The exposition "Assy: V. E. K." can be compared to a box with a double bottom. On the one hand, the presented works allow one to get acquainted with the family history of the Assov, and on the other, to understand how the worldview and creative methods of the representatives of this dynasty have changed over the century. The curators of the exhibition managed to reveal both themes at once thanks to the original organization of the exhibition space. Its compositional center is a large cross-shaped showcase, which lies right in the middle of the hall. The showcase contains documents from the family archive, and at one of its ends there is a plasma screen showing two small videos about the history and work of the family and a short-length film by Evgeny Viktorovich Ass "The Way", dedicated to the centenary of L. N. Tolstoy. On the walls of the gallery, there are drawings, portraits, landscapes, photographs, installations and graphic works of all three architects.
The works of Viktor Evgenievich Ass, most famous for his project "Star City", are academic and at the same time very touching. Among them - tempera "Flowerbed" and gouache "Rhodope", canvases depicting St. Petersburg and the cat Sandra, sleeping on the sofa. You can also consider in detail the drawing of the gate of the house on Sadovo-Kudrinskaya, in which Viktor Evgenievich later settled with his family. There are also a couple of sketches of the monument to L. V. Rudnev, on one of which in the upper right corner is lovingly drawn in red ink: "Friend".
The creative statements of his son, Evgeny Viktorovich Ass, a Moscow architect and public figure, a teacher at the Moscow Architectural Institute, sound completely differently. Throughout the entire exposition, he plays with graphite shades of gray, clearly drawing the horizon lines and intriguing names, one of which is presented at all in the form of coordinate data - "48 ° 44'42" N 28 ° 08'05 "E". The youngest Ass - Cyril, an architect, artist and critic, paying tribute to modernity, experiments with forms. Reinforced concrete monuments, pointed upwards, stretch upward in the photograph of the installation "Dramatis personae". Another photo shows a lonely Suzdal observation tower, created by an architect. An unusual impression is made by photographs with palace mirrors, placed in luminous lightboxes, they are a little frightening with their otherworldlyness. The works of three different architects alternate and often complement each other. For example, the tempera embankment of Kronstadt, captured by Viktor Evgenievich, echoes the photograph of Kirill's installation Neglinka, or Obscurantism, in which the author projects ghostly St. Petersburg facades onto the wall in a dim room.
It may seem surprising that a portrait painted by Lev Vladimirovich Rudnev has also crept into the exhibition. But there is nothing strange in this: Rudnev was not only a friend of Viktor Evgenievich, but also the head of the architectural workshop in which the architect worked. In addition, he, like Assy, lived in a house on Sadovo-Kudrinskaya. Rudnev portrayed A. Khristiani-Ass, the wife of Viktor Evgenievich, and this work organically blended into a series of portraits from different years by the elder Ass - "Self-portrait", "Zhenya", and the middle one - "Kirya". It seems that Viktor Evgenievich was not deceiving, portraying himself as serious, even a little harsh. This is evidenced by the numerous photos placed in the window: he is always unsmiling with his son and wife, with friends and colleagues V. O. Muntz and L. V. Rudnev, among students and while working in the workshop. Looking at the showcase, you can find a lot of interesting documents, for example, a certificate stating that Viktor Ass's rationalization proposal "to increase the living space and reduce the cost of construction in the extension to the CDSA hotel" has been accepted. There are also sketches of projects and photos of their implementation: a medical building and baths of a sanatorium in Arkhangelskoye, a monument to Soviet soldiers in Porkkala-Udd and other objects.
You can try to look for something in common in the works of Asss, relatives to each other, but not at all similar to each other, you can, on the contrary, look for differences in them. But, I think, the main thing that unites representatives of three generations of one architectural dynasty is the ability to experiment, the ability to think in a variety of aesthetic categories.
