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| | Arts Calendar / June 18 / Exhibitions |
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| Andrey (Dudya) Sarabyanov. Where the Heart Is |
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 Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA) presents Where the Heart Is, a solo exhibition by Andrey (Dudya) Sarabyanov. The artist’s works revitalize the traditions of the Moscow school of painting and attract the viewer with openness and spontaneity of feeling, so rare nowadays. Sarabyanov’s first large-scale museum project will unfold in the spacious enfilade of the building on Gogolevsky Boulevard, offering two intersecting perspectives at once. The exhibition will offer a retrospective demonstration of Sarabyanov’s major pictorial and graphic series created over the past ten-plus years. From ‘diary-like’ natural landscapes of the harsh north of Russia to colorful sketches of Uzbekistan, from semi-abstract urban views of Moscow to introspective scenes in the rooms, from a gallery of spontaneously gouache-sculpted female faces of friends and acquaintances, to chamber-like digital portraits of adolescent daughters, full of touching warmth, swept up in mundane studies during the lockdown of 2020. In all these diverse series the artist, a successor of a well-known artistic dynasty, appears as an attentive and interested observer of life, able to see the beauty and significance in its most mundane and unremarkable course. However, it is Power, a major series of works, that anchors the exhibition as one of Sarabyanov’s most interesting and unexpected artistic expressions at the moment. The artist began this work in 2015 under the impression of a trip to Mount Athos. Observing the life of the monks, the strict guardians of the Orthodox stronghold, he created works in a variety of techniques and formats with characteristically laconic male figures in long robes. Among them, first of all, are monumental silhouettes on paper scrolls, which are reminiscent of temple frescoes and oriental calligraphy, as well as colored compositions on icon boards, monochrome paintings, miniature oriental sculptures and original ceramics. Scattered throughout the exhibition, charismatic and enigmatic images of ascetics, frozen in energetic poses, will accompany the viewer from the beginning to the end of the journey.
Moscow Museum of Modern Art on Gogolevsky bulv  |
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| Academic Drawing of the Late 18th and Early 20th Century |
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 The Tretyakov Gallery presents an exhibition project aimed at introducing visitors to the process of learning to draw that is basic for any kind of fine art. Sections of the exposition will present various artistic learning practices that students of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts and other art educational institutions took part in on their way to the heights of mastery: copying from originals, drawing from plaster models, attending plein-air classes, working on costume productions and in the end creating large compositions for works to be reviewed. Students who successfully mastered all artistic levels were rewarded with a bursary trip at the state expense and were given the title of Academician. The exhibition will include study drawings by prominent Russian artists, Alexander Ivanov and Alexei Yegorov, Karl Bryullov and Orest Kiprensky, Ivan Kramskoy, Ilya Repin, Vasily Polenov, Mikhail Vrubel, Mikhail Larionov and many others. Visitors will be able to explore the origins of the creative journeys of these masters and learn how their careers began. The Tretyakov Gallery has a significant collection of study materials related to the Imperial Academy of Arts, the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, as well as studios of various masters who taught at art schools. To this day, most of this material remains unknown to the general public and specialists and will be shown for the first time.
Tretyakov Art Gallery |
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| Age of Graphics. From Kazimir Malevich to Oleg Kudryashov |
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 Replenishment of the graphic collection has always been a priority of the Museum. The new arrivals of graphic works were last displayed in 2003. This exhibition of acquisitions and donations will show classic masterpieces that have entered the collection of the Museum over the past 20 years. It will also reflect the main trends in the development of drawing, watercolor and engraving from the late 1910s to the early 2020s. One of the most interesting sections of the exhibition is comprised of the works by the Russian Avant-garde masters, including Kazimir Malevich, Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova, the great «Formalist artists» Vladimir Favorsky, Konstantin Istomin and Nikolai Kupreyanov, and their immediate students and followers, Anastasia Akhtyrko, Ilya Kuleshov and Pavel Basmanov. A significant place is given to artists who determined the best features of the 1930s art, including Nikolai Lapshin, Vladimir Grinberg and Tatyana Mavrina. We will see the works by the famous artists of the 1960s and 1970s, Viktor Popkov, Nikolai Andronov and Viktor Vakidin, and representatives of the «Other Art», Vladimir Nemukhin, Mikhail Shvartsman and Yulo Sooster. Spatial and modelling solutions in Russian graphics are actively developing in the 21st century, and often take unexpected forms. The modern artistic process will be represented by the works of outstanding masters, Kirill Mamonov, Alexander Livanov, German Cheryomushkin, Vladimir Kosynkin, Galina Vanshenkina and others.
Tretyakov Gallery at Krymsky Val |
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| Architecture of the World |
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 As part of the Architecture of the World exhibition, Russian artist and architect Sergey Kuznetsov will present a new series of large-format works written in charcoal on cardboard. The main characters of his works are well-known architectural structures located in various parts of the world. Kuznetsov does not strive for a thorough reproduction of the details of architectural objects. His method can be described by resorting to the musical term "improvisation". Taking the existing architecture as a basis, the artist complements and transforms it at his own discretion, extremely delicately, almost imperceptibly to the viewer. Using a minimal amount of materials - charcoal, whitewash and a few color accents, Sergey Kuznetsov achieves amazing spatial depth in his works, building volumes solely due to light accents. Architectural graphics is considered to be an academic process that does not develop in combination with contemporary art. In Kuznetsov's works, the size of works is used as a tool to build a dialogue with already known architectural structures. The large format of works, on the one hand, gives the artist greater dynamism, impetuosity and freedom of performance. On the other hand, despite their impressive size, the works remain intimate and convey a feeling of lightness and weightlessness. While retaining the features of sketchiness due to sharp broad lines and expressive shading, the compositions nevertheless appear to be finished works. The cardboards are combined into an installation by a large-scale architectural structure that creates the effect of individual frames snatched from photographic film. Due to the use of a cropped type of lighting in the dark space of the hall and seemingly light and weightless metal structures, the works located in different planes seem to levitate in the air.
Triumph Gallery |
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 The exhibition of works by Bob Kolbrener, a classic of American art photography, is small but very rich. The exhibition features more than two dozen silver-gelatin landscapes created by Bob in the hand-printing technique at different times. Classic vistas of the Wild West, shot on a film camera and printed without additional technical interventions and enhancements, provide an opportunity to go back in time and re-evaluate photography as the art of capturing a unique moment. Nature in Bob's images is presented as it would have been seen the minute the shot was taken. What unites all the images, apart from the landscape lineage, is the meticulousness of execution - impeccable composition plus hand optical printing from large format negatives. The images are incredibly realistic, sometimes giving the impression that you are looking through a window: the richness of halftones and detail are simply amazing! Kolbrener's works are fine examples of classic landscape photography with a delicate inner balance. Kolbrener, more than anyone else, knows how to harmonize the dynamics of lines, smooth and calm strong tonal contrasts and create correct and moderate visual movement within the frame. As a direct heir to the Ansel Adams tradition, for many decades the photographer has done his best to avoid repetition. There are no far-fetched ideas or complicated logical schemes in his work. It is as if he is telling us that the truth is in the nature of the world around us.
Classic Photography Gallery |
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| Bukharan Jews: At the Crossroads of Civilizations |
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 This large-scale project, jointly staged by the Jewish Museum and the Museum of Jewish History in Russia, will present the history and culture of the Bukharan Jews as a phenomenon of distinct Jewish identity in the context of the cultures of Central Asia. The exhibition will start in the central lobby of the museum and continue in its left gallery, taking viewers on an exciting historical, cultural and ethnographic journey, which includes sections such as Home and Traditional Household Culture; Religious Customs; Life Cycle; Traditional Occupations and Crafts, Music, Dance, Theater; Traditional Clothing. The exhibition will feature around 200 exhibits, some of which have never been put on public display before. These include folk art and household items, handicrafts, religious items, amulets, unique historical documents and photographs. Decorative elements of traditional Jewish houses from Samarkand and Bukhara of the late 19th – the first third of the 20th centuries will be the centerpiece of the exhibition as they will be part of a purpose-built installation representing an abode of a Bukharan Jewish family. Traditional garments worn by the Bukharan Jews as well as weaving and goldwork articles are another big part of the exhibition. Most of these works are taken from the collection of the Museum of Jewish History in Russia and have been given by Jewish families during the museum’s expeditions to Central Asia. The exhibition will also feature pieces from the Russian Museum of Ethnography, the Mardjani Foundation and private collections. No other ethnographic, Jewish or art museum has ever staged an exhibition of this scale and scope. Bukharan Jews fully formed as a separate ethnic subgroup in the 18th century in Central Asian Muslim states such as the Emirate of Bukhara and the khanates of Kokand and Khiva. However, their culture inherited and continued the traditions of a much earlier period that dates back to the era of the Persian Empire. During the Middle Ages, Bukhara and Samarkand became prominent centers of Jewish scholarship and religious poetry, both in Farsi and Hebrew. Despite the discrimination and religious persecution they were subjected to in Central Asia, Bukharan Jews played an important part in the development of local musical culture and traditional crafts.
Jewish Museum & Tolerance Center |
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 Frida Kahlo's life and work have been inspiring the world for decades. Among artists, she was a champion for overcoming personal tragedies and disappointments. Frida's story is "two big accidents: one when the bus hit the streetcar, the other when Diego Rivera hit it," 33 surgeries and 145 paintings. Most of her work is self-portraits. "Sometimes I ask myself, weren't my paintings more works of literature than paintings? They were a kind of diary, a correspondence that I kept all my life. I was deprived of three children and much else to fill my nightmarish life. My art is the most complete biography I could write," Frida confessed in her diary." The artist used her talent to portray her own experiences, facing challenges that would probably have broken someone less resilient. Her paintings, full of symbols and allegories, rooted deep in Mexican tradition, mythology, and Buddhism, mainly draw the viewer's attention to the artist's physical condition and to her relationship with her husband Diego, rich in infidelity and breakups. Frida's work - in form reminiscent of naive art with hints of surrealism - has become the embodiment of Mexican folk art, fashion and women's freedom, with the result that the artist has been made an icon of feminism.
Artplay na Yauze |
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| In the Language of Rules and Exceptions. Science and Art |
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 The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center presents the family-friendly exhibition In the Language of Rules and Exceptions. Science and Art, jointly organized with the Polytechnic Museum. The exhibition deals with the relationship between two of the most important spheres of human activity and the many forms of their interaction. The exhibition is held as part of the Decade of Science and Technology in Russia (2022–2031). The exhibition features six interactive objects and more than 80 works produced over the past 500 years, from the Late Renaissance to our days, from the likes of Albrecht D?rer and Rembrandt to installations by contemporary artists such as ::VTOL:: and Andrey Bartenev. The list of artists on display at the show includes Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Katsushika Hokusai, Georges Seurat, Fernand L?ger, Joan Mir?, Kazimir Malevich, Pavel Filonov, Ivan Leonidov, Konstantin Yuon, Yuri Pimenov, Dmitry Plavinsky, Vyacheslav Koleichuk, Francisco and Platon Infante-Arana, Bill Viola, and more. One of the pieces at the exhibition is ‘Crystal of Light. (Low-speed cargo)’, created by contemporary artists Molitor&Kuzmin, who have been performing objects from various luminous elements for many years. The works by these and other artists are on loan from major Russian museums, including the State Hermitage, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, the State Museum of Oriental Art, the Shchusev Museum of Architecture, as well as from the Stella Art Foundation and private art collections. The Polytechnic Museum has contributed items for the many sections of the exhibition. These are rare and valuable devices that take as much effort and skill to create as works of art do. Masters of the past were also meticulous about the aesthetical qualities of the objects they made. Visitors to the exhibition will get to see an 18th-century telescope, a 19th-century solar microscope, a folding sundial, and the only surviving registrier, a device used to record vertical seismic oscillations.
Jewish Museum & Tolerance Center |
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| Kaleidoscope of Collections. Rarities of the Museum Collection |
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 The Museum of Contemporary History of Russia collection (former the Museum of the Revolution of the USSR) was formed under the influence of the events taking place in the state. Initially, the museum was created as the museum of the revolutionary and democratic movement, and it saw its main tasks as showing the glorious revolutionary past, the chanting of the fighters against the autocracy, the story about the history of the CPSU (b). However, from the very first days, the museum began to receive not only documentary materials, but also the material relics. The museum actively complicated propaganda porcelain, art lacquers, metal and glass objects symbolizing the struggle of the working class for the fair world. When completing art collections, the plot has always been very important for the museum — the historical event reflected in the particular work, the disclosure of the surrounding life actual themes by artistic means. Thus, the collection of decorative and applied arts was gradually formed. The Museum of the Revolution storages were actively replenished with the gifts from the Soviet and foreign delegations to leaders of the state, prominent political and economic figures of the country, as well as with the products made in the single copy for the opening of various congresses and party conferences. Despite the fact that these items were created by the best masters of their time, not all of them could be exhibited in the permanent exhibition. In different years, the museum staff found many ways to show art relics to visitors: these were exhibitions of gifts, and visible storage of museum collections, and, finally, the exhibition that you see now — “Kaleidoscope of Collections. Rarities of the Museum Collection”.
Museum of Contemporary History of Russia |
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| The comprehensive display of Ilya Kabakov’s works |
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 Ilya Kabakov (1933-2023) is the most world-famous Russian artist who created a special art that overturned perceptions of possible expositional solutions: a total installation, immersing the viewer into the space where he can hear voices of communal apartment dwellers, the space, which, despite characteristic features of life in the USSR, is regarded today as a metaphor of the mankind’s present state. Kabakov was born in Dnepropetrovsk, Soviet Union, in 1933. He studied at the VA Surikov Art Academy in Moscow, and began his career as a children's book illustrator during the 1950's. He was part of a group of Conceptual artists in Moscow who worked outside the official Soviet art system. In 1985 he received his first solo show exhibition at Dina Vierny Gallery, Paris, and he moved to the West two years later taking up a six months residency at Kunstverein Graz, Austria. In 1988 Kabakov began working with his future wife Emilia (they were to be married in 1992). From this point onwards, all their work was collaborative, in different proportions according to the specific project involved. Today Kabakov is recognized as the most important Russian artist to have emerged in the late 20th century. His installations speak as much about conditions in post-Stalinist Russia as they do about the human condition universally. Kabakov’s works are devoted to universal feelings well understood by everyone – fear, hope and dream. The small hall of Ilya Kabakov in the New Tretyakov Gallery presents one of the albums from the series ‘Ten Personages’ – Flying Komarov, picture-stand All about Him (Replies of the experimental group), authorly versions of two early pieces Berdyansk Spit and Man and Small House as well as picture-installation Mountain Lake converging painting with real clothes. Kabakov’s ‘little man’ is in the focus of all these pieces: he entrenched himself in the history of not only Russian but global art.
Tretyakov Gallery at Krymsky Val |
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| The comprehensive display of V.N. Gavrilov's works |
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 The State Tretyakov Gallery presents a comprehensive display of the works by Vladimir Nikolayevich Gavrilov (1923-1970) devoted to the birth centenary of the RSFSR Honored Artist and the I.E. Repin RSFSR State Prize Holder. A subtle painter with a unique feeling of color and space, Gavrilov followed the Moscow art school traditions; he was a recognized master of landscape and genre picture. Vladimir Gavrilov belongs to the generation of artists who grew up during the pre-war years and matured during the war. The artist’s impressions of the war years were evidenced in a number of canvases he performed in the peacetime. One of them is For the Native Land (1959). It shows a farewell with a soldier going to the front. The picture looks like a stop-shot from a movie. Attempting to create a collective image of the native land defenders, Gavrilov generalizes the soldier intentionally not depicting his specific features. The reserved coloration, laconic composition and substantial scale make the canvas look monumental. The mid-1950s gave rise the plenty of works that embodied the image and spirit of the thaw epoch, such as A Fresh Day (1958). Filled with light and air, the picture conveys the artist’s admiration of life and beauty, which appeared to be in concordance with the mood of the first postwar decade and brought Gavrilov the Golden Medal and the Diploma of the 1959 World Festival of Youth and Students in Vienna. The artist’s ability to see beauty in everyday routine and capture the mood of the times was reflected in his genre canvas Caf?. Autumn Day (1962), which also became one of the vivid symbols of the thaw period. The most important place in Gavrilov’s artwork has been always occupied by nature, which served as a plentiful source of his artistic impressions. His attitude to the nature of the native land continues not only to landscapes that the artist preferred to make from nature but also to still lifes. His picture Forest Bells (1965) reveals Gavrilov’s talent as a refined colorist.
Tretyakov Gallery at Krymsky Val |
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| The Heavenly Host. Image and Veneration |
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 The exhibition unfolds the 1000-year old history of warrior saints in Russian art, from the pre-Mongol period to the 20th century, bringing together over one hundred and thirty masterpieces of iconography, sculpture, secular painting, numismatics, phaleristics, arms and armor, jewellery. The exposition in the One-pillar Chamber of the Patriarch's Palace includes seven thematic sections dedicated to the Archangel Michael, to the most venerated warrior-martyrs - Saints George, Demetrius of Thessaloniki and Theodore Stratelates, and to the traditions of piety and sanctity found among Russian princes. The exhibition continues in the Assumption Belfry, where it examines various motifs, pertaining to the intercession and appeal to the Heavenly Host and the warrior-saints in the court ceremonial and state symbolism of the Moscow Tsardom and the Russian Empire; thus, the second part of the exhibition brings together weaponry, orders and awards, ceremonial items from the coronation of the last Tsar – Nicholas II, icons of warrior-saints created in the 17th-19th centuries, banners of the Russian Tsars – preserved in watercolour sketches. The exhibition ends with artwork the Soviet period, including Pavel Korin’s sketches to his monumental triptychs and mosaics, dedicated to Alexander Nevsky and Dmitry Donskoy. These works clearly demonstrate that in all periods of Russian history, down to our day, the imagery and feats of the warrior-saints remain intact as timeless, immortal symbols providing solace, inspiration and hope.
Moscow Kremlin Museums |
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| The Treasury of King Christian IV of Denmark |
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 he exhibition presents a rare collection of European art, formerly part of the treasury of King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway, who ruled for almost sixty years – from 1588 to 1648 – the longest reign among all Danish monarchs. Through the efforts of his father King Frederick II, Christian received a comprehensive education and was prepared to govern a vast empire. A true Renaissance ruler, he put the arts at his service, encouraging artists, sculptors, musicians, and architects, thus attracting the most talented people of his time to Copenhagen. The sciences and all the arts flourished to an unprecedented degree in the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway in his epoch. The reign of King Christian IV is represented by works of decorative art, unique engraved portraits of the King, numismatics, and rare books with coloured copperplates from Russian museums and libraries. During the reign of King Christian IV, Russia and Denmark maintained friendly relations and sought to form a strong alliance and enhance it with the bonds of dynastic marriage, the ambassadorial gifts presented to the Russian tsars in the name of the monarch bear witness to it. King Christian IV chose the most valuable and prestigious pieces from his treasury or specially acquired works of art created by the leading European masters. The exhibition features three items bearing the monogram of King Christian IV: a Renaissance double goblet from Augsburg, a Late Elizabethan livery-pot and basin of London masters, brought by the Russian embassy in 1622. On display you can also see a harquebus of the first half of the 17th century, and a Nuremberg nautilus cup with a stem in the shape of Hercules fighting Hydra, which were presented by the embassy of Count Valdemar Christian, the youngest son of King Christian IV.
Moscow Kremlin Museums |
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