#1 2007 (14)

Before the emergence of the Wanderer artists, or Peredvizhniki, all aspects of Russian art - the education and work of professional artists, their rank, title, rights and position in society - were directly connected with the Academy of Arts. When, in the 1860s, a group of former Academy students established the St. Petersburg Artel of Artists, a distinct, independent union, their work nevertheless continued to be exhibited in the Academy, and the majority of the group eventually became academicians: the world of Russian art was, in those days, organised around a single pole.

An important figure in late avant-garde art and a pupil of Kazimir Malevich, Konstantin Rozhdestvensky (1906-1997) is, nonetheless, little known to Russian art lovers. The current retrospective exhibition in the State Tretyakov Gallery is the first large-scale public showing of Rozhdestvensky’s drawings and paintings to take place in Russia.

Five St. Petersburg museums - the Russian Museum, the Academic Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Fine Arts, the St. Petersburg Museum of Theatre and Music, the Yelaginoostrovsky Palace-Museum and the Russian Ethnography Museum - were exhibiting the works of Alexander Benois di Stetto (1896-1979). His works, never before shown in Russia, reaffirmed the reputation of the illustrious family of artists as the most significant, and artistically most prolific and versatile dynasty of its time.

The Engineering Wing of the State Tretyakov Gallery hosted an international conference to mark the gallery’s 150th anniversary. Entitled “The Museum and Society”, this event was opened with a congratulatory address from the Russian UNESCO Commission.

Helsinki can hardly be called a city famous for its art museums. True, there is the Athenaeum, a collection of Finnish classical art, in its cosy centre, and not far away is Kiasma, where works of modern art are exhibited. Otherwise, there are several country estates housing art galleries, donated in the wills of their previous owners. And, of course, mention should be made of the Sinebrychoff Museum of Fine Art, without which Helsinki is simply unimaginable.

There is no doubt that in the 20th century one of the main features of European and Western art was a pluralism of artistic style. Starting with Impressionism, a powerful stream of centrifugal forces emerged, multiplying and spreading different forms of artistic expression all over the world and reaching giant dimensions with the appearance of the “historical avant-garde” and “Neo-avant-garde” after World War II. This active promotion of new forms would at times slow down, as if taking a break for short reflection, to subsequently give rise to new and more dynamic developments of different artistic styles.