Museum

"American Abramtsevo" - the Florence Griswold Museum

Natella Voiskounski

Magazine issue: 
Special issue N1. USA–RUSSIA: ON THE CROSSROADS OF CULTURES

Everything was destined to be called "new" in the New World - New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, not to mention New England and New Britain. To balance all this newness something needs to be old as well, like Old Lyme, where the Florence Griswold Museum - a landmark institution of Connecticut - is located. The Museum is also called the "home of American Impressionism" as a great many of America's Impressionists enjoyed the warmhearted hospitality of the really vivacious Miss Florence Griswold. Her home became their home from 1899, when she opened the doors of her late Georgian mansion to artists. Soon a boarding house was turned into an artists' colony centered around Miss Florence - "a born hostess, with that lovely air and remarkable gift of making her guests feel that it was their home, and she was visiting them". That was how Arthur Heming, the artist who was a member of the colony for ten years, described his impression of Florence Griswold in his book "Miss Florence and the Artists of Old Lyme." It was she who managed to make the brotherhood of artists a most famous summer art colony in America.

"American Abramtsevo" - the Florence Griswold Museum

Everything was destined to be called "new" in the New World - New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, not to mention New England and New Britain. To balance all this newness something needs to be old as well, like Old Lyme, where the Florence Griswold Museum - a landmark institution of Connecticut - is located. The Museum is also called the "home of American Impressionism" as a great many of America's Impressionists enjoyed the warmhearted hospitality of the really vivacious Miss Florence Griswold.

Museums: IDENTITY AND CREATION

Manuel Arias Martinez

Magazine issue: 
#4 2015 (49)

This panorama of the museums of Spain focuses on collections that represent a true symbol of the country's identity. In a wonderful way museums bring back to society that which society itself has created, reinterpreting and re-presenting the best of a nation's "personality" through the objects that have endured as a testimony of its history. This journey through some of Spain's most notable Fine Art museums, especially those outside Madrid, allows us to delve deep into Spanish culture and character.

Museums: IDENTITY AND CREATION

This panorama of the museums of Spain focuses on collections that represent a true symbol of the country's identity. In a wonderful way museums bring back to society that which society itself has created, reinterpreting and re-presenting the best of a nation's "personality" through the objects that have endured as a testimony of its history. This journey through some of Spain's most notable Fine Art museums, especially those outside Madrid, allows us to delve deep into Spanish culture and character.

THE THYSSEN-BORNEMISZA MUSEUM. A journey through the history of art in the centre of Madrid

José María Goicoechea

Magazine issue: 
#4 2015 (49)

The English King Henry VIII, as portrayed by Hans Holbein, lives alongside a Picasso harlequin in the same palace in the centre of Madrid. Canaletto's Venice landscapes mingle with street scenes of Berlin created by Grosz, while self-portraits by Rembrandt and Lucien Freud share the walls. The "Portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni" by Ghirlandaio and Lichtenstein's "Woman in Bath" offer different visions of serenity, as Caravaggio's "Santa Catalina" and "Santa Casilda" by Zurbarán try to match one another in holiness. Famous faces by Hopper with El Greco, or Matisse with Cézanne take in the scene.

THE THYSSEN-BORNEMISZA MUSEUM. A journey through the history of art in the centre of Madrid

The English King Henry VIII, as portrayed by Hans Holbein, lives alongside a Picasso harlequin in the same palace in the centre of Madrid. Canaletto's Venice landscapes mingle with street scenes of Berlin created by Grosz, while self-portraits by Rembrandt and Lucien Freud share the walls. The "Portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni" by Ghirlandaio and Lichtenstein's "Woman in Bath" offer different visions of serenity, as Caravaggio's "Santa Catalina" and "Santa Casilda" by Zurbarán try to match one another in holiness.

THE PRADO NATIONAL MUSEUM

Pablo Jiménez Díaz

Magazine issue: 
#4 2015 (49)

Any museum, especially a national museum, is also a history book. We enter it to contemplate the individual works it holds: to enjoy and, to the degree we can, understand them individually. But a museum also has its own melody in addition to the individual notes, and to comprehend that single entity, composed from objects that are often widely divergent, is to understand a piece of history. Not only, not even mainly, about the artists' history but rather of the people who looked at them, then organized and arranged the works. The museum's sensibility comes into play in that history, and with that the circumstances surrounding it, the society, its government and political elements, its faith and beliefs, and perhaps also the ways in which those beliefs have changed. The impulse behind collecting and the forms of displaying each period are children of their time and, as such, museums bring that time-stamp with them.

THE PRADO NATIONAL MUSEUM

Any museum, especially a national museum, is also a history book. We enter it to contemplate the individual works it holds: to enjoy and, to the degree we can, understand them individually. But a museum also has its own melody in addition to the individual notes, and to comprehend that single entity, composed from objects that are often widely divergent, is to understand a piece of history. Not only, not even mainly, about the artists' history but rather of the people who looked at them, then organized and arranged the works.

The "Telyakovsky Gallery" in Almaty

Galina Syrlybaeva

Article: 
ART COLLECTORS AND PATRONS
Magazine issue: 
#1 2012 (34)

The collection of Russian art at the Abdylkhan Kasteev Art Museum in Kazakhstan includes many unique works; some of them are worthy of special attention, as their importance lies not only in their artistic value but also in the story of their creation and "journey", as well as their relation to the artistic development of the country. Among them are two portraits by Konstantin Korovin, which are presented at the anniversary exhibition of the Russian artist at the Tretyakov Gallery on loan from the Kazakh museum.

The "Telyakovsky Gallery" in Almaty

The collection of Russian art at the Abdylkhan Kasteev Art Museum in Kazakhstan includes many unique works; some of them are worthy of special attention, as their importance lies not only in their artistic value but also in the story of their creation and "journey", as well as their relation to the artistic development of the country. Among them are two portraits by Konstantin Korovin, which are presented at the anniversary exhibition of the Russian artist at the Tretyakov Gallery on loan from the Kazakh museum.

The History of the Tauride Palace Wall Paintings

Veronica Bogdan

Article: 
HERITAGE
Magazine issue: 
#4 2014 (45)

GRIGORY POTEMKIN WAS THE FIRST OWNER OF THE TAURIDE PALACE IN ST. PETERSBURG, WHICH WAS BUILT IN 1783-1789 TO AN ARCHITECTURAL PROJECT BY IVAN STAROV. THE MANSION'S ORIGINAL NAME WAS THE "HORSE GUARDS HOUSE" AND IT WAS INTENDED ONLY FOR CEREMONIAL RECEPTIONS. ON APRIL 28 1791 IT WAS WHERE HIS HIGHNESS THE FIELD MARSHALL GENERAL, NOVOROSSIYSK GOVERNOR GENERAL AND CONQUEROR OF THE CRIMEA THREW A GRAND BALL IN HONOUR OF CATHERINE THE GREAT AND THE TAKLNG OF ISMAIL. IN AUGUST 1792 THE PALACE REVERTED TO THE CROWN IN REPAYMENT OF THE DEBTS OF THE SUDDENLY DECEASED PRINCE. THE FUNDS FOR FURTHER ALTERATIONS INTENDED BY POTEMKLN (FOR WHICH FYODOR VOLKOV HAD BEEN ENGAGED) AND THE PERFECTION OF THE PARK WERE NOW COMING FROM THE EMPRESS. SHE TOOK SO MUCH OF A FANCY TO THE PALACE THAT SHE MOVED INTO IT AS HER NEW RESIDENCE AS EARLY AS SEPTEMBER 1792 WITHOUT WAITING FOR CONSTRUCTION WORK TO BE COMPLETED.

The History of the Tauride Palace Wall Paintings

GRIGORY POTEMKIN WAS THE FIRST OWNER OF THE TAURIDE PALACE IN ST. PETERSBURG, WHICH WAS BUILT IN 1783-1789 TO AN ARCHITECTURAL PROJECT BY IVAN STAROV. THE MANSION'S ORIGINAL NAME WAS THE "HORSE GUARDS HOUSE" AND IT WAS INTENDED ONLY FOR CEREMONIAL RECEPTIONS. ON APRIL 28 1791 IT WAS WHERE HIS HIGHNESS THE FIELD MARSHALL GENERAL, NOVOROSSIYSK GOVERNOR GENERAL AND CONQUEROR OF THE CRIMEA THREW A GRAND BALL IN HONOUR OF CATHERINE THE GREAT AND THE TAKLNG OF ISMAIL. IN AUGUST 1792 THE PALACE REVERTED TO THE CROWN IN REPAYMENT OF THE DEBTS OF THE SUDDENLY DECEASED PRINCE.

Alexander Golovin's Work for the Theatre and Alexei Bakhrushin

Anastasia Dmitrieva, Maria Lipatova

Article: 
HERITAGE
Magazine issue: 
#3 2014 (44)

ALEXANDER GOLOVIN'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE EVOLUTION OF THEATRE DESIGN WAS AS GROUND-BREAKING AS THAT OF THE IMPRESSIONISTS ТО PAINTING. IT IS NO SURPRISE THAT, EVEN DURING HIS LIFETIME, HIS WORKS WERE PROMPTLY ACQUIRED BY PRIVATE COLLECTORS AND MUSEUMS. STRICTLY SPEAKING, AN ARTIST'S WORK FOR THE THEATRE COMPRISES HIS OR HER SET AND COSTUME DESIGNS, STAGE PROPS, AS WELL PORTRAITS OF ACTORS, THEATRE COLLEAGUES, AND OTHER DETAILS. AS FOR GOLOVIN'S OEUVRE, PRACTICALLY ALL HIS WORK IS, IN FACT, THEATRE-RELATED TO A CERTAIN EXTENT, INCLUDING HIS STILL-LIFES, "IMAGINED" LANDSCAPES, PORTRAITS OF FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES, AND HIS IMAGES OF "SPANISH WOMEN", OFTEN DEPICTING WOMEN WHO ACTUALLY WORKED FOR THE MARIINSKY THEATRE.

Alexander Golovin's Work for the Theatre and Alexei Bakhrushin

ALEXANDER GOLOVIN'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE EVOLUTION OF THEATRE DESIGN WAS AS GROUND-BREAKING AS THAT OF THE IMPRESSIONISTS ТО PAINTING. IT IS NO SURPRISE THAT, EVEN DURING HIS LIFETIME, HIS WORKS WERE PROMPTLY ACQUIRED BY PRIVATE COLLECTORS AND MUSEUMS. STRICTLY SPEAKING, AN ARTIST'S WORK FOR THE THEATRE COMPRISES HIS OR HER SET AND COSTUME DESIGNS, STAGE PROPS, AS WELL PORTRAITS OF ACTORS, THEATRE COLLEAGUES, AND OTHER DETAILS.

An Adventurer Turns to Art: Paris, Love and the Impressionists

Marina Vaizey

Article: 
COLLECTORS AND COLLECTIONS
Magazine issue: 
#3 2012 (36)

America's great collections are almost exclusively based on private initiatives, sometimes subsidised by direct public support and a sympathetic tax system. These varied histories, often historic microcosms of the social and economic events of their times, make for many different stories. One of the country's most interesting and unexpected collections, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, was built partly on the profits of the hugely successful and transformative domestic invention of the late-19th century, the Singer Sewing Machine. With architectural expansion at the Clark Institute continuing, some of its greatest works by the French Impressionists are on a world tour: the exhibition "From Paris: A Taste for Impressionism Paintings from the Clark" is currently at London's Royal Academy, after four previous stops in America and Europe; future showings include Montreal, Japan, Shanghai and Seoul, where "From Paris..." ends its journey in 2014.

An Adventurer Turns to Art: Paris, Love and the Impressionists

America's great collections are almost exclusively based on private initiatives, sometimes subsidised by direct public support and a sympathetic tax system. These varied histories, often historic microcosms of the social and economic events of their times, make for many different stories.

The Face of Britain

Marina Vaizey

Article: 
WORLD MUSEUMS
Magazine issue: 
#4 2012 (37)

The world's largest collection of personalities and faces from the late Middle Ages to the present day, London's National Portrait Gallery is the oldest such institution in the world, founded in 1856 on a strong intellectual base which was a consensual attitude at the time: the 19th-century emphasis on the ways in which individuals influenced, and indeed led the events of history. One of its major supporters was the leading historian Thomas Carlyle, who also was an early trustee.

The Face of Britain

The world's largest collection of personalities and faces from the late Middle Ages to the present day, London's National Portrait Gallery is the oldest such institution in the world, founded in 1856 on a strong intellectual base which was a consensual attitude at the time: the 19th-century emphasis on the ways in which individuals influenced, and indeed led the events of history. One of its major supporters was the leading historian Thomas Carlyle, who also was an early trustee.

Russian painting in the collection of the Lithuanian Art Museum

Dalia Tarandaite

Article: 
WORLD MUSEUMS
Magazine issue: 
#4 2012 (37)

The painting collection of the Lithuanian Art Museum includes about 300 canvases by famous Russian artists, reflecting the main trends of Russian art, which reached the museum in various periods and under various circumstances.

Russian painting in the collection of the Lithuanian Art Museum

The painting collection of the Lithuanian Art Museum includes about 300 canvases by famous Russian artists, reflecting the main trends of Russian art, which reached the museum in various periods and under various circumstances.

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