EXCLUSIVE PUBLICATIONS

Yulia Tulinova
Emily and Mary Shanks. Russian-Born Englishwomen Among the Peredvizhniki

#3 2022 (76), Special edition "Emily and Mary Shanks"

Emily Shanks (1857-1936) and Mary Shanks (1866-1949) were born in Moscow to the family of James Steuart Shanks, descendant of a line of British merchants, who had come to Russia in 1852 at the age of 24. Shanks went into business with Henrik Bolin, a Swedish jeweller, and together they opened Magasin Anglais - The English Shop - in Kuznetsky Most, which quickly gained popularity with Moscow̉s wealthy elite. The shop owners rented premises in the Tretyakov brothers̉ Trading House in Kuznetsky Most (at the crossing of Kuznetsky Most and Rozhdestvenka; the house is still there) and offered exquisite fancy goods and drapery mostly imported from England. Pavel Tretyakov preferred that his wife, Vera, and his adolescent daughters buy apparel from James Shanks instead of other foreign shops and firms.

Maria Menshikova
On Certain Official Precious and Rare Gifts to the Russian Emperor Peter I from the Chinese Kangxi Emperor

#2 2022 (75)

This year marks the 350th anniversary of the birth of the Russian Tsar Peter the Great (1672-1725). Among the many events commemorating this significant date, the State Hermitage Museum prepared a monographic exhibition called “Exotic and Lavish China. Knowledge of the Orient” (which ran from April 19 to June 12, 2022). For the first time, the unique exhibits preserved by the State Hermitage and directly related to Peter I and his associates were presented in such a configuration. Accompanying the exhibition is an edition that reflects the history of the Chinese collections in the Hermitage at the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries, as well as the development of Oriental studies and museum work in the Russian Empire. Many documentary exhibits are published for the first time, and their history has only been recently studied.

Vladimir Lenyashin
"I am forever — alone! — I am forever — for everyone!"

#3 2021 (72)

Vrubel’s path from “Demon Seated” to “Demon Flying” and “Demon Downcast” coincided with the period in which Symbolism, as an all-encompassing philosophical and aesthetic movement, along with its stylistic offshoot, Art Nouveau, were taking shape. Vrubel’s creative endeavour proved to be the highest point of “spiritual exertion, religious excitement” and “the sense of mysteriousness of the world” that enveloped and nourished culture at the beginning of the 20th century.

Olga Davydova
Yury Repin - the Hermit of Penaty. BALANCING THE TIES OF FAMILY WITH ART AND RELIGION

#1 2019 (62)

Born in 1877, Yury Repin was the third child, and only son of Ilya Repin and Vera Shevtsova. By the first decade of the 20th century he had emerged as an artist in his own right, earning acclaim for his historical paintings and lyrical landscapes, and particularly as a portraitist. As his career progressed, religious themes, especially drawn from the Gospels, gradually became dominant in his work. In 1909, he moved to Kuokkala, where he ran an art school; after the revolution, he remained in exile outside Russia, close company for his father until the latter’s death in 1930. Yury Repin died in Finland in 1954: today, his work is little known, even in art history circles.

Galina Churak
Death and Resurrection. REPIN AND THE ETERNAL THEMES OF HUMAN EXISTENCE

#1 2019 (62)

Ilya Repin has often been associated, for critics and art-lovers alike, with his pictures focused on the "burning” issues of his day, as well as known for his large-scale historical compositions and the extensive series of portraits that he painted of his contemporaries. It seemed as if his life, so continuous in its artistic endeavour, could have no space left for other genres or topics. But recent scholarship has brought renewed attention to another facet of his work - his paintings on religious themes.

 

Yelizaveta Yefremova
A Premonition of the Future. THE GRAPHIC WORKS OF VASILY CHEKRYGIN FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE TRETYAKOV GALLERY

#2 2018 (59)

The 120th anniversary of the birth of Vasily Chekrygin (1897-1922), the painter and graphic artist whose work many influential critics have called unique in the visual arts of the i9ios-i92os, fell on January 19 2017 Timed to coincide with that anniversary and organized as part of the project “The Tretyakov Gallery Opens Its Reserve Collections”, the show introduced the public to the Tretyakov’s collection of Chekrygin’s graphic works.

 

Maria Valova
“Of Course, You and I Are Sisters...” NATALIA GONCHAROVA AND MARINA TSVETAEVA - THE HIDDEN WORLD OF GONCHAROVA’S POETRY

#2 2018 (59)

“Take Goncharova - she’s never written poetry, she’s never lived poetry, but she understands because she looks and she sees,” the poet Marina Tsvetaeva wrote in 1929, describing Natalia Goncharova’s perceptive appreciation of her poem “To the Herald”. Even though they remained in constant contact in the years 1928-1932, Tsvetaeva was not aware that her artist friend did indeed try her hand at poetry. No doubt she would have found that overlap of brush and the written word intriguing. Today, four complete notebooks and numerous separate handwritten poems are extant, and they make it clear that Goncharova used poetry as a private diary and a means of sketching fleeting impressions. It was also a mode of reflection, a way of searching for a symbol, a colour, or an atmosphere. (Sometimes Goncharova even switched into French to achieve the right tone.) Most of her poems were not dated, with the exception of those written in April and May of 1957, the year when the 76-year-old Goncharova mentioned the idea of publishing her verse in a letter to Orest Rozenfeld, although with little faith in the viability of the project: “Apart from that, there is also something I did for myself, a collection of poems that I am sure will never appear in print.”

Irina Leytes, Yekaterina Arkhipova
The Housing Question*. Interior Scenes in Soviet Graphic Art from the 1920s to the 1980s

#2 2017 (55)

Depictions of everyday life - showing people engaged with their usual activities, in their accustomed home surroundings - have long been common in world art. In 20th century Russia, however, attitudes towards domestic life - byt, in the general Russian word - and indeed towards the concept of the home itself, underwent dramatic shifts. In the past, the home had been seen as a safe, contained space, offering its inhabitants comfort, warmth and a sense of safety. However, following the cataclysmic upheavals of the early 20th century, the radical ideology that took over in Soviet Russia sought to portray the comforts of home as pernicious for those who belonged to the new social order: this “counter-force” governed everything from home furnishings to Mayakovsky’s otherwise blameless canaries.

Yelena Terkel
Léon Bakst and the Writer: of the Russian Silver Age

#2 2017 (55)

A prominent artist of the Silver Age of Russian culture, Léon (Lev Samoilovich) Bakst was also a notable figure in the literary community of his time. He was acquainted with, or a friend of many writers and poets whose portraits he painted and whose books he illustrated.

 

 

Roman Troshin
AS TIMES AND LIVES INTERTWINE...

#4 2016 (53)

A recently-discovered family album belonging to Yelena Gayevskaya, wife of Feodosia town governor Pavel Gayevsky, sheds fascinating light on society in the town, and the interaction of its notable figures, in the first half of the 19th century. Containing remarkable early portrait sketches by Ivan Aivazovsky of some of those concerned, it reveals the broad and various historical links that extended through the beau-monde of the time - including connections which lead to the great Russian poet, Alexander Pushkin. The album affords invaluable context on the close-knit world in which the future great painter moved in his youth.

Henrietta Spencer-Churchill
AN ENGLISH OPENING

#2 2016 (51)

“They have an eye for beautiful and expensive things in Russia”: proof of that was provided by the interest expressed by Russian business and high society individuals in the recent British Antiques Mission in the Moscow Expo that took place in the British Ambassador’s private residence in Moscow in March 2011.

 

 

Valentina Lentsova
“ I AM STANDING UP FOR SHAKESPEARE... ”

#2 2016 (51)

English literature was discovered by Russia’s educated circles in the 18th century, although mainly in German and French translation; soon after the Patriotic War of 1812 there emerged a keen interest not only in British writers, but in the English language as well.

 

 

 

Pavel Klimov
Mikhail Nesterov. Quiet Truths

#1 2016 (50)

When a soul, sinful but talented and longing for epiphany, encounters genuine holiness, a "divine spark" produced by this encounter kindles an unquenchable flame of creativity. For Mikhail Nesterov, "holiness" was a hallmark of the ideas and objects regarded as sacred by every nation: the lands of the forbears, religion, the history and heroes of the country. But, together with his deep "affection for one's hearth and home, affection for one's ancestral tombstones," he equally revered the title of artist, questioning, until his last days, his right to be called one.

Yelena Terkel
Valentin Serov and Leon Bakst. Seeking an ideal

#3 2015 (48)

Valentin Serov (1865-1911) appeared reserved, earnest, and sombre; Leon Bakst (1866-1924) was vibrant, unpredictable and a little funny - a dedicated dandy. What was it that brought together these two artists, so unlike one another? Why did their fondness for one another grow in the years after they met while publishing “Mir Iskusstva” (World of Art) magazine? The answer seems simple and complicated at the same time: deep down, they were looking for something indiscernibly similar. While their public personas were so different, both used them to protect their respective creative selves from the rude intrusions of outsiders. Both artists were successful and famous, each in his own unique way; both were chasing their dreams and looking for new paths and expressions, while remaining honest and true to themselves in their artistic pursuits.

Sergei Chernyshev
The "Girl with Peaches": who is she?

#3 2015 (48)

Serov’s famous painting “Girl with Peaches” depicts my grandmother Vera Mamontova in her childhood. I never met her. She died when her daughter, my mother, was only just two. During her short life she managed to accomplish everything that was expected from a woman of her milieu at that time. She was an obedient daughter, a loving sister, a bride who suffered separation from her bridegroom, a caring mother... Her surviving letters, as well as the reminiscences of those who knew her, reveal much about her life.

 

Yelena Terkel
The Return. On the Occasion of the 70th Anniversary of the Tretyakov Gallery’s Re-opening after World War II

#2 2015 (47)

THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR WAS A TREMENDOUS UPHEAVAL FOR BOTH THE TRETYAKOV GALLERY AND THE ENTIRE COUNTRY. MARKING THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF VICTORY, WE ALSO CELEBRATE THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE GALLERY'S RE-OPENING AFTER ITS RETURN TO MOSCOW FROM EVACUATION.

 

 

Natalya Buyanova
Marina Gritsenko’s Diaries. The Days of War as Recorded by Pavel Tretyakov’s Granddaughter

#2 2015 (47)

THE TRETYAKOV GALLERY'S DEPARTMENT OF MANUSCRIPTS HOUSES A UNIQUE DOCUMENT DATING FROM THE YEARS OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR: THE DIARIES OF MARINA GRITSENKO (1901-1971), THE GRANDDAUGHTER OF PAVEL TRETYAKOV, THE MUSEUM'S FOUNDER. VIRTUALLY ALL HER LIFE WAS CONNECTED WITH ART. FOLLOWING IN THE FAMILY TRADITION, SHE WAS MORE THAN JUST A FRIEND TO ARTISTS: SHE HELPED THEM GET THROUGH THE HARD TIMES OF THE WAR. THE DIARIES SHE WROTE AT THE TIME ARE A LIVING TESTIMONY OF THE COUNTRY'S SITUATION IN THIS PERIOD.

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

#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.

Boris Nemensky

The Power of Truth and Light

#2 2015 (47)

BORIS NEMENSKY BEGAN HIS SERVICE IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR AS A 19-YEAR-OLD ENLISTED SOLDIER AND ARTIST EMBEDDED WITH THE ARMY. THE "MUNITIONS" HE CARRIED ON HIS BACK WERE THOSE ALREADY TESTED BY ARTISTS FROM THE GREKOV STUDIO OF WAR ARTISTS WHO HAD PRECEDED HIM TO THE FRONT LINE: A HOME-MADE SKETCH-BOOK FOR DRAWING ON PAPER, WHICH WAS SUITABLE FOR DRAWING IN ALL ELEMENTS, WHETHER STANDING, SITTING OR LYING DOWN. THE YOUNG ARTIST'S MISSION, AS STATED BY GLAVPUR (THE CHIEF DEPARTMENT ON POLITICAL MATTERS OF THE SOVIET ARMY AND NAVY), WAS TO CREATE "A PICTORIAL RECORD OF REAL EVENTS AT THE FRONT". HERE, NEMENSKY REMEMBERS HIS WARTIME EXPERIENCES, AND THE EFFECT THAT THOSE WAR YEARS HAD ON HIS SUBSEQUENT DEVELOPMENT AS AN ARTIST.

Tatiana Volkova

An Artist at the Front

#2 2015 (47)

KONSTANTIN MOLCHANOV (1906-1980) WAS BORN IN MOSCOW AND GRADUATED FROM THE RENOWNED VKHUTEMAS-VKHUTEIN (RESPECTIVELY, THE HIGHER ART AND TECHNICAL STUDIOS, OR THE HIGHER ART AND TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, AS IT WAS KNOWN AFTER 1926). HE WAS ONE OF THE FIRST MEMBERS OF THE MOSCOW BRANCH OF THE UNION OF SOVIET ARTISTS, A DISTINGUISHED TEACHER AT THE MOSCOW SECONDARY ART SCHOOL; HIS MILITARY SERVICE BEGAN WHEN MOSCOW WAS THREATENED BY THE APPROACHING GERMAN ARMIES, AND ENDED IN BERLIN. THE ARTIST'S DAUGHTER SVETLANA AND GRANDSON VALERY MOLCHANOV TREASURE THE MEMORABILIA THAT TESTIFY TO HIS CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE WAR EFFORT: HIS MEDALS "FOR THE DEFENCE OF MOSCOW", "FOR THE DEFENCE OF STALINGRAD", "FOR THE LIBERATION OF WARSAW", "FOR THE CAPTURE OF BERLIN", "FOR VALIANT LABOUR IN THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR 1941-1945", "FOR VICTORY OVER GERMANY IN THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR 1941-1945", AS WELL AS THE ORDER OF THE PATRIOTIC WAR 2ND CLASS, A "DISTINGUISHED COMBAT ENGINEER (SAPPER)" BADGE AND MORE THAN 60 LETTERS OF COMMENDATION FROM HIS COMMANDING OFFICERS.

Olga Davydova
Alexander Golovin's Art Nouveau: Behind the Curtain of Style

#3 2014 (44)

IN 1934, IN THE GRIP OF POST-REVOLUTIONARY HARDSHIPS, WHEN ART NOUVEAU WAS ALREADY, IRREVERSIBLY, A THING OF THE PAST - PART OF A HAPPY-GO-LUCKY GONE ERA IN WHICH YOUTH HAD LIVED, AND INSPIRED DEBATES ABOUT ART UNFOLDED ON THE PAGES OF THE MAGAZINES "WORLD OF ART" AND "APOLLO", AND A ROMANTIC ARTIST'S STUDIO SOARING ABOVE THE STAGE OF THE MARIINSKY THEATRE WITNESSED "POETIC" DUELS - MIKHAIL KUZMIN WROTE IN HIS DIARY: "SPRINGTIME. EVERYTHING IS IN BLOSSOM, AND THE VIEW FROM THE WINDOW IS LIKE GOLOVIN'S BLIND MAGAZINE COVERS: THE ENTIRE SPACE IS FILLED WITH GREEN ORNAMENTS OF DIFFERENT SHADES OF COLOUR... IT IS A PLEASURE AND JOY TO WATCH HOW THE BUDS ARE OPENING, THE GRASS IS GROWING, ALL IS LIMPID, AND TWIGS ARE ELEGANT (PICTURE VERSUS COLOURATION)".

Yelena Terkel
"Your Work is Somehow True..." Alexander Golovin and Yelena Polenova

#3 2014 (44)

WHEN WE LOOK AT PAINTINGS, WE OFTEN WONDER WHAT THE ARTIST WAS LIKE IN REAL LIFE, WHAT EXCITED HIM, WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE SURROUNDED HIM, WHAT INSPIRED HIM TO CREATE HIS MASTERPIECES. IT IS NOT ALWAYS EASY TO FIND ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS, EITHER IN THE ARTIST'S WORKS OR IN EXPERT STuDIES Of HIS OR HER OEuVRE. MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE SOMETIMES HELP US LIFT THE VEIL OF MYSTERY. ALEXANDER GOLOVIN'S OWN "ENCOUNTERS AND IMPRESSIONS", PUBLISHED BY ERICH GOLLERBAKH, OUTLINED THE EXPERIENCES OF THE ARTIST'S LIFE; HE FOCUSED ON CULTURAL EVENTS, ON HIS ASSESSMENT OF VARIOUS PERSONALITIES AND PHENOMENA, BUT MUCH LESS ON HIS REFLECTIONS ON ART. THE ARTIST'S INNER WORLD AND HIS CREATIVE PROCESS REMAIN ALMOST ALWAYS "OFF THE RECORD".

Anastasia Starovoitova
Russian Patriarchs of the 20th Century in Pavel Korin's Works

#2 2014 (43)

THE LIFE AND ARTISTIC CAREER OF PAVEL KORIN (1892-1967) COINCIDED WITH THE RESTORATION OF THE INSTITUTION OF THE PATRIARCHATE IN RUSSIA. HE WAS PRIVILEGED TO MEET ALL THE PRIMATES OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH ELECTED DURING THE SOVIET PERIOD, FROM TIKHON TO PIMEN, THE FUTURE PATRIARCH. THESE FATEFUL ENCOUNTERS TOOK PLACE AT A TIME WHEN THE VERY EXISTENCE OF THE RUSSIAN CHURCH WAS CHALLENGED.

 

Sergei Koluzakov
The Holy Trinity Church in Cuhurestii

#1 2014 (42)

ONE OF THE REMAINING ENIGMAS OF NATALIA GONCHAROVAS ARTISTIC LEGACY CONCERNS HER WORK ON THE MURALS FOR A CHURCH IN BESSARABIA (NOW MOLDOVA) BUILT BY THE ARCHITECT ALEXEI SHCHUSEV. FOR A LONG TIME HER INVOLVEMENT IN THE PROJECT WAS A MATTER OF DISPUTE.

 

 

Yevgenia Ilyukhina
The Mansion of Serge Koussevitzky. The Story Behind a Commission

#1 2014 (42)

NATALIA GONCHAROVA IS ONE OF THOSE RARE PAINTERS WITH A PRONOUNCED TOUCH FOR THE MONUMENTAL FORM. IN HER RUSSIAN YEARS IT MANIFESTED ITSELF IN RELIGIOUS PAINTINGS THAT WERE FAR FROM "ORTHODOX" - AT LEAST BY COMPARISON WITH CONTEMPORARY ECCLESIASTICAL ART AS REPRESENTED BY TH E LI KES OF VIKTOR VASNETSOV AN D MIKHAIL NESTEROV - A FACTOR THAT EFFECTIVELY BLOCKED ANY POSSIBILITY OF HER RECEIVING OFFICIAL COMMISSIONS. IT WAS ONLY IN 1915 AFTER HER DEPARTURE FROM RUSSIA, THAT WITH THE HELP OF THE ARCHITECT ALEXEI SHCHUSEV THE ARTIST WAS COMMISSIONED TO DECORATE A PRIVATE CHURCH ON AN ESTATE IN BESSARABIA. EVEN THAT WORK WAS DOOMED NEVER TO BE COMPLETED, BECAUSE OF THE WAR AND REVOLUTION.

Galina Churak
Isaac Levitan's Summer. Day Rediscovered

#1 2014 (42)

EVERY WORK BY THE EMINENT LANDSCAPE ARTIST ISAAC LEVITAN, WHETHER HIS LARGE FINISHED COMPOSITIONS OR SKETCHES FROM NATURE, HIS DRAWINGS OR Refined pASTEL pIEcES, IS A "SwEET Melody" ABOuT RuSSIAN NATuRE – A MELODY WHICH SOUNDS SOMETIMES CLEARLY AND CHEERFULLY, SOMETIMES TENSELY AND ANXIOUSLY, BUT ALWAYS EARNESTLY AND EMOTIONALLY. LEVITAN'S APPRECIATION OF RUSSIAN CULTURE, IN WHICH HE WAS RAISED BOTH AS AN ARTIST AND AS AN INDIVIDUAL, AND WHICH HE KNEW AND LOVED, MADE HIM ONE OF THE MOST SENSITIVE LANDSCAPE ARTISTS WHO EXPRESSED THE NATIONAL ESSENCE AND THE INNERMOST MYSTERY OF THE COUNTRY'S NATURE. AS ALEXANDRE BENOIS CHARACTERISED HIM: "A SENSITIVE AND GREAT ARTIST."

SERGEI KOLUZAKOV
Mikhail Nesterov and lexeiShchusev Collaborate. Unknown projects

#1 2013 (38)

BY THE LAST YEARS OF THE ROMANOV DYNASTY MIKHAIL NESTEROV AND ALEXEI SHCHUSEV WERE ALREADY FULLY-FLEDGED CULTURAL LUMINARIES IN RUSSIA. NESTEROV HAD WON ACCLAIM WITH HIS NATIONAL-ROMANTIC PAINTINGS SUCH AS "THE HERMIT", "THE VISION OF THE YOUNG BARTHOLOMEW", AND "THE MURDERED TSAREVICH DMITRY", WHILE SHCHUSEV'S DESIGN HAD BEEN CHOSEN FOR MOSCOW'S LARGEST CONSTRUCTION PROJECT - THE KAZAN RAILWAY STATION IN MOSCOW. BOTH MEN WERE REGARDED BY THEIR CONTEMPORARIES AS VERY ORIGINAL FIGURES IN CHURCH PAINTING AND ARCHITECTURE. THIS ARTICLE'S FOCUS ON THEIR ARTISTIC COLLABORATION IS NATURAL, BECAUSE NESTEROV, ALWAYS DEMANDING OF HIMSELF, CONSIDERED THE CHURCH BUILDINGS DESIGNED BY SHCHUSEV IN COLLABORATION WITH HIM AS HIS GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENTS MADE "ON THE CHURCH SCAFFOLDING". MOREOVER, THE NATURE OF THIS COLLABORATION ARGUABLY INDICATES THAT THE TWO MASTERS INFLUENCED ONE ANOTHER. NOT SURPRISINGLY, AFTER THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION THEIR CHURCH-RELATED PROJECTS WERE RARELY MENTIONED. IN THE COURSE OF THE PREPARATION FOR THE EXHIBITION "MIKHAIL NESTEROV. IN SEARCH OF HIS RUSSIA", I HAVE MANAGED TO EXAMINE UNKNOWN EPISODES IN THE ARTIST'S CAREER, STUDYING THOSE OF HIS COMMISSIONED WORKS THAT EVEN EXPERTS KNOW LITTLE ABOUT, AND IDENTIFYING IMAGES AND DRAWINGS NEVER PREVIOUSLY PRINTED.

OLGA IVANOVA
Mikhail Nesterov's Family in His Art

#1 2013 (38)

THERE ARE SOME ARTISTS WHOSE ART MAY BE EXAMINED WITHOUT MUCH STUDY OF THEIR BIOGRAPHIES, OR REFERENCE TO THEIR LOVED ONES, WHILE WITH OTHERS THEIR WORK IS SO CLOSELY LINKED TO THEIR FAMILIES THAT IT BECOMES ESSENTIAL TO ANY ANALYSIS OF THEIR OEUVRE. MIKHAIL NESTEROV (1862-1942) IS AMONG THE LATTER: THIS ARTICLE, WHICH INCLUDES MATERIALS, LETTERS AND PHOTOGRAPHS FROM VARIOUS ARCHIVES, EXAMINES THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE ARTIST'S FAMILY AND HIS WORK. THESE LETTERS HELP US SEE WHAT IS USUALLY HIDDEN FROM THE VIEWER'S EYES - THE DIFFERENT ROLES THAT AN ARTIST'S FAMILY PLAYS IN HIS LIFE. NESTEROV'S FAMILY MEMBERS OFTEN INSPIRED HIM TO CREATE HIS PAINTINGS, OR SERVED AS "PROTOTYPES" FOR THE SUBJECTS OF HIS LARGE-SCALE WORKS, EVEN FOR THE FRESCOES THAT THE ARTIST CREATED FOR VARIOUS CATHEDRALS. WITHOUT DOUBT, THIS WAS VERY IMPORTANT FOR THE ARTIST; HE WROTE THAT "...IF THERE IS A FACE, THERE IS A PAINTING. IF THERE IS NO [FACE], NO EXPRESSION THAT I SEEK <...> - THERE WILL BE NO PAINTING. LIKE SEROV, IT IS THE HUMAN SOUL THAT I NEEDED FIRST AND FOREMOST." IN MAKING THE ACQUAINTANCE OF NESTEROV'S FAMILY MEMBERS IT IS NOT ONLY HIS LETTERS AND PAINTINGS THAT ARE IMPORTANT, BUT ALSO THE PHOTOGRAPHS THAT HAVE BEEN PRESERVED, WHICH SOMETIMES REFLECT MUCH ON NESTEROV'S CREATIVE PROCESS. THE LEGACY OF THE ARTIST'S DESCENDANTS, WHOSE LIVES WERE PROFOUNDLY INFLUENCED BY THE PERSONALITY OF THEIR FATHER AND GRANDFATHER, IS ALSO REVEALING.

Karin Hellandsjø
H.M. Queen Sonja’s Art Collection

#4 2012 (37)

It was a beautiful day. We were on a hike in Northern Norway. In Leirfjord a large rectangular steel installation had been placed in the landscape. Everyone thought it was odd. But I insisted – we should not be discouraged. We should go and have a look! As we approached, we saw that the seemingly randomly sited construction framed the landscape in an infinite number of perspectives, depending upon where one was standing. The landscape had been there since the dawn of time. Art helps us realize that.
What more can we ask?
Queen Sonja in “Impulses” 2001

Sergei Smirnov
The Yellow Plums of Childhood

#1 2012 (34)

The great Russian artist Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin, a master of colour and a pioneer in scenography and theatrical scene painting, was born 150 years ago in Moscow, in the suburb of Rogozhskaya. He tried his hand in all artistic genres, and at the end of his life, after his emigration, Korovin also became famous as a writer. As his contemporaries described him, Korovin was a charming jolly fellow, welcoming and hospitable, generous in his nature, an amazing storyteller, the life and soul of any party, and a witty raconteur.

Natalya Iljina
The Art Restorer Ivan Kreitor and Konstantin Korovin's Heritage

#1 2012 (34)

The title of chapter six of "My Life in Paris" from the memoir of Ivan Mozalevsky, a well-known artist and draughtsman (the original is kept in the Manuscript Department of the Tretyakov Gallery) tells the story of the complicated relationship between Korovin and Ivan Kreitor. The excerpt published here describes dramatic events in the life of the outstanding Russian artist Konstantin Korovin, including the loss of his works that he had specifically selected for a personal exhibition1 at a time when his life in immigration was difficult both financially and emotionally.

Yelena Terkel
“I feel you intimately and deeply…”
Excerpts from the correspondence of Maria Yakunchikova and Yelena Polenova

#4 2011 (33)

The names of Yelena Dmitrievna Polenova and Maria Vasilievna Yakunchikova-Weber are closely connected in the history of Russian art, and are linked to the origin and rise of the modernist style. A search for new experience brought the two women artists together. Their companionship, reflected in their correspondence, helped each to develop as an artist and was mutually enriching. Their letters show how this bonding gradually grew in importance. Reserved by nature, Yelena expressed her concern pithily: “It has been long since I last heard from Masha – I wrote to her already several times and received only one letter in reply”. Maria wrote: “I feel you intimately, and deeply and humbly hope to hear from you sometime”.

Nina Markova
The Moment of Truth

#3 2011 (32)

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.

Lyudmila Markina
Pyotr Zakharov-Chechenets in the Tretyakov Gallery:
A Historical Chronicle

#3 2011 (32)

I came across the idea of this article by sheer chance, when a group of reporters from Grozny "descended" upon the Tretyakov Gallery. Unprepared, I was to give an interview about the art of Pyotr Zakharov-Chechenets. In the introductory room, my attention was caught by an old photo¬graph featuring the interior of the gallery in 1898, which showed that Zakharov-Chechenets's por¬traits fitted in perfectly with those hanging beside them, including masterpieces of Russian art of the 1830s-1840s by Karl Briullov and Fyodor Bruni. Almost all of his best works in the collec¬tion were purchased by Pavel Tretyakov. What was it that attracted the demanding collector? Images of the people who were "dear to the nation's heart"? Or the quality of the artist's crafts¬manship? How, and under what circumstances, were his paintings acquired by the Tretyakov Gallery? Looking for answers, I researched at the department of manuscripts of the Tretyakov Gallery, and in the newspaper and dissertation departments of the Russian National Library.

Ludmila Markina
German and Russian artists: rendezvous in Rome

Special issue. ITALY–RUSSIA: ON THE CROSSROADS OF CULTURES

Italy’s great traditions of the past, its role as the cradle of the European civilization, its ancient monuments and architecture, friendly climate and the lifestyle of its cheerful and talented people – all that, since ancient times, have seemed appealing to all kind of travellers, philosophers, poets, men of letters and artists from around the world. Rome has become the treasurehouse of unique works of art and artefacts as the landmarks of different epochs and styles. For centuries the city functioned as the Academy of Europe, the major school for students from different parts of the continent. Artists, representing different national schools and movements came to communicate with and learn from each other. In the first half of the nineteenth century there were two communities of painters – German and Russian – who could distinguish themselves from the rest; they were the most numerous, and their representatives were the most acclaimed: for example, Johann Friedrich Overbeck, Alexander Ivanov, Julius Schnoff von Carolsfeld, Karl Brullov, Peter Cornelius and Fyodor Bruni. Although Russian painters joined the world artistic process rather late, they turned out to be extremely talented, individualistic and versatile. The author of this article has been studying the history of Russian – German artistic contacts for many years. Thanks to the scholarship granted by the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome, Prof. Ludmila Markina, PhD in Arts, had a chance to work in the Eternal City for some time. She is happy to share the discoveries she made there.

Yelena Terkel
America in Léon Bakst’s Life and Art

#2 2011 (31)

America in the eyes of the artists, actors and musicians of the Silver Age of Russian culture was an enigmatic and fabulously rich country – a country to go to on a tour or to earn money. Only a handful of such artists gradually came to view the New World as not just a source of income but also as a special cultural hub with distinct traditions and roots. One such was Léon Bakst, the Russian artist of international renown who spent the second half of his life in France.

Henrietta Spencer-Churchill
An English Opening

#2 2011 (31)

They have an eye for beautiful and expensive things in Russia, proof of this statement is provided by the interest expressed by Russian business and high society individuals in the recent British Antiques Mission in the Moscow Expo that took place in the British Ambassadorʼs private residence in Moscow in March 2011.

Lydia Gladkova, Eleonora Paston
The Secrets of Ivan Pokhitinov’s Art

#4 2010 (29)

The exhibition “The Artist-Sorcerer”, organized by the Tretyakov Gallery to mark the 160th anniversary of Ivan Pavlovich Pokhitonov (1850-1923), featured works from the collections of the Tretyakov Gallery and Otar Margania (Moscow). The dates of the exhibition, initially scheduled to run from March 2 to November 28, were twice extended due to the great public interest in Pokhitonovʼs oeuvre. Visitors to the show in their comments talked not only about gratitude for “the feeling of joy and harmony of life” they experienced viewing Pokhitonovʼs works and admiration for the artistʼs consummate workmanship, but also about his painting techniques, which were described as “spellbinding” and appearing “a miracle”. As if echoing Ilya Repinʼs opinion about Pokhitonov – “this is an artist-sorcerer”, which gave the title to the exhibition – viewers wrote that they visited the show several times to engage with this “miracle” again and again.

Galina Churak
Crossed Destinies Anton Chekhov and Isaac Levitan

#3 2010 (28)

When Yulia Sergeievna, the heroine of Anton Chekhov's 1895 story “Three Years”, and her husband visited an art show in Easter week, making a tour of the rooms, she “stopped before a small landscape… In the foreground was a stream, over it a little wooden bridge; on the further side a path that disappeared in the dark grass; a copse on the right; near it a camp fire – no doubt of watchers by night; and in the distance there was a glow of the evening sunset. Yulia imagined walking herself along the little bridge, and then along the little path further and further, while all round was stillness, the drowsy landrails calling and the fire flickering in the distance. And for some reason she suddenly began to feel that she had seen those very clouds that stretched across the red part of the sky, and that copse, and that field before, many times before. She felt lonely, and longed to walk on and on along the path; and there, in the glow of sunset was the calm reflection of something unearthly, eternal.”

Nina Markova
Isaac Levitan: Beyond Landscape

#3 2010 (28)

“The import and significance of every true, great artist consists in the irresistible appeal of his personality and in how it reflects in his artwork”, wrote Leonid Pasternak in a memoir about Isaac Levitan. The originality of Levitan as an artist lies in his being a natural, entirely self-sufficient landscape artist who fully realized his talent in landscape art. His landscapes eclipsed all his forays into different genres and creative activities. Who remembers now that Levitan illustrated magazines and books, designed stage sets, created portraits and still-lifes?

Natalya Gorlenk
Anticipations of Photography Notes on painting and photography in Russia in the second half of the 19th century

#3 2010 (28)

When in 1839 the world learned about the invention of photography, most artists did not think long before they recognized it as a purely scientific discovery. Few, if any, thought that photography would have an impact on the art of painting. Although the first photographs were the result of the collaboration between a scientist and an artist, and later many professional painters became photographers, and photography significantly influenced the art of painting, for a long time the artistic community was “opposed” to photography. However, if we look back at the state of painting prior to 1839, we can see a whole range of developments that seem to have broken the ground for the emergence of the new art.

Natalya Zhirkevich-Podlesskikh
At Ivan Aivazovsky’s

#2 2010 (27)

At the beginning of autumn 1890, my grandfather, Alexander Vladimirovich Zhirkevich1, a military attorney and a beginning writer, came to the resort town of Yalta for treatment. As was customary in those days, he stayed there for a while. Treatment alone was not enough for his vivacious nature; he was curious to see various places of interest in the Crimea. He admired Ai-Petri Mountain, delighted in the sea views (“Will I see you again, charming land?”2), and spent a day in Sevastopol. He would visit Sevastopol again soon, with his young wife Katya3, who had come from Vilna to join him. By then he and Katya had been happily married for two years and they had a little son named Seryozha4, whom they lovingly called “Gulya” at home.

Natalya Chernysheva
Yevgenia Kirkaldi – Behind the Identity of Ilya Mashkov’s Mode

#2 2010 (27)

The Tretyakov Gallery holds a portrait of Yevgenia Ivanovna Kirkaldi (“Lady and a Chinese Woman”) made by Ilya Mashkov in 1910. One of Mashkov's most beautiful works, it has featured at numerous exhibitions, appearing first at a show of the “Jack of Diamonds” group in St. Petersburg in 1910, and is well known to both the general public and to art experts. However, next to nothing was known about the sitter. Today, thanks to Kirkaldi's granddaughter Anna Kirillovna Bystrova (née Snesareva) we have photographs and biographical information about the female student of Mashkov, who for a time was also one of his favourite models.

Tatiana Yudenkova
Sergei Tretyakov: Aspects of a Biography Recovered

#1 2010 (26)

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.

Galina Churak
IVAN SHISHKIN’S OTHER GENRE The story of a search - and its findings

#1 2010 (26)

The artistic legacy of outstanding Russian painters such as Vasily Surikov, Viktor Vasnetsov and Ilya Repin – and another master from the same tradition, Ivan Shishkin – seems to have been studied, explored and expounded so thoroughly that, to use Shishkin´s words, “everything has been learned, and there is no more learning to be done”. However, museum researchers sometimes enjoy unexpected encounters with works by these masters that have been long forgotten and/or believed lost, or have a style unusual for them and here is the story of our search and findings.

Yelena Terkel
Leon Bakst: “Dress up like a flower!”

#4 2009 (25)

Leon Bakst hoped that his art would bring more harmony and joy into life. Wishing to make mankind happy and day-dreaming about antiquity and the Orient, what did he really have to offer? Something of a dandy and naive like a child, the artist often made his friends smile. Yet he would succeed in making life shinier and brighter, in bringing beauty closer to everyday life. Bakst was the first Russian artist to win worldwide recognition as a designer.

Yelena Terkel
Sergei Diaghilev and the Tretyakov Gallery

#3 2009 (24)

looked up to the selfless enthusiast Pavel Tretyakov, who devoted his whole life to collecting Russian art. From the very start Tretyakov inspired in Diaghilev a great respect. In 1901 Diaghilev wrote in an article “On Russian Museums”: “Studying the superb collection of the Moscow gallery, one can easily notice that Tretyakov, for all his sensitivity and fondness of his creation, nevertheless belonged to a certain time... He felt it was his duty to showcase all of Russian art... Thus, his collection is an amazingly comprehensive journal spanning 30 years of his life as a collector.”1

From the Memoirs of Zinaida Kamenetskaya about Sergei Diaghilev
Opening chapter, editing and comments by Yelena Terkel

#3 2009 (24)

Sergei Diaghilev enjoyed considerable public exposure during his lifetime. Much has been written about his public work and management skills, his strong devotion to the arts, his intuitive ability to spot talent and novelty, his friends and adversaries, his dictatorial manner and allcharming gallantry – the mask that he always wore. But how often has the reader been able to penetrate his mask and get a glimpse of the real person behind it? Alas, not too often. An introvert, avoiding heart to heart conversations even with the closest people, Diaghilev lived an essentially lonely life. His whirlwind of activity was visible to all, but very few people saw him in his rare moments of leisure. Zinaida Kamenetskaya1 , his first cousin once removed, was one of those few. She left some recollections, full of candour and intimate family details, about her famous relative. She wrote her memoirs in 1931, after she had been asked to do so by Serge Lifar. She wrote them down in a school notebook – its pages covered in neat womanʼs handwriting are now turning slightly yellow. There are some alterations made here and there, but not too many of them. The memoirs have never been published before and are part of the manuscript archive of the Tretyakov Gallery.

Irina Ladygina
“...I raise my glass...” How Muscovites feted Diaghilev in 1905

#3 2009 (24)

On March 24 1905 in Moscow, in the restaurant of the Metropol Hotel, a dinner was held honoring Sergei Diaghilev, his work as an editor and art entrepreneur. As the “Novosti Dnya” (News of the Day) newspaper reported1, “Moscow artists and art lovers fêted the editor of the ʻWorld of Artʼ magazine Sergei Diaghilev as a person who has made a major contribution to arts and organized an array of exhibitions that brought out a new trend”.

Julian Barran
The Diaghilev Ballet – A Personal Memory

#3 2009 (24)

Julian Barran, a renowned British art-dealer and collector was an auctioneer for many years at Sothebyʼs and specialized in Diaghilev and Ballets Russes sales. Summer 2009 was marked by a representative exhibition devoted to the centenary of Diaghilevʼs enterprise. Organized in London by Julian Barran at The Daniel Katz Gallery the exhibition showcased a rich collection of original costumes, vintage photos, drawings and caricatures by the outstanding team of Diaghilevʼs world-famous artists and designers. Written especially for the Tretyakov Gallery magazine Julian Barranʼs article speaks about those people who cherished Diaghilevʼs legacy and for years preserved it for generations to come to admire. He generously shares some pearls of his collection with readers.

Svetlana Domogatskaya
Paolo Troubetzkoy and Russia

#2 2009 (23)

More than 70 years have passed since the death of Paolo Troubetzkoy, a sculptor famous in Russia. Today, as before, his buoyant and brilliant personality preserves its special character and inspires very special feelings. His name is organically associated with the idea of the artistʼs personal creative independence from any politicized demands.

Tatiana Yudenkova
Sergei Tretyakov: “Aspired to Serve the Community…” . On the 175th anniversary of Sergei Mikhailovich Tretyakov

#1 2009 (22)

The name of Sergei Mikhailovich Tretyakov (1834-1892) is not well-known, even though his collection of Western European works of art was the origin of the collection of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. More often, his name is recalled only in connection with that of his elder brother Pavel. Yet, during the Tretyakov brothersʼ lifetime, Sergei enjoyed more fame than his brother. At that time, Pavel – the owner of Moscowʼs renowned art gallery – introduced himself to fellow citizens as “the Mayorʼs brother”. When one brother was mentioned, another was also present on the scene, albeit invisible. Throughout their lives, Pavel and Sergei Tretyakov supported and advised each other. The brothers shared common interests and did much work for the benefit of their country. It is possible to say that they “walked along the path of life hand in hand” – so much was shared in common – yet each one of them left his own imprint on the history of Russian art and of their home town.

Tamara Kaftanova
Sergei Tretyakov: “In Memory of Mutual Service”

#4 2008 (21)

2009 will mark the 175th anniversary of the birth of Sergei Mikhailovich Tretyakov. He was born on January 19 1834 (January 31, by the old calendar), the second child in a Zamoskvorechye District merchantʼs family. Sergei Tretyakov was the younger brother of the founder of the Russian National Art Gallery, Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov. He was his elder brotherʼs close friend, a reliable partner, and assistant. Sergei Tretyakov was widely known in Moscow as a public figure and art collector. His fine, noble face is captured in photographic portraits, many of which are kept in the department of manuscripts of the Tretyakov Gallery.

Svetlana Kazakova
Karl Briullov and Nestor Kukolnik: A Story of Two Illustrations

#4 2008 (21)

The year 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Russian writer Nestor Vasilievich Kukolnik. Eclipsed by the great Gogol’s anniversary, Kukolnik’s will most likely go unnoticed. The writer once seriously viewed as Pushkin’s literary rival is forgotten today – as undeservedly as he was once extravagantly extolled. Nestor Kukolnik, who was not only Gogol’s contemporary but also his classmate at the Nezhinsky school, today is probably remembered only as a friend of Karl Briullov and Mikhail Glinka. We owe to this friendship above all two masterpieces of Russian art: Karl Briullov made a superb portrait of Kukolnik, while the composer Glinka composed a series of romances to his poems “A Farewell to St. Petersburg”.

Kseniya Antonova
The Fate of a Portrait

#3 2008 (20)

Anyone who has compiled catalogues of museum collections knows that in order to study individual works one has to be familiar with the artistʼs entire creative output. Only such a monographic overview of the authorʼs work allows us to accurately date a painting, sculpture or drawing, to correctly name the piece, establish its history, and understand and evaluate its significance.

Elena Terkel
Leon Bakst. His Family and His Art

#1 2008 (18)

Léon Bakst is the greatest theatre designer, a fine painter and a superb master of drawing, particularly of line drawing. This line – curved, tense, emotional and at the same time prodigiously harmonious – became a signature feature not only of Bakst’s art, but of the whole “Moderne” style as well, one that cannot be imagined without Bakst. What do we know about his life?

EXCLUSIVE PUBLICATIONS

John E. Bowlt, Anna Chernukhina, Olga Kovaleva, Elena Terkel
“Words of Magic”: The Literary Heritage of Leon Bakst

#1 2008 (18)

Of the many artists of the Russian Silver Age Léon Bakst (Lev Samoilovich Rozenberg, 1866–1924) deserves the highest acclaim for his contribution to both studio painting and the decorative arts. Among Russian stage designers, he enjoyed – and continues to enjoy – the widest recognition for legendary productions such as Cléopatre , Schéhérazade, Le Dieu Bleu and The Sleeping Princess, in which he astounded audiences with munificence of colour, tactile form and exposure of the dynamic force of the human body.

Natalya Mamontova, Natalya Priimak
Nikolai Schilder and His “Temptation”

#4 2007 (17)

Admiring masterpieces by the most eminent Russian painters in the Tretyakov Gallery, visitors will not often encounter works by artists “of secondary importance” whose oeuvre was never widely known. Vasily Khudyakov’s “Armed Clash with Finnish Smugglers” and Nikolai Schilder’s “Temptation” prove two fortunate exceptions: for many decades, visitors’ tours of the Tretyakov have begun with this very pair. If Khudyakov, however, is well known to lovers of Russian art, Schilder, whose career as an artist was not altogether successful, would, most likely, have been all too soon forgotten, had his early painting not been purchased by the young Moscow collector Pavel Tretyakov. So who was this Nikolai Schilder, whose name was to become so firmly linked with the history of the Tretyakov Gallery?

Anatoly Vilkov
Retrieving Russia’s Cultural Heritage

#3 2007 (16)

The recent rise of criminal activity involving items of cultural value has brought to the fore issues around the retrieval of stolen and illegally exported cultural relics, as well as the restoration of rights to objets d’art, lost at different times and for different reasons.

Lyudmila Markina
Sergei Ivanov: In the Shadow of a Great Brother

#2 2007 (15)

Looking at the Russian graves in Testacchio, the Roman cemetery for non-Catholics, in the autumn of 2003, my attention was drawn to one particularly well-tended tombstone. My guide Vanda Gasperovich, a lecturer at the University of Rome, explained that the grave belonged to Sergei Ivanov, architect and brother of the outstanding Russian painter.

Nicoletta Misler
Mikhail Nesterov and the Russian Religious Philosophers

#2 2007 (15)

Among some of the most fascinating and prized items owned by the State Tretyakov Gallery is Mikhail Nesterov’s famous double portrait of the philosophers Pavel Florensky (1882–1937) and Sergei Bulgakov 1 (1871–1944). Painted in 1917 and showing the two men in Sergiev Posad, for many years “The Philosophers” was consigned to storage; yet now, once again, it forms part of the Tretyakov Gallery’s display as a vital element of Nesterov’s creative and spiritual development. Deacon Sergiy Trubachev’s important article 2, written to mark Florensky’s the 100th anniversary of Florensky’s birth and examining this very painting, focuses in particular on its spiritual merit. Deacon Trubachev’s study offered a convenient starting point for this article.

Khava Akieva
The Clear Spring of Creativity

#1 2007 (14)

The growth and development of Ingush art is a little researched topic. The creative Weltanschauung is closely connected with the history, religious customs, ethical norms and aesthetic values of a people. The work of the two “fathers” of Ingush professional art, Khadzhi-Bekr Akhriev and GaziMagomed Dourbekov, is no exception.

John E. Bowlt
Full of Beauty and Suffering Pavel Filonov

№4 2006 (13)

The eleventh issue of the journal Experiment is a collection of articles on Pavel Filonov edited by Nicoletta Misler, Irina Menshova and John E. Bowlt. Published in Los Angeles in 2005, this issue is dedicated to the memory of Evgeny Kovtun (1928–1996), who devoted his life to the study of modern Russian art and to the art of Pavel Filonov in particular.

Alex Klevitsky
“...Elegy for Yakovlev”

№3 2006 (12)

Boris Grigoriev's letter from my collection, published here for the first time, was written just two weeks after Alexander Yakovlev's death. The letter was addressed to Vladimir Bashkirov, a collector and arts patron who knew both artists well. Full of grief for the loss of a friend and a great artist, the letter sheds an additional light on the events described by the American collector and art scholar Martin Birnbaum in his book “Jacovleff and Other Artists”: “Several days later ... what was left from his once gorgeous body destroyed by a malignant tumour was decaying under a cover of scarlet peonies in the Russian church full of incense and chanting, as well as the subdued weeping of many of his friends. His last wish – to have his ashes scattered over the emerald-green waters of his beloved Capri – could not be fulfilled ...”

Alexandra Keiser
Creative Spirit: Alexander Archipenko’s Contribution

#2 2006 (11)

From 1923 until his death in 1964, Alexander Archipenko lived in the United States where he produced a large body of work. While Archipenko scholars have focused mainly on his early years in France and his contributions to Cubism, it is only now that researchers are examining the artist’s practice and the reception he received during this later period, and his place in the wider structure of avant-garde culture.

Pavel Tretyakov Competition. Summing Up

#4 2005 (09)

The Tretyakov Gallery and the “Tretyakov Gallery” magazine hold an annual national competition named after Pavel Tretyakov for young artists (up to 35 years years old) for the best work of realistic art.

Leonid Bazhanov
New Facts about Vasily Kandinsky

#4 2005 (09)

It is clear that the work of the great master and founder of abstract art Vasily Kandinsky is under continuous reassessment; this is largely due to the input of Russian researchers who reach new conclusions about his work by studying Russian archives, as well as the vast state and private collections of paintings and graphic works, and investigate the great artist’s legacy abroad. In this respect the book by Moscow State University professor Valery S. Turchin “Kandinskii v Rossii” (“Kandinsky in Russia”) published by “Khudozhnik i kniga” in Moscow this year has become a fundamental scientific summary of the artist’s legacy.

Galina Tuluzakova
Nikolai Fechin: Kazan – Santa Fe

#2 2005 (07)

Today, the name of Nikolai (Nicolai) Fechin is still little known to the Russian public – yet this talented and appealing artist was equally gifted in painting, draughtsmanship, wood carving, sculpture and the teaching of art. His work reflects a number of contemporary trends, although art nouveau, with its love of beauty, romantic quest for national roots and lack of a rigid stylistic models was to prove the most appropriate form for this master. Born in 1881 in Kazan, capital of Tatarstan, Fechin trained as an artist at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. Returning to Kazan after his studies, he took part in numerous European and American exhibitions. The majority of works from this time were either sold at these events, or sent abroad to foreign coll-ectors. With the beginning of World War I, such international connections were severed: paintings created during and immediately after the war remained in Russia. In 1923, the artist was forced to emigrate: Fechin left for America, taking some of his canvases with him. For this reason, the years prior to 1910 and the period between 1914 and 1923 are the stages in Fechin's career best represented in Russian museums.

Anna Grigoryeva
Baky Urmanche. A World of Poetic Association

#2 2005 (07)

The name of Baky Urmanche (1897–1990) is one of the most interesting new discoveries of the 25th exhibition organised at the Tretyakov Gallery within the project titled "Russia's Golden Map". A cult name in Tatarstan, the artist remains almost completely unknown outside the republic. At that exhibition the works of Urmanche are displayed in the Tretyakov Gallery for the first time ever, alongside the works of acknowledged classics of Russian art. Urmanche is considered to be the founder of Tatar art on a professional level. He was the first of the Tatar artists to receive professional training. At first he studied at Kazan's VKHUTEMAS institute, and later on at its Moscow branch. But no matter where he lived he never lost touch with his national tradition, a factor that became dominant in his mature years. His talent was universal: he was a painter, a sculptor, a graphic artist, a calligrapher and a teacher. His creative work successfully combined highly professional skills with the basics of Tatar national culture.

Ye.Ilyukhina
Larionov: Diaghilev Mania

№1 2005 (06)

December 2004 saw the opening of a new exhibition in Groningen, Holland, “Working for Diaghilev”, which brings together Russian and European works from foreign, as well as Russian art collections. Aptly named, the exhibition not only showcases “World of Art” and Russian Seasons material, but also sheds light on Diaghilev's entourage with portraits of artists, composers, choreographers, wealthy patrons and performers. It includes sketches made by the artist Mikhail Larionov in 1915, the result of working with Diaghilev in Switzerland, which have never previously been exhibited. Together with Larionov's book on Diaghilev, these graphic memoirs create yet another original image of the eminent Russian impresario. This account of Diaghilev's life by one of his closest colleagues is all the more interesting for its obviously personal bias.

I.Devyatiarova
Alexei Yavlensky in Siberia

#1 2005 (06)

Alexei Georgievich Yavlensky (1864–1941) gained world-wide recognition for his vital visual energy and the sense of intense spirituality and colour of his paintings. Russian by origin, and a figure with unbreakable cultural ties with the country, Yavlensky entered the circle of masters associated with the beginnings of the European avant-garde.

Natella Voiskounski
"American Abramtsevo" – the Florence Griswold Museum

#1 2005 (06)

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.

Lyubov Golovina
Yevgeny Lancere. Character, Feeling and Independence

#1 2005 (06)

Sculpture is known to have gone out of fashion in Russia in the late 19th century: a reaction towards realistic trends with their worldy principles and everyday subjects, against the academic arts of previous periods, encouraged painting rather than sculpture. As a result, the sculpture of the time came to be lacking in its sense of material, in an attractiveness of the plastic means, as well as in a wholeness and completion of form. The specific language of sculpture needed other subjects, different from the simple narrations of realistic art.

Natella Voiskounski
Stress–Dali–Stress

#4 2004 (05)

To attempt to write anything new, or at least original, about Salvador Dali in 2004, the centenary of his birth, when there have been, and will be written hundreds of pages on his art is a daunting prospect. A genius of both creativity and the creative "escapade", Salvador Dali has become a personification of the stressful 20th century. His name is known to millions, although many of them have never seen a piece of his art – whether a painting or a graphic work, a sculpture or installation, a piece of furniture or jewellery… Nevertheless Dali remains a puzzle, a figure who puzzles viewers, art critics and all those interested in his turbulent life and stressfully shocking art. Dali was consequent in his inconsequence, a vagabond investigating new paths for contemporary art, which would then be taken on by future generations of artists. His boundless imagination led him to both nowhere and everywhere; his vigour made the creative process nonstop; his inner freedom and emancipation which reached the edge of dissoluteness allowed him to respond to any artistic challenge. Dali was like a Midas, whose touch made everything art and gold…

Alexandra Shatskikh
RUSSIAN CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOKS

#3 2004 (04)

IN RUSSIA THE CONCEPT OF BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AS A SPECIAL KIND OF ARTISTIC ACTIVITY APPEARED AT THE TURN OF THE 19–20TH CENTURIES, INTRODUCED BY THE "MIR ISKUSSTVA" (WORLD OF ART) MOVEMENT ALONGSIDE OTHER ARTISTIC CREATIVE ENTERPRISES OF ITS MEMBERS.

Galina ANDREEVA
GEORGE DAWE ABROAD

#2 2004 (03)

GEORGE DAWE’S "A NEGRO OVERPOWERING A BUFFALO – A FACT WHICH OCCURRED IN AMERICA IN 1809" WAS RECENTLY DISCOVERED IN AN AMERICAN COLLECTION. THE SCENE IS SO EMPHATIC IN THE POWER OF ITS EXPRESSION THAT IT WILL NO DOUBT SURPRISE THE VIEWER THAT THE ARTIST IS THE SAME GEORGE DAWE WHO IS WELL KNOWN AS THE PAINTER OF THE PORTRAITS WHICH COMPRISE THE FAMOUS MILITARY GALLERY OF 1812 IN THE WINTER PALACE IN ST. PETERSBURG: "THE BRITON", AS ALEXANDER PUSHKIN CALLED HIM, PRAISING THE EASY BRUSH AND BRISK "MARVELLOUS" PENCIL OF THE MASTER. IN THE 1820S, GEORGE DAWE MANAGED TO CARVE OUT A CAREER IN ST. PETERSBURG AND MOSCOW AND WAS ACCLAIMED AS A DISTINGUISHED PAINTER.

Ludmila MARKINA
GERMAN AND RUSSIAN ARTISTS: RENDEZVOUS IN ROME

#2 2004 (03)

Italy’s great traditions of the past, its role as the cradle of the European civilization, its ancient monuments and architecture, friendly climate and the lifestyle of its cheerful and talented people – all that, since ancient times, have seemed appealing to all kind of travellers, philosophers, poets, men of letters and artists from around the world. Rome has become the treasurehouse of unique works of art and artefacts as the landmarks of different epochs and styles.

Victor Leonidov, Olga Zemljakova
MEANT TO BE AN ANGEL

#1 2004 (02)

"A PREPARATORY STUDY FOR THE PICTURE "HEALING OF THE BLIND" BY V.I. SURIKOV. CONFIRMED BY O.V. SURIKOVA-KONCHALOVSKAYA 1917". THIS INSCRIPTION CAN BE SEEN ON THE BOTTOM EDGE OF THE PORTRAIT OF A STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL AND CHARMING YOUNG WOMAN. THERE ARE TWO MORE INSCRIPTIONS ON THE REVERSE SIDE. THE FIRST SAYS: "FROM THE COLLECTION OF TROIANOVSKY MOVED TO THE MOSCOW BROKER KRAISKOY AND THEN FURTHER ON TO A BERLIN BANKER RAPPORT." THE SECOND READS: "PRIVATE PROPERTY OF E. KLIMOV. RIGA. RIGA, TAUBENST, 23-3. MARCH 1944". THE FATE OF THIS PICTURE, ONE OF THE MOST CHERISHED TREASURES OF THE RUSSIAN FOUNDATION OF CULTURE, HAS IN MANY WAYS MIRRORED THE TWISTS AND TURNS OF THE COMPLICATED, TUMULTUOUS HISTORY OF RUSSIA AND THE TRAGIC FATE OF ITS BEST CITIZENS IN THE 20TH CENTURY.

Alexandra SHATSKIKH
MARC CHAGALL ANIMATES GOGOL'S "DEAD SOULS"

#1 2003 (01)

MARC CHAGALL’S ARTISTIC HERITAGE IS REALLY ILLUSTRIOUS, DISTINGUISHED AND RENOWNED, AND THESE ARE NOT MERE WORDS. BUT STILL SOME OF HIS CREATIVE RESULTS ARE ABSOLUTELY NOTABLE. CHAGALL’S THREE GRAPHIC CYCLES, MADE BY THE ORDER OF THE FRENCH MARCHAND, ART DEALER AND PUBLISHER AMBROISE VOLLARD STAND APART FROM ALL CHAGALL’S CREATIVE ACTIVITY, SPARKLING LIKE THE THREE GREAT DIAMONDS FACETED BY THE ARTIST’S KEEN SIGHT, HIS STRONG AND STEADY HAND HOLDING A DRY POINT OR A NEEDLE.

Tatiana GORYACHEVA
THE ALMANAC "UNOVIS"- A CHRONICLE OF MALEVICH'S VITEBSK EXPERIMENT

#1 2003 (01)

IT WAS IN JUNE 1920 THAT THE GROUP UNOVIS ("AFFIRMERS OF THE NEW ART"), CENTRED AROUND THE FIGURE OF MALEVICH, ISSUED FIVE TYPED COPIES OF THE ALMANAC OF THE SAME NAME, CONTAINING ARTICLES, MANIFESTS, DECLARATIONS AND DRAWINGS BY ITS MEMBERS. IT IS KNOWN THAT ONLY TWO COPIES HAVE SURVIVED: ONE OF THEM WAS PRESENTED BY MALEVICH TO DAVID SHTERENBERG, AND THEN SOLD BY HIS HEIRS TO A PRIVATE COLLECTOR; THE OTHER, WHICH HAD BELONGED TO EL LISSITSKY, WAS DONATED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF MANUSCRIPTS OF THE TRETYAKOV GALLERY BY S.LISSITSKY-KYUPERS IN 1959. THERE IS NO INFORMATION ABOUT THE OTHER THREE COPIES.

 

 

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