Lanceray | The Tretyakov Gallery Magazine

Russia’s Artistic Orientalist History

Inessa Kuteinikova

Article:

INTERNATIONAL PANORAMA

Magazine issue:

#4 2010 (29)

The monumental exhibition of Russian Orientalist paintings from the principal museums of Russia, Ukraine, Armenia and Uzbekistan (with a small part from private collections in Moscow and London) continues the remarkable tradition of the Groningen Museum in the Netherlands in filling a longstanding gap - and filling it most satisfyingly - in researching lesser- known Russian themes and mounting a comprehensive and highly sophisticated exhibition. As we gaze at these impressive canvases in a European setting, we find ourselves confronted by an adapted genre brought back into the milieu of the original.

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“And now there’s a war...” Eugene Lanceray and the Great Patriotic War

Pavel Pavlinov

Article:

EXCLUSIVE PUBLICATIONS

Magazine issue:

#2 2015 (47)

EUGENE (YEVGENY) LANCERAY IS ONE OF THE FEW RUSSIAN ARTISTS WHO NOT ONLY EXPERIENCED BUT ALSO CAPTURED IN HIS WORK MANY EVENTS OF BOTH THE FIRST AND SECOND WORLD WARS. IN THE WINTER OF 1914-1915 HE TRAVELLED TO THE TURKISH FRONT TO PAINT LOCAL PEOPLE, COSSACKS AND EVENTS ON THE BATTLEFIELD. THAT WAR WAS CALLED THE T,REAT PATRIOTIC WAR", AND IT WAS FOLLOWED BY THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION IN 1917 AND THE CIVIL WAR. BUT FEW COULD HAVE FORESEEN THAT A NEW WORLD WAR WOULD BREAK OUT SO SOON. ON SEPTEMBER 4 1939 THE ARTIST WROTE IN HIS DIARY: "A SECOND WORLD WAR! AGAIN EVERYTHING IS FALLING APART! BUT INERTIA STILL RULES WHILE BOTH I AND EVERYBODY ELSE TALKS AND CARES ABOUT THE SUBTLETIES OF PROPORTIONS AND SHADES OF COLOURS!.. I'M THINKING ABOUT THE PARISIANS AND KOLYA." ON SEPTEMBER 9: "OLYOK IS FEELING LOW BECAUSE WAR IS LOOMING. PEOPLE SEEM TO BE BUYING UP FOOD. QUEUES EVERYWHERE. HUGE CROWDS IN THE SAVINGS BANKS." ON SEPTEMBER 24: "HISTORICAL EVENTS ARE FOLLOWING EACH OTHER IN A FLASH: THE 17TH - SOVIET TROOPS ENTER POLAND. POLAND'S ULTIMATE DEBACLE, AND YESTERDAY - ITS PARTITION; EVERYONE IS SPECULATING WHO WILL GET HOLD OF WARSAW, WHICH STRADDLES THE DIVIDE." BUT THE WAR WOULD ONLY REACH RUSSIA IN JUNE 1941.

EUGENE (YEVGENY) LANCERAY IS ONE OF THE FEW RUSSIAN ARTISTS WHO NOT ONLY EXPERIENCED BUT ALSO CAPTURED IN HIS WORK MANY EVENTS OF BOTH THE FIRST AND SECOND WORLD WARS. IN THE WINTER OF 1914-1915 HE TRAVELLED TO THE TURKISH FRONT TO PAINT LOCAL PEOPLE, COSSACKS AND EVENTS ON THE BATTLEFIELD¹. THAT WAR WAS CALLED THE T,REAT PATRIOTIC WAR", AND IT WAS FOLLOWED BY THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION IN 1917 AND THE CIVIL WAR. BUT FEW COULD HAVE FORESEEN THAT A NEW WORLD WAR WOULD BREAK OUT SO SOON.

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So that's how you are, the East!*

Pavel Pavlinov

Article:

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

Magazine issue:

#4 2014 (45)

IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 19TH AND FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURIES THERE WAS A GREAT AWAKENING OF INTEREST IN THE EAST - IN THE CULTURES OF ASIA AND AFRICA, THEIR PEOPLES, THEIR WAY OF LIFE, THEIR BELIEFS AND THEIR ENVIRONMENTS. THIS SOURCE OF A NEW ARRAY OF COLOUR AND CHARACTER WAS APPEALING TO RUSSIAN ARTISTS, SCULPTORS AND ARCHITECTS, INCLUDING MEMBERS OF THE LANCERAY-SEREBRYAKOV FAMILY.

IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 19TH AND FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURIES THERE WAS A GREAT AWAKENING OF INTEREST IN THE EAST - IN THE CULTURES OF ASIA AND AFRICA, THEIR PEOPLES, THEIR WAY OF LIFE, THEIR BELIEFS AND THEIR ENVIRONMENTS. THIS SOURCE OF A NEW ARRAY OF COLOUR AND CHARACTER WAS APPEALING TO RUSSIAN ARTISTS, SCULPTORS AND ARCHITECTS, INCLUDING MEMBERS OF THE LANCERAY-SEREBRYAKOV FAMILY.

* A line from the poem “The Moon at Zenith” by Anna Akhmatova written while in evacuation in Tashkent in 1942.

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