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In 2010, Adam Lerner risked his career and his credibility to show a collection of 181 unverified, unauthenticated Russian avant-garde works at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, where he had just become curator. Tonight, Lerner and the institution celebrate the release of From Russia With Doubt, a book detailing the exhibition of those paintings, which came to the curator via brothers Ron and Roger Pollard, who’d purchased them from a seller on eBay.
“I have to admit that it was frightening for me to go against all of the conventions of my field — but I felt like there was something very powerful about a body of work that was so good but also completely mysterious,” Lerner says of of the now-famous show. He adds that in showing the questionable paintings, he wasn’t just taking a perilous step in his career; he was also daring viewers to question “what we value when we value art.”
Lerner hosts the release of From Russia With Doubt tonight from 5 to 8 p.m. at MCA Denver, 1485 Delgany Street. For more information, visit adamlernerinamerica.com.
Sat., Nov. 23, 5-8 p.m., 2013
