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MOSCOW, November 24, Anastasia Silkina Instability, the proximity of change and even disaster – artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries felt all this. The exhibition “Heroes and Contemporaries of the Silver Age” in the Tretyakov Gallery is dedicated to them. About how Serov, Vrubel, Benois, Bakst, Somov and other masters of that era saw the new world, with whom they associated themselves, see the material.
Working in a rapidly changing world
The exhibition is large-scale: more than 280 works from the 1890s to 1914 collections of the Tretyakov Gallery.
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“This is the period of the breakdown of one formation, the realistic, and the birth of the aesthetic model of the 20th century. Works in various techniques – watercolor, gouache, tempera, and pastel – made it possible to more vividly respond to the demands of the time,” explains Irina Shumanova, curator, head of the department of graphics of the 18th – early 20th centuries of the Tretyakov Gallery.
Artists were influenced by the symbolic transition to a new century, the “end of time,” and rapid technical development. For example, futurism is closely associated with the industrial boom, and realism was practically abolished by photography.
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“There was a premonition of change, of a future that is not defined. This was greatly appreciated in the artistic world. The death of the old scheme of art of the 19th century, the impossibility of existing in the previous aesthetic model was felt by everyone,” says the expert.
Many paths opened up for the further development of art. But still, this time also gave rise to anxiety, the degree of which depended on many factors: from age to the fate of a particular artist.
Nude model and religious motives
During this period Numerous exhibition associations and manifesto magazines arose: “World of Art”, “Libra”, “Scorpio”, “Golden Fleece”. They sharply and sometimes very harshly polemicized among themselves.
Artists interpreted eternal motifs in different ways: walks, fountains, alleys. The theme of royal entrances is presented at the exhibition by works by Andrei Ryabushkin, Sergei Ivanov, Apollinary Vasnetsov, Mikhail Nesterov, Alexandre Benois, Evgeniy Lanceret, Mstislav Dobuzhinsky.
“Paintings on Russian history” were different not only stylistically: in St. Petersburg they were nostalgic for the golden age of Russian culture, the passing era of noble estates. For Moscow, the legacy of pre-Petrine Rus' was more interesting.
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“Valentin Serov introduced a class of nude female models to the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. And how differently all this was perceived! Traditional Kustodiev bathers with large figures, sharp drawings by Boris Grigoriev, almost classic replicas of “Venus with a Mirror” Velazquez and “Russian Venus” Vera Sudeikina. This is the diversity of the ideal,” notes curator Evgenia Ilyukhina.
The feeling of the tragedy of the era, the premonition of disaster, was manifested in the use of iconographic religious motifs: “Seraphim” by Vrubel and “Golgotha” by Filonov.
In the work “In Memory of Vrubel”, the lesser-known Vasily Denisov straightforwardly completes the transformation of “The Defeated Demon” into “The Flying Demon” for his colleague.
The best artists were involved in the design and decoration of churches: Mikhail Nesterov, Natalia Goncharova, Nicholas Roerich, Sergei Chekhonin, Viktor Vasnetsov, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin. Unfortunately, much remains only in the graphics.
Harlequin as a symbol of the era
This is the fourth project of the Tretyakov exhibition series dedicated to the culture of the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. One of the previous ones – “Harlequins of the Silver Age” – introduced, perhaps, the central image of the era.
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“The artistic geniuses of the Silver Age grew up watching the performances of traveling harlequins. The desire to soar above reality, to escape from it, made role-playing forms of behavior very popular,” emphasizes Evgenia Ilyukhina.
The exhibition includes two self-portraits of Alexander Yakovlev in the image of Harlequin and Pierrot, a portrait of Zinaida Gippius by Lev Bakst, in which she is in an image referencing Oscar Wilde. And also “The Mystical Collection” by Nikolai Sapunov based on “The Showcase” by Alexander Blok.
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“In Meyerhold’s production on the stage of the Komissarzhevskaya Theater in the love triangle Harlequin – Pierrot – Columbine, the real characters who were sitting in the hall were guessed: Blok himself, his wife Lyubov Mendeleeva-Blok and Andrei Bely,” says Irina Shumanova. “Harlequinade has connected with real life.”
The various lines of the exhibition close at the final point – Yuri Annenkov’s composition “Crucified Harlequin”.
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"The Harlequins cannot be finished once and for all. This trail of a man playing lasted for many representatives of this time until the end of their lives,” noted Irina Shumanova.
The exhibition is open until May 19, 2024.
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