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From Russia with LoveFrom Russia
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Diplomatic success isn't normally the first association with an art show. From Russia an exhibit which recently opened at London's Royal Academy of Arts, has been anticipated not because of it's magnificent art and artists but for the political machinations that nearly kept these works at home. |
With utter relief, Charles Saumarez Smith, Chief Executive, Royal Academy of Arts said: ‘The Royal Academy of Arts is absolutely delighted that the long process of negotiation over the future of our ‘From Russia’ exhibition has now been satisfactorily completed, thanks to the enormous help and close collaboration which the Royal Academy has received from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography, the Russian Embassy in London and the British Embassy in Moscow as well as the four Russian State Museums. We are grateful to them all.’
Title: The Bath of the Horse, 1912
Artist: Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin (Russian 1878-1939)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 160 x 186 cm
Permanent Collection: The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
© State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
Image Courtesy: Royal Academy of Arts
It really should be about art not politics. With Picasso, Gauguin and Matisse represented alongside some of Russia's finest: Malevich, Repin and Petro-Vodkin, this is an exhibit that should draw for it's content not it's controversy. Then again perhaps it is a fitting monument to the timeframe of revolutions and upheavel represented in From Russia 1870-1925.
Title: Black Square, c. 1923
Artist: Kazimir Malevich (Russian 1878-1935)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 106 x 106 cm
Permanent Collection: State Russian Museum, St Petersburg
Photo © State Russian Museum, St Petersburg
Image Courtesy: Royal Academy of Arts
Spanning Realism and Impressionism to Non-Objective Painting, over 120 paintings by Russian and French artists working between 1870 and 1925 will be displayed together for the first time ever in the United Kingdom. Renoir, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin and Matisse are displayed together with those by Kandinsky, Tatlin and Malevich. This exhibition will be a unique opportunity to explore the fascinating exchange that existed between French and Russian art during a crucial period that was witness to upheaval and revolution.
The Russian Collectors and Henri Matisse's The Dance
Title: The Dance, 1910
Artist: Henri Matisse (French 1869-1954)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 260 x 391 cm
Permanent Collection: The State Hermitage Museum, St Peterburg
Photo Archives Matisse, Paris
Image Courtesy: Royal Academy of Arts
Moscow textile merchants Ivan Morosov and Sergei Shchukin, were the most daring Russian collectors of their day. Both scoured the French capital for Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works gathering art from Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Matisse and Picasso.
Sergei Shchukin was Matisse’s greatest patron and he commissioned The Dance as part of his decoration plan for the grand staircase of his Moscow mansion.
Paul Gauguin
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Vairaumati is the Tahitian mother earth. Together with Oro, the God Father, they were the mythic couple responsible for the entire Island's race similar to Adam and Eve. Gauguin spent his later years in the Marquesas Islands of Tahiti. His later works utilizing his impressive, unique perspective of color are an important aspect of his oeuvre. |
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Russian artists are an integral part of this exhibit celebrating the Russian & French artistic connections.
Ilya Repin
Title: Manifesto of October 17th, 1905, 1911
Artist: Ilya Repin (Russian 1844-1930)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 184 x 323 cm
Permanent Collection: The State Hermitage Museum, St Peterburg
Photo © State Russian Museum, St Petersburg
Image Courtesy: Royal Academy of Arts
Ilya Repin belonged to the Передвижники or Peredvizhniki Artists Cooperative Group who joined together against the creative restrictions of the Russian artistic community. These Russian artists were commonly called The Wanderers or The Itinerants. Repin's works often illustrated the social norms of his lifetime such as the October 17th, 1905 Russian Manifesto proclaimed by Tsar Nicholas II responding to the 1905 Russian Revolution.
Art and controversy go hand in hand, certainly the issues with the Royal Academy of Art's latest exhibit have brought more attention on From Russian. Hopefully that will result in more viewing this impressive show and enjoying these incredible artists and their masterpieces.
From Russia
French and Russian Master Paintings 1870-1925
Royal Academy of Arts:
through April 18, 2008