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| | Arts Calendar / March 31 / Exhibitions |
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 The project “I - Aivazovsky” combines the format of a multimedia exhibition and a tv play, more familiar to the viewer. He leads the viewer literally through the labyrinth of the maestro’s life. The role of Aivazovsky is played by the popular actor Sergey Garmash, narrated from the first-person in a confidential, almost intimate form the life story of a boy who will soon become a world famous artist. The interlocutor of the main character is played by the actress Lyanka Gryu. The script is based on biographical facts, documents, letters and memoirs of Aivazovsky’s contemporaries. Ivan Aivazovsky (Ovanes Ayvazyan) was born in Feodosia (Crimea) in an Armenian family. A rare representative of the art workshop, whose chefs-d’oeuvres during his lifetime turned out to be commercially successful and in demand. During his long life, he created about six thousand works, most of which are devoted to the sea. The painter’s canvases amaze the viewer with authenticity and realism, although he painted them mainly not from nature, but in his atelier - from memory. Thanks to the widespread success and replicability of Aivazovsky’s works, they turned into an expensive, but as if “dead heritage”. The main question asked by the curators of the exhibition “I -Aivazovsky” was: what kind of person should be the artist to devote all his works to one topic? What character should this person have? Perhaps the answer will help to take a fresh look at the paintings of the famous marine painter.
Artplay na Yauze  |
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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 Shadow of High-Rises |
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 The Lumiere Gallery presents an exhibition of Vladimir Stepanov "In the Shadow of the Heights". The exhibition includes more than fifty black and white author's prints of the Moscow period (1957-1965). "Young Photographer" reveals another Moscow: humane, sincere, sometimes funny and melancholic, reviving after the tragic war years. Stepanov, who takes pictures for himself, does not think about the canons and frames, in which his colleagues live. Independent and free, he captures the mood of the era in the best way possible, leading us with his love for genre scenes and urban color. "In more than twenty years of experience with photographic archives - and there have been over a hundred - I would not have called a more open and relaxed series than this," says Natalia Grigorieva-Litvinskaya, Director of the Gallery. Vladimir Stepanov got the camera by chance. This early passion stays with him for a long time and grows into his life's work. His Moscow series of 1957-1965 will be included in the Anthology of Russian Photography of the 20th century. We study the images of Moscow, changing with unimaginable speed: from a small, low, with winding streets city it becomes the capital of the "country of the future". Commune houses, Stalinist high-rises have become the dominant features of the city, while the usual pre-revolutionary views of Moscow have remained in the shadows. However, Muscovites still cherish those narrow alleys, merchant mansions, and cozy courtyards - this is the kind of Moscow that Stepanov's photograph tells us about.
Lumiere Gallery |
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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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| Korea and the Armoury Chamber: The History of the Coronation Gift to the Last Emperor |
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 The Moscow Kremlin Museums are introducing the exhibition on the history of the gifts presented by the Extraordinary Korean Embassy to Emperor Nicholas II on the occasion of his coronation in 1896. The visit of the Korean delegation to the solemn ceremony earned a special place in the history of Korea, as it was the first mission by officials of this then 'closed' country to Europe. However, it was took place in difficult political circumstances caused by Japan's intervention in Korea, in which Russia was providing substantial assistance to the monarch of Korea Gojong. On display are five remarkable works by Korean masters: a two-section black-lacquered chest of 'Nong' type, two incense burners and two scrolls painted by Jang Seung-eop (1843-1897), known by his pseudonym Owon, who was one of the most distinguished Korean artists of the late 19th century. These pieces are a vivid example of Russian-Korean cooperation and mutual assistance. The works presented on display have an important historical and cultural significance, an undoubted artistic merit, and are a rarity in Russian museum collections.
Moscow Kremlin Museums |
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| Leonardo da Vinci. Enigma of the Genius |
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 In 2019, the whole world widely celebrated the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci, the greatest Italian artist and inventor, one of the most significant representatives of the Renaissance art. On this occasion, the artist’s legacy is undergoing a real renaissance. Museums organize exhibitions of his oeuvres, and scientists publish new studies, trying to fully comprehend the entire breadth of his creations. Multimedia exhibition “Leonardo da Vinci. Enigma of the Genius” will become a part of a worldwide program dedicated to the memory of the master. Thanks to Cinema 360 technology, at the immersive exhibition in Artplay Media, viewers will have the opportunity to view all of Leonardo's most important masterpieces (The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, The Savior, The Baptism, The Lady with the Ermine, etc.) in great detail and understand that even five centuries after his death, the brilliant creator and seer, scientist, artist and inventor is still in no hurry to reveal his enigma.
Artplay na Yauze |
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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 Moscow Museum of Modern Art together with the Sfumato studio is happy to present a solo exhibition of Yuri Kuper, an internationally acknowledged artist. The exhibition is arranged as a journey into the author’s world and demonstrates the full range of Kuper’s creative personas: painter, graphic artist, sculptor, designer, and theater artist. The title of the exhibition Monochrome expresses the philosophy of the artist, who appreciates the subtlety of images and muffles the sound of the colors. They should not distract from the meaning of the painted objects. The artist’s works are similar to old photographs. His images convey the illusion of reality, just as photographs. At the same time, they have a special aura of time and the palpable breath of the past. Yuri Kuper is known as the author of exquisite still life with the simplest things: the tools of painting and carpentry, a chair, an apple, a flower, and a blade of grass. All these objects, carefully examined and painstakingly portrayed on the canvas, are heroes of the author’s distinctive aesthetic universe. The author claims that his world has «the ideal proportion of poverty and shabby luxury». At the entrance, the viewer will see a photographic reconstruction of the digital projection Front Door. It introduces an old house that has lost its noble owners and has been given over to communal life. The image of the «communal apartment» is one of the author’s paradoxically happy memories and the source of a unique perspective on things, a special visuality of Kuper’s paintings with their silvery-smoky coloring.
Moscow Museum of Modern Art on Gogolevsky bulv |
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