Ge

Gely Korzhev’s Biblical Cycle: HARD STEPS TOWARDS TRUTH

Ksenia Karpova

Article: 
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Magazine issue: 
#3 2016 (52)

The current large-scale retrospective of Gely Korzhev is part of a series of innovative projects in the Tretyakov Gallery exhibition programme aimed at acquainting viewers with the work of major Soviet and post-Soviet artists. Works from Korzhev’s biblical cycle, on which the artist worked for a quarter of a century - from the mid-1980s until his death - are an essential part of the show: this ambitious project became the major undertaking of the final years of Gely Korzhev’s long artistic career.

Gely Korzhev’s Biblical Cycle: HARD STEPS TOWARDS TRUTH

The current large-scale retrospective of Gely Korzhev is part of a series of innovative projects in the Tretyakov Gallery exhibition programme aimed at acquainting viewers with the work of major Soviet and post-Soviet artists. Works from Korzhev’s biblical cycle, on which the artist worked for a quarter of a century - from the mid-1980s until his death - are an essential part of the show: this ambitious project became the major undertaking of the final years of Gely Korzhev’s long artistic career.

The Moment of Truth. On the return of the Geneva collection of Nikolai Ge’s drawings to Russia

Nina Markova

Article: 
EXCLUSIVE PUBLICATIONS
Magazine issue: 
#3 2011 (32)

In May 2011, with the financial assistance of VTB Bank, a set of Nikolai Ge’s drawings was returned from Geneva to the artist’s homeland: the collection is an important fragment of Russian cultural heritage that vanished from Russia into exile more than 100 years ago. This is a landmark event which had been eagerly anticipated by Russia’s museum community for more than 20 years.

The Moment of Truth. On the return of the Geneva collection of Nikolai Ge’s drawings to Russia

In May 2011, with the financial assistance of VTB Bank, a set of Nikolai Ge’s drawings was returned from Geneva to the artist’s homeland: the collection is an important fragment of Russian cultural heritage that vanished from Russia into exile more than 100 years ago. This is a landmark event which had been eagerly anticipated by Russia’s museum community for more than 20 years.

Nikolai Ge: A Chronicle of the Artist’s Life and Work

Article: 
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Magazine issue: 
#3 2011 (32)

Compiled by Tatiana Karpova and Svetlana Kapyrina

Nikolai Ge: A Chronicle of the Artist’s Life and Work

1831
February 15
Bom into a family of Voronezh gentry, to Nikolai and Yelena Ge (nee Sadovski).
June 24
Yelena Ge died suddenly of cholera.

1836
Moved to Kiev with his father and brothers.

1838
His father acquired an estate near the village of Popelukhi of Mogilyev parish in Podolsk province and moved the family to the estate.

Nikolai Ge’s Ancestry and Family - An Investigation

Svetlana Kapyrina

Article: 
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Magazine issue: 
#3 2011 (32)

Nikolai Nikolaievich Ge was a descendant of the old French aristocratic family of “de Gay”. His great-grandfather Mathieu (Matvei) de Gay immigrated to Russia in 1789, at the time of the French Revolution. He settled in Moscow, “joined the emigre community and began to live quite comfortably”; a little later he even started a factory. No information about his wife is available today; we do know he had children — a daughter Victoria (17751852) and son Joseph (Osip) (born between 1775 and 1776, who died before 1836.) They may have been twins, given that the years of their birth seem to be the same.

Nikolai Ge’s Ancestry and Family - An Investigation

Nikolai Nikolaievich Ge was a descendant of the old French aristocratic family of “de Gay”. His great-grandfather Mathieu (Matvei) de Gay immigrated to Russia in 1789, at the time of the French Revolution. He settled in Moscow, “joined the emigre community and began to live quite comfortably”; a little later he even started a factory.

Nikolai Ge: Iconography. The Artist’s Image in Self-portraits and Portraits by His Contemporaries

Elmira Akhmerova

Article: 
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Magazine issue: 
#3 2011 (32)

Vibrant and extraordinary, Nikolai Ge’s personality fascinated his contemporaries. His image is captured in numerous portraits by two generations of artists - Ivan Kramskoi, Ilya Repin, Grigory Myasoyedov, Nikolai Yaroshenko, as well as Leonid Pasternak, Viktor Borisov-Musatov, Nikolai Ulyanov, and Alexander Kurennoi. There are also Ge’s self-portraits and photographs from different stages of his life. Many of his contemporaries left written descriptions of Ge’s appearance - the list includes his friends and students, fellow artists, and the family of Leo Tolstoy, with whom the artist became especially close during the last ten years of his life.

Nikolai Ge: Iconography.

Vibrant and extraordinary, Nikolai Ge’s personality fascinated his contemporaries. His image is captured in numerous portraits by two generations of artists - Ivan Kramskoi, Ilya Repin, Grigory Myasoyedov, Nikolai Yaroshenko, as well as Leonid Pasternak, Viktor Borisov-Musatov, Nikolai Ulyanov, and Alexander Kurennoi. There are also Ge’s self-portraits and photographs from different stages of his life.

Pavel Tretyakov and Nikolai Ge

Tatiana Yudenkova

Article: 
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Magazine issue: 
#3 2011 (32)

The relationship between Pavel Tretyakov and Nikolai Ge has never been examined in any detail in publications devoted to the art collector. Alexandra Botkina barely touches upon the subject in her memoir, while Sofia Goldstein states definitely that Ge’s late work, so highly valued by Leo Tolstoy, was never appreciated by Tretyakov. When art experts write about Ge, they stress that the master’s art stood alone as original and ahead of its time, deeming the details of the relationship between the artist and the collector less of a priority.

Pavel Tretyakov and Nikolai Ge

The relationship between Pavel Tretyakov and Nikolai Ge has never been examined in any detail in publications devoted to the art collector. Alexandra Botkina barely touches upon the subject in her memoir, while Sofia Goldstein states definitely that Ge’s late work, so highly valued by Leo Tolstoy, was never appreciated by Tretyakov.1 When art experts write about Ge, they stress that the master’s art stood alone as original and ahead of its time, deeming the details of the relationship between the artist and the collector less of a priority.2

"He Did Not Live His Life in a Shell..."

Tatiana Karpova

Article: 
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Magazine issue: 
#3 2011 (32)

There have been four solo exhibitions of Nikolai Ge’s art in his homeland in the period since his death in 1894: a posthumous one in St. Petersburg in 1895; then another from the Ukraine museum collections in Kiev in 1956-1957; the third one in 1970-1971 which toured in Leningrad, Moscow, Kiev and Minsk; and the fourth from 1981 which was held in Moscow. The most extensive exhibition was that of 1970-1971, already 40 years ago, but it did not feature works from foreign museums and private collections. That exhibition’s catalogue, prepared by Natalya Zograf, was most comprehensive and informative, but had very few illustrations. Two new generations of the art-going public have little knowledge of this outstanding master, so to introduce Ge’s legacy to the contemporary viewer will bring new attention back to his work.

"He Did Not Live His Life in a Shell..."

There have been four solo exhibitions of Nikolai Ge’s art in his homeland in the period since his death in 1894: a posthumous one in St. Petersburg in 1895; then another from the Ukraine museum collections in Kiev in 1956-1957; the third one in 1970-1971 which toured in Leningrad, Moscow, Kiev and Minsk; and the fourth from 1981 which was held in Moscow. The most extensive exhibition was that of 1970-1971, already 40 years ago, but it did not feature works from foreign museums and private collections.

An Artist's Journey

Galina Churak

Article: 
CURRENT EXHIBITION
Magazine issue: 
#1 2013 (38)

"THE MOST PRECIOUS PART OF ART IS THE GOD-GIVEN TALENT, AND IT SHOULD SERVE THE EXPRES¬SION OF KIND AND BEAUTIFUL FEELINGS, WHETHER BY MEANS OF PAINTING, MUSIC, OR ALL-EM¬BRACING POETRY."1 NESTEROV, WHO WROTE THESE WORDS IN 1898, REFERRED TO THEM AS HIS "CONFESSION", THE DECLARATION OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ATTRIBUTE OF HIS ART - HIS DEEP DE¬SIRE TO AWAKEN THE BEST AND LOFTIEST FEELINGS IN PEOPLE. THROUGHOUT HIS LONG LIFE IN ART, HE SHARED HIS "GOD-GIVEN TALENT", WHICH NATURE BESTOWED ON HIM SO GENEROUSLY, WITH RUSSIAN ART, RUSSIA, AND THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE.

An Artist's Journey

"THE MOST PRECIOUS PART OF ART IS THE GOD-GIVEN TALENT, AND IT SHOULD SERVE THE EXPRESSION OF KIND AND BEAUTIFUL FEELINGS, WHETHER BY MEANS OF PAINTING, MUSIC, OR ALL-EMBRACING POETRY."1 NESTEROV, WHO WROTE THESE WORDS IN 1898, REFERRED TO THEM AS HIS "CONFESSION", THE DECLARATION OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ATTRIBUTE OF HIS ART - HIS DEEP DESIRE TO AWAKEN THE BEST AND LOFTIEST FEELINGS IN PEOPLE.

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