#1 2004 (02)

Supplementing the collection is one of the most interesting activities of any museum; before an artwork is acquired from a private owner the experts of the Tretyakov Gallery determine whether it is essential for the collection, carefully examine and describe the drawing, and prepare documentation concerning its storage. All the drawings and engravings that were on show at the exhibition "Tretyakov Gallery’s New 20th Century Graphic Acquisitions" had gone through this procedure prior to properly becoming exhibits of the Gallery. The exhibition, which opened in April 2003, covered over 200 works from a very wide time-span: beginning from the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917, up until the last years of the 20th century. It included unique graphics by Russia’s greatest artists, from collections which started to form already in the 1920–30s. It was then that the prominent scientist and museum enthusiast, A.V. Bakushinsky, insisted on acquiring a number of graphic works that today are the golden core of the collection. It continues to grow, with systematic and profound acquisition work adding 4,000 pieces in the last ten years. Most of them were on view at the temporary exhibition, while only the best will be included in the Tretyakov Gallery’s permanent exhibition "Art of the 20th Century".

It is more than natural to start any article on any international event in China with a quotation from Confucius: this piece on the First International Beijing Biennale is no exception. The famous Chinese philosopher and poet managed to formulate in his peculiarly Asian-Chinese paradoxical way the contradictory nature of some natural phenomena. He said: "Sometimes there are sprouts, but they do not blossom; sometimes they blossom, but bring no fruit". It hints at what fruit the First International Beijing Biennale might bring.

IN A COLLECTION OF THE BESTKNOWN RUSSIAN PAINTINGS THIS ONE STANDS APART. ITS DISTINCTION IS OF A CONTROVERSIAL CHARACTER. PAINTED BY AN OUTSTANDING ARTIST IT HAS ACHIEVED A NOTORIETY OF THE KIND THAT ALSO MARKS "THREE BOGATYRS" BY VICTOR VASNETSOV, OR VASILY PEROV’S "TROIKA" OR FEDOTOV’S GENREPIECES. True, if the portrait of a personality is based on a common archetype of some kind, it inevitably provokes various associations which, among others, might be satirical or ironic. Such portraits usually generate popular logos and caricature. But here again "Ivan the Terrible" stands apart. Striking a high pitch of exaltation and stretched nerves, the canvas provoked a dramatic episode that happened over twenty-five years after the picture was painted. Some ninety years ago, on the eve of the Romanovs’ 300th anniversary celebration, Abram Balashev, a deranged Old Believer, lashed out at the canvas with a knife crying: "Stop the bloodshed! Stop the bloodshed!" The public was shocked, while the press exploded with an avalanche of letters-to-the-editor. The subject under debate went beyond scrutinizing the artistic merits of the picture or Abram Balashev’s abnormal behavior. As is usually the case with the Russian intelligentsia, a particular question grew into a discussion of matters of a wider aesthetic and ethical nature, which happen to be relevant even today, and take on new connotations at different times.

Nikolai Sapunov was born into a merchant’s family of modest means on December 17 1880 in the Moscow region of Zamoskvorechie. His artistic gift revealed itself in early childhood, and at the age of thirteen he entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture where he studied for ten years; it was there that he matured both as an individual and as a professional artist. Fate was kind to him: Sapunov worked alongside the most outstanding figures of Russian culture of the turn of the 19th- 20th centuries, studying under Isaac Levitan, Valentin Serov and Konstantin Korovin. He won support from Savva Mamontov and Sergei Diaghilev, and his friends included Pavel Kuzne t sov, Nikolai Krymov, Sergei Sudeikin, Nikolai Milioti and other artists belonging to the "Golubaya Rosa" (The Blue Rose) group, who were in active contact with Victor Borisov - Musatov. Sapunov enthusiastically worked with famous producer-innovators such as Vsevolod Meyerhold and Fedor Komissarzhevsky, while he had friendly and close artistic ties with Alexander Blok, Valery Briusov and Mikhail Kuzmin.

Yekaterina Medvedeva’s path in art has been far from easy, and she would not consider herself an artist even in her wildest dreams, while a personal exhibition at the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum would be in the realm of pure fantasy. Katya has had to pass through many hardships in life, and her path since childhood has been a very varied one: when only nine years old, she lost her parents and was sent to an orphanage in Azerbaijan; later she worked as a weaver in Baku, then returned to her native village, but did not stay there long and went further in search of a better life.