The Brooklyn Museum has acquired Pussy Riot’s art installation Putin’s Ashes for its permanent collection. This remarkable piece of art, depicting the remains of Russian dictator putin, propelled Nadya Tolokonnikova into a new criminal case and put her on Russia’s most wanted criminal, as well as the terrorist list. It is not taken lightly how unique it is to have a world-famous institution rally and advocate for including a politically “high-stakes” piece like Putin’s Ashes.
Pussy Riot’s Putin’s Ashes is currently part of Nadya Tolokonnikova’s RAGE exhibition at OK Linz in Austria. It was first exhibited at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery in Los Angeles in January 2023, then traveled to CONTAINER in Santa Fe, NM, in June 2023, and went to Dallas Contemporary at the end of last year.
Tonya Turner Carroll and Michael Carroll from Turner Carroll Gallery in Santa Fe gifted the art piece to the Brooklyn Museum, adding to the museum’s consequential lineup of modern and contemporary art.