|
|
|
| | Arts Calendar / February 20 / Exhibitions |
|
|
|
| Igor Mukhin: Alternative culture of 80s |
|
|
|
|
 "It would seem that we [...] can feel free to forget this incoherent epos, with its endless details that never quite stack together," wrote the music critic Felix Sandalov of Mukhin’s photographs. "Yet we are compelled to return to the tapes of their songs, the reels of photographs, seeking the vague outline of we know not what, straining our eyes and listening intently in the search for our own identity." Temporal distance nonetheless changes the optics. Many luminaries of that epoch are no longer with us and many have changed with the changing times. Rock music of the 1980s is already subject to museification, while its leaders have acquired the monumental features of legendary heroes. Today the opposing elements of those years seem very close to us, yet equally distant. The wind of change so anticipated in the 1980s has risen in the air and intermingled the fragments of a passing era, the expectations and hopes for something better. But the memories, dreams and forebodings re-evoked when we look at these photos still remain. As part of the 10th Moscow International Biennale "Fashion and Style in Photography 2017", MAMM showcases an exhibition by the outstanding contemporary photographer Igor Mukhin. Many of his images have now become iconic. While continuing to work on new projects, Mukhin is a teacher at the A. Rodchenko School of Photography and Multimedia, where he instructs a remarkable new generation of photographers who also feature in the Biennale. Mukhin’s exhibition returns us to the onset of his creative career for one of the central themes in the Biennale, "The Wind of Time". Until 09.04.17
Multimedia Art Museum  |
|
|
|
|
| Michel Sima: Genius in the Studio and Behind the Paris Art Scene |
|
|
|
|
 As part of the Tenth Moscow International Biennale "Fashion and Style in Photography 2017", MAMM presents an exhibition by renowned French photographer and sculptor Michel Sima (real name Michał Smajewski) — ‘Genius in the Studio’ from the Kuno Fischer Collection, Galerie Fischer, Switzerland. Photography was more a hobby than a profession for Sima, who regarded himself primarily as a sculptor. Yet it was photography that brought him international recognition. In the course of 10 years he portrayed artist friends such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Francis Picabia, Ossip Zadkine, Alberto Giacometti, Jean Cocteau, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, André Derain, Le Corbusier, Marc Chagall, Joan Miró, and many others. He was also indebted to this friendship with artists for his assumed name. The idea for his pseudonym was an anagram first suggested by Paul Éluard: SIMA is AMIS (friends) spelt backwards. The artist and his oeuvre was the theme that most fascinated Michel Sima as photographer. In all his images Sima pictured artists at work in their studios. But this was not purely a record of various stages of the artistic process. His amicable relations with the subjects and the trust that prevailed in every location enabled him to produce unique images that show subtle nuances of each character’s personality, and to convey an unrepeatable creative aura. Each artist posing among his works in the congenial surroundings of his own studio apparently reveals his identity to the viewer. Jean Cocteau wrote in his preface to Michel Sima’s "21 Visages d’Artistes", the photo album dedicated to the legendary École de Paris and published in 1959: "My dear Sima, you had the commendable idea of capturing the faces of artists as if in flight — the excited faces of artists in combat with the monsters they themselves engendered, the riders of the Apocalypse that drive us into a labyrinth where we are seized by the wild, ambiguous desire to at least see the Minotaur, if not actually encounter it". "What he reveals is something you will find nowhere else: brotherly unity, a striking, remarkable mutual affinity between photographer and model" (Michel Sima’s close friend Jean-Luc Meysonnier). Until 09.05.17
Multimedia Art Museum |
|
|
|
|
| Philippe Chancel. Rebels’ Paris 1982 |
|
|
|
|
 Over the past twenty years Philippe Chancel’s photography has explored the complex, shifting and fertile territory where art, documentaries and journalism meet. His is a constantly evolving project, focusing on the status of images when they are confronted with what constitutes “images” in the contemporary world. Born in 1959, Philippe Chancel now works and lives in Paris. He was introduced to photography at a very young age, took an economics degree at the University of Paris (Nanterre) followed by a post-graduate diploma in journalism in Paris. Philippe Chancel’s work has been widely exhibited and published in France and abroad in a number of prestigious publications. These include "Regards d’artistes" – portraits of contemporary artists, "Souvenirs" – a series of portraits of great capital cities (Paris, London, New York, Tokyo, Brussels) glimpsed through shop windows - produced in collaboration with Valérie Weill, and, lastly, his North Korean project, which brought him international recognition. Philippe Chancel is currently working on a new long-term project entitled « Datazone » that aims to explore the many-faceted aftermaths within the documentary field, revealing some of the world’s most singular lands which are recurrently in the news or, conversely, hardly ever picked up by the media radar. This visionary quest has already taken him from Port au Prince to Kabul via Fukushima, Niger's delta, Pyongyang or Astana. His work is included in many permanent public collections as well as private collections. Untill 26.11.17
Moscow Museum of Modern Art |
|
|
|
|
| The Geogian Avant-garde: 1900–1930s. |
|
|
|
|
 For the first time in Russia, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts presents such an extensive exhibition of artworks by Georgian artists of the first third of the 20th century. Visitors will be able to see works by Niko Pirosmanashvili (Pirosmani) (1863–1918), Vladimir (Lado) Gudiashvili (1896–1980), David Kakabadze (1889–1952), Kirill Zdanevich (1892–1969), Alexander Bazhbeuk-Melikov (Melikyan) (1891–1966), Elene Akhvlediani (1901–1975), Irakli Gamrekeli (1894–1943), Petre Otskheli (1907–1937), and Zygmunt Waliszewski (1897–1936). The exhibition will present 200 paintings, easel drawings and theatrical decorations from major Russian and Georgian museums and private collections. The project is meant to emphasize the importance of dialogue between the two countries whose history and culture have been inextricably linked over centuries. Georgia, particularly Tiflis, were the point of intersection of different civilizations, languages and traditions. The exhibition is focused around the idea of displaying the rich artistic legacy of the Georgian art of the Avant-garde period. In the early 20th century, Georgian painting, literature, music and theatre were under a considerable influence of the Avant-garde thought. Tiflis became ‘little Paris’, the center of an artistic experiment. The city had an eventful cultural life: artistic cafés organized numerous poetic tournaments; Kote Marjanishvili, stage director of the Moscow Art Theatre and founder of the Free Theater in Moscow, collaborated with young artists in Georgia – Petre Otskheli and Irakli Gamrekeli. Tiflis was the place where Vladimir Mayakovsky and Osip Mandestam performed, the place that became home for the poets Vasily Kamensky and Aleksei Kruchenykh. The Conservatory of Tiflis had Heinrich Neuhaus among its professors. Here the philosopher George Gurdjieff established the first Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man and the School of Collective Gymnastics where everyone could enroll to study "sacred dances" and "sacred gymnastics". Until 12.03.17
Pushkin State Musem of Fine Arts. Private Collections |
|
|
|
|
| The Masterpieces of Byzantine |
|
|
|
|
 The Masterpieces of Byzantine art of XII-XV centuries from Greece. Byzantine civilization is one of the most exciting and unique in world history. Byzantine art gave the impetus for the development of ancient Russian culture. In recent years, major foreign museums such as the Metropolitan and the Louvre, hosted large-scale exhibitions of Byzantine art with great success. This year, the Hermitage introduces the Byzantine culture to the viewers. The exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery will be the first to present the renowned masterpieces of Byzantine art to Moscow public. For the exhibition in the Tretyakov Gallery, the major Greek museums such as the Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens, the Benaki Museum, the Byzantine Museum in Thessaloniki, as well as church museums, present their treasures: icons, applied art works and manuscripts, among them the "Raising of Lazarus", "Virgin and Child" and "John the Baptist Angel of the desert" and a censer depicting martyrs Theodore and Demetrius, embroidered cover on the Blessed Sacrament, and two Code - Gospel XIII and the beginning of the XIV century. The exhibition will be held in the framework of cross Year Russia - Greece earlier in Athens presented a unique exhibition of Russian icons of XV-XIX century. Russia has already hosted a number of exhibitions of Greek meetings - in particular, in the Historical Museum show "Gods and Heroes of Ancient Greece", and in the Hermitage "Byzantium through the centuries." Until 09.04.17
Tretyakov Gallery at Lavrushinsky Lane |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 This is a large-scale culture history exhibition project dedicated to one period of Russian national history which is traditionally labelled by scholars as the “Thaw.” The mission of this exhibition is to show not only the achievements of that period, but also its challenges and conflicts. The display includes works of painters, sculptors, and movie directors who were witnesses and agents of decisive transformations in the most important spheres of the lives of the Soviet people. Their opinions are controversial, which makes the exhibition all the more versatile. The exhibition area is designed around a few thematic sections, such as “Talking with Father,” “The Best City on Earth,” “International Relations,” “The New Ways of Life,” “Exploration,” “Atom — Space,” “Towards the Communism!” A variety of artifacts will be integrated into the expo space, such as painted and graphic works, sculptures, household items, samples of designs, video projections with footage from feature films and documentaries. Participants: the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, the Institute of the Russian Realistic Art, Russia’s museum and private collections. Until 11.06.17
Tretyakov Gallery at Krymsky Val |
|
|
|
|
| Yasumasa Morimura. The History of the Self-Portrait |
|
|
|
|
 The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts presents a solo exhibition of the contemporary Japanese artist Yasumasa Morimura. The show is dedicated to the history of self-portrait in the world art. The display will present over 80 pieces from the collection of The National Museum of Art (Osaka), Hara Museum of Contemporary Art (Tokyo), The National Museum of Modern Art (Kyoto), and from the collection of the artist. The exhibition consist of several sections: the first one entitled “When I Didn’t Know Anything about Art History” includes photographs from the artist’s personal archive, two early pieces of 1985 – “Portrait. Van Gogh” and “Portrait. Camille Roulin”, and a large-scale multi-figured composition “A Sympósion on Self-Portraits” representing many characters of his transformations. The second section called “Self-Portraits through Art History” displays works created in 2016: portraits of Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer, van Eyck, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Courbet, Böcklin, Ensor, van Gogh, Rousseau, Magritte, and Dalí. Along with the artistic interpretation of the characters, the titles given by the artist are a fundamental part of the creative idea. The section “An Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo” is entirely dedicated to the Mexican artist. Another room will be exploring “Las Meninas” – a painting by Diego Velasquez, renowned Spanish artist of the 17th century. In the “The 20th Century – An Age of Self-Portraits” section the viewers will see original interpretations of works by Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, and Cindy Sherman. Yasumasa Morimura was born in Osaka (Japan) in 1951. He entered the international art scene in the early 1980s. In his first photographic works, he transformed himself into personalities of contemporary pop culture and artists of various periods. Morimura acts as both model and concept creator. During his career, he has invented over 300 different characters. Today, Yasumasa Morimura is considered the most well-known Japanese artist working with the appropriation genre. Until 09.04.17
Pushkin State Musem of Fine Arts. European and American Art |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The virtual community for English-speaking expats and Russians
