children's Program'. The reality is that the 'bandits' running the orchestra, deceive these philanthropist, and large corporations. Claiming they are doing great work to help orphaned kids. They couldn't care less and actually hinder Patricia's efforts in the most pathetic ways. Last year over US$100,000 was raised in the name of the program, Patricia was given less than $10,000 to spend. This is independent from the administration budget for the orchestra, which is mostly covered by Gordon Getty, and large sums that corporations give to sponsor a single evening's performance
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| There are no laws in this country except the ones based upon greed. |