Lecture by Marat Gelman Bad / Good Art — How We Evaluate Art – RU

Date: 7.3.2026, 16:00

If you ask a professional whether there are criteria by which one can determine whether art is good or bad, the answer will most likely be no. There is only consensus. For an outside observer, however, this sounds unconvincing and even suspicious. How, then, can it be explained that visitors to the Venice Biennale agree in their judgments in nine cases out of ten? This suggests that some criteria do, in fact, exist.

When Marat Gelman opened the first private gallery in Moscow in 1990, he spent at least ten years explaining to people without formal artistic training how one might approach the evaluation of art. He proceeds from the belief that understanding art is neither an innate gift nor a closed domain reserved for professionals, but a skill that can be developed.

In this lecture, Marat Gelman will attempt, over the course of ninety minutes, to demonstrate how one can navigate contemporary art and distinguish bad art from good art — not through a set of formal rules, but through perception, experience, and cultural context.

March 7, Saturday, 4:00 pm
Free admission
Registration is required https://forms.gle/7VUfyWsSH1q4pJP19 
Lecture language — Russian