Architecture

In 1910, upon the recommendation of Igor Emmanuelovich Grabar, the Pskov zemstvo (local elected government) turned to Alexei Viktorovich Shchusev, who was the only person able to manage the difficult undertaking of creating a design for the chapel (St. Anastasia Chapel - S.K.) in the Pskov spirit. And indeed, Shchusev had, by then, earnt a reputation for having a thorough knowledge of the Novgorod and Pskov architecture and for designing several structures inspired by the arresting images and features of this school. The architect, who, at that time, lived and worked in St. Petersburg, regularly travelled to Veliky Novgorod and Pskov to study the architecture. He brought scores of photographs and sketched images of famous paintings and landmark buildings from his trips and he also brought measurements. The depth of his knowledge of the subject is evidenced in the chapters that Shchusev co-wrote with V. Pokrovsky for the first volume of Igor Grabar’s “A History of Russian Art” - “St.Sophia Cathedral of Novgorod and the Beginnings of the Original Architecture”, “The Best Period of Novgorodian Architecture” and “Civil Buildings and Fortifications in Novgorod and Pskov” - and in his array of photographs published in this tome. However, the visits to Veliky Novgorod and Pskov that Shchusev made before the Revolution have been omitted almost entirely from monographs and academic publications about on his work.

Given how deeply immersed Vasily Polenov was in “all the arts”, it is hard to distinguish through which form exactly he channelled his love for the beauty of architecture: his highly emotional response meant that such elements were always mutually connected. It would be fair to say, however, that Polenov is one of the most “architectural” artists: he seems unable to envision the main themes of his art - whether they are realized in landscapes, historical compositions or sketches, in his Gospel series or theatre designs - without architectural forms.

The opening of the Paul Klee Centre in Bern in July 2005 was an important page in the history of 21st century museum life. In the eyes of its creators, this contemporary museum was to act as a cultural forum, enabling visitors to develop their creative potential through in-depth acquaintance with the artistic legacy of Paul Klee.

The exhibition of work by Richard Pare in New York’s Museum of Modern Art features one of the most immediate and tragic phenomena in the history of Soviet (and Russian) modernist architecture. The exhibition “The Lost Vanguard” highlights some 75 photographs by the architectural photographer Richard Pare, who has worked from 1993 to the present day, making eight extensive trips to Russia and the former Soviet republics and creating nearly 10,000 images to compile a timely documentation of numerous modernist structures, including the most neglected. The exhibition was made possible by the Russian Avant-garde Fund and Senator Sergei Gordeev, its founder and president.

The 175th anniversary last year of the birth of Sergei Mikhailovich Tretyakov (1834-1892) saw the publication of several works focused on the life and activities of this collector and patron of arts, public benefactor and community leader, who was chief of the Moscow city administration. These works not only summarized previous scholarship but also brought to light new facts, and one might think that all the accomplishments of this outstanding individual are now well known. However, even today we continue to learn about the younger Tretyakov brother, and his good deeds that remained in oblivion for more than a century. It transpires that many of the remarkable events of his life are known neither to experts nor to art aficionados. One such example is Sergei Tretyakov’s participation in an important project linking two nations, Russia and Bulgaria.