The most interesting exhibitions in Moscow in 2017 according to the editors
The year 2017 is coming to an end, which has become very eventful in the field of culture. In 2017, we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution, the cross year of tourism Austria-Russia, XIX International Festival youth and students, the year of Japan in Russia, the 130th anniversary of the birth of Marc Chagall, the 140th anniversary of " swan lake» Tchaikovsky and other anniversaries. This year there were important events as the 7th Moscow International Biennale contemporary art, Triennial of Russian Contemporary Art, 5th Anniversary Fair of Contemporary Art Cosmoscow, 6th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art.
2017 turned out to be a year of large-scale and retrospective exhibitions of great artists. For the first time such famous artists like Chaim Soutine, Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Takashi Murakami, Cai Guoqiang.
art tube compiled a list of the best Moscow exhibitions of the outgoing year. Some of them can be visited in the new 2018!
- Constantin Brancusi. Sculptures, drawings, photographs, films from the Pompidou Center collection
This exhibition is the first attempt to show most fully the phenomenon of Constantin Brancusi (Brâncuși) and all aspects of his heritage: sculpture, drawings, photographs and films. The works of Constantin Brancusi have become a symbol of the new modernist approach in art.
An important part of the project is the author's drawings, including the famous portraits of James Joyce, as well as sketches of animals, pencil sketches of sculptures, portraits and self-portraits. In addition, Brancusi was a photographer and filmmaker. Photography occupied a huge place in his work. Beginning in 1914, he took several thousand photographs, many of which showed his sculptures and workshop.
Shortly before his death, Constantine Brancusi expressed a desire to donate his heritage to France, the country that became his second home. At the exhibition at the Multimedia Art Museum, the artist's works from the collection of the Pompidou Center will be shown abroad for the first time.
Constantin Brancusi. Sleeping Muse, 1910
- Gustav Klimt. Egon Schiele. Drawings from the Albertina Museum (Vienna)
The exhibition of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, which opened in autumn, is a joint large-scale project of the Russian Pushkin Museum and the Vienna Albertina. Fruitful cooperation between Albertina and the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin made it possible for the first time to present to the Russians about 100 works: sketches, sketches for paintings, self-portraits, nudes.
Gustav Klimt, main artist Viennese Art Nouveau, had the talent of an excellent draftsman, thanks to which he became a world classic. His graphic style had a huge impact on subsequent generations, including Egon Schiele, who began his career when Klimt was already a leading figure in modernity. Schiele learned from the experience of his famous teacher and soon acquired his own inimitable and unique style, which marked the transition from Art Nouveau to Expressionism.
The artists' works were included in the Albertina collection during their lifetime. Subsequent receipts were carried out through donations and bequests of collectors such as August Lederer, Arthur Rössler, Heinrich Benes and others. Over the next hundred years, the total number of works by Klimt and Schiele amounted to about 350.
The exhibition gives the viewer the opportunity to trace the stylistic evolution in the graphics of both artists, as well as to understand how strongly art strove for its own emancipation.
Exhibition of drawings by Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele from the collection of the Albertina Museum (Vienna) © ArtTube
- Someone 1917
The name of the exhibition was the words with which Velimir Khlebnikov ended his calculations about the time of the fall of states, published in 1912 in the collection Slap in the Face of Public Taste.
This exhibition, dedicated to the anniversary of the revolution, the Tretyakov Gallery has been preparing for three years! Here are mainly works created just in 1917. The exhibition raises the question of the place of art in a critical era. The purpose of this large-scale project is an attempt to approach the understanding of the entire complex environment, overall picture this important time in the history of Russia. “Art in front of an unknown reality” is the motto of the project chosen by the curators.
In the spirit of the spring project about the thaw, “Someone 1917” is divided into structuralist sections: “Myths about the people”, “City and citizens”, “Era in faces”, “Away from this reality!”, “Troubled”, “Utopia of the new world” , "Chagall and the Jewish Question". Among 147 exhibits there are big names: Petrov-Vodkin, Serebryakova, Rodchenko, Popova, Malevich, Kandinsky, Chagall, Altman, Yuon and others. The creators of the exhibition demonstrate the entire cut of that time, how representatives of different directions reacted to changes in the world. It was this polyphony that was characteristic and one of the main features of this era.
Exhibition “Someone 1917” in the State Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val
- Chaim Soutine. retrospective
Exhibition “Chaim Soutine. Retrospective” is the first in Russia that fully represents the artist’s work. “Soutine is an artist both happy and extremely difficult fate. The master's work was highly valued during his lifetime, he was not forgotten even after his early departure. Every year the name of Soutine attracts more and more attention of both researchers and collectors", - says the director of the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin Marina Loshak.
This exhibition has become an example of fruitful Russian-French inter-museum cooperation recent years. Although the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin and the Musée d'Orsay have a long-standing friendship; for the Moscow and Paris museums, the Soutine exhibition is the first large-scale joint project.
The uniqueness of the project lies in the fact that the organizers presented to the public not only the works of Chaim Soutine, but also the works of old masters that influenced his artistic genius, and contemporary artists that have been influenced by him - in total, more than 60 works. According to the curator of the exhibition, Suriya Sadekova, Soutine had a unique ability to select the most revolutionary in each of the eras and each of the schools. The incredible expressiveness of Soutine's painting and the dramatic nature of his color palette inspired artists of subsequent generations of the American and British schools.
Russian viewers are given the opportunity to see the masterpieces of classical, modern and latest art from the largest French museums: the Orangerie Museum, the Pompidou Center, the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris, the Louvre, the Picardy Museum.
Exhibition “Chaim Soutine. Retrospective” in the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin © kudamoscow.ru
- "There Will Be Gentle Rain" Takashi Murakami
A hooligan and representative of the neo-pop style Takashi Murakami presented his large-scale project for the first time in our country. The exhibition covers several periods of his work - from the early 1990s to the present day. By placing Murakami's work within the broader context of Japanese culture for the first time, the exhibition pays tribute to the artist's years of work as he reinterprets and integrates the artistic traditions of East and West.
The exhibition consists of five sections, each of which is dedicated to one of the phenomena of Japanese culture, mastered in artistic practice Murakami. The project demonstrates the results of the artist's research of some features national culture and collective consciousness: in his works the boundary between "high" and "low", "elitist" and "mass" is erased, and various media exist in a single stream of images.
In total, the exhibition presents more than 80 works by the artist - paintings, graphics, feature films and animation from the museums of Tokyo and Kanazawa, Japanese engravings and paintings from the collection of the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin, various artifacts from the Murakami studio, and photographs and manga from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
Opening of the exhibition “There will be gentle rain” by Takashi Murakami at the Garage Center for Contemporary Art © The Art Newspaper Russia
- Thaw: facing the future. Art of Europe 1945–1968
This exhibition was timed to coincide with the Thaw festival, within the framework of which exhibitions were organized at the State Tretyakov Gallery and the Museum of Moscow. The curators presented a colossal traveling exhibition, which came to Russia from Germany, where it was created by well-known curators Peter Weibel and Eckhart Gillen. It was thanks to this exhibition that a long-awaited event took place - the recognition of Soviet underground art as European. The exhibition arrived in Russia in a slightly modified form, the number of exhibits decreased, but nevertheless, more than 200 works by leading artists who worked in the 1940s-1960s were collected under the roof of Pushkinsky. – Gerhard Richter, Georg Baselitz, Marc Chagall, Alexander Deineka, Pablo Picasso, Yves Klein, Lucian Freud, Fernand Léger, Otto Dix, Vadim Sidur, Otto Muhl, Eliya Belyutin, the Zero Group, Hans Richter, Armand, Max Beckmann, Henri Matisse and etc.
The exhibition was dedicated to one of the most complex and eventful milestones in world history - the first decades after World War II. The exposition was divided into seven sections that reveal the main stages in the development of post-war art: "The End of the War", "Sorrow and Memory", "Cold War", "Struggle for Peace", "New Realism", "New Idealism", "The End of Utopia". ?
Exhibition "Facing the Future" in the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin © Daily.afisha.ru
- El Lissitzky. retrospective
Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center + State Tretyakov Gallery / November 16, 2017 – February 18, 2018
The exhibition "El Lissitzky" is the first large-scale retrospective of the artist in Russia and a joint project of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center and the State Tretyakov Gallery. El Lissitzky is one of the leading artists of the Russian and European avant-garde, who largely determined the development of architecture and design of the 20th century, the inventor of a new direction in art, which he called “prouns” (proun - New Approval Project). The exhibition project consists of two parts and takes place simultaneously at two venues - the Jewish Museum and the Tolerance Center and New Tretyakov Gallery. The audience is presented with about 400 exhibits from the collections of Russian and foreign museums, private collections. The exhibition recreates creative way artist and introduces all the stages and directions in the work of Lissitzky.
The pre-avant-garde period of Lissitzky's work and works related to his activities in the Kultur-League are presented in the Jewish Museum. In addition to them, it included his graphic works, for example, the famous poster “Beat the whites with a red wedge”, as well as prouns, photo collages, typography, photomontages, manuscripts and documentary photographs.
About 200 works are exhibited in the halls of the Tretyakov Gallery, including prouns and architectural projects, sketches of exhibition design projects, photographs from the gallery's collection. Here, for the first time in Russia, six paintings by Lissitzky from the largest foreign collections are shown - in domestic museums there is not a single painting by the artist. Lissitzky created these works in Germany in the early 1920s, where he was sent to establish artistic contacts, where, by the way, he became friends with the Dadaist Kurt Schwitter, who created similar three-dimensional collages.
The exhibition at two venues presents Lissitzky to the audience as an artist-universe, combining the painter, book graphics, designer, architect, typographer and photographer.
Exhibition “El Lissitzky. Retrospective” © Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center
- Design system in the USSR
Now the topic of Soviet design is very relevant, and one of the popularizers of this topic in Russia and abroad is the Moscow Design Museum, headed by Alexandra Sankova. On November 22, the exhibition "Design System in the USSR" opened at the Fashion and Design Center. The exposition tells visitors about the activities of various design bureaus and design services in the 1960s-1980s. The exposition included rare photos from the archive of the MIA “Russia Today”, which acted as the general information partner of the event.
This is the first exhibition that shows how the design system functioned in the USSR in the 1960s-1980s, tells about the activities of the most important institutes, design bureaus and design services at plants and factories that worked in the field of artistic design and technical aesthetics, their interaction and role in the development of industrial production.
The exhibition presents more than 500 exhibits: furniture, dishes, clothes, books, drawings, posters, postcards, albums, labels created by well-known enterprises - Zenit, ZIL, VAZ, LOMO and many others, as well as archival materials (photo, video chronicle, manuscripts, autographs).
Exhibition “Design System in the USSR” © MIA “Russia Today”
- Cai Guoqiang. October
The Pushkin Museum this year was very generous with large-scale projects. The exhibition of the Chinese artist Cai Guoqiang is no exception. Inspired by the 100th anniversary of the Great Revolution, Cai Guoqiang created a series of works especially for the Pushkin Museum. In them, the artist reflected on the role of the personality of an individual in world history, as well as on the relationship between personal dreams and collective ideals. This project turned out to be really very grandiose, and not only because the artist presented his “gunpowder” art for the first time in Russia. The reason is different - the academic museum allowed the artist to spread his art throughout the exhibition space, but also, in the literal sense, outside of it. The installation "Autumn" is the first thing that the visitor of the exhibition saw. It was located at the entrance to the museum. This is a metaphorical mountain, the basis of which is cribs and strollers, from which dozens of young birch trees sprout. The museum grew trees in a nursery especially for the exhibition, and residents of Moscow donated beds and strollers to the museum. “These prams symbolize dreams, childhood, socialist utopia in the hearts of people,” said the artist. It was a kind of experiment and very bold, which went to the leadership of the museum.
Above the main staircase of the museum, Cai Guoqiang stretched a silk canvas on which a quote from The Internationale was drawn with gunpowder: "No one will give us deliverance: neither God, nor the king, nor a hero." Then the artist presented the installation "Earth", which was created from dry plants. Soviet symbols were hidden among the ears, but they were reflected in the mirror surface above them. This installation symbolized the Russian field, the artist wanted to recreate the feeling of mystery that he had in his childhood when watching Soviet films.
On the sides of the installation were two canvases made by the artist in his famous "gunpowder style" - "River" and "Garden". The black and white "River" symbolizes the flow of lost memories. Red poppies and carnations on the colored canvas "Garden" are located next to Soviet propaganda posters - this is the embodiment of the ideals of the past.
The culmination of the exhibition is the video project “October. Daytime fireworks on Red Square”: in the sky above the main square of the country, fires explode one after another to the music of Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The performance ended with 100 seconds of volleys, which left behind a huge white cloud, slowly carried away by the wind.
Exhibition “Cai Guoqiang. October” at the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin © Vedomosti
Text: Anastasia Boye
Reliquary crown. Valley of the Meuse (Liège?). 1260-1280. Paris, Louvre RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre)/Martine Beck-Coppola
For more than ten years, the main driver of the exhibition success of the Kremlin Museums has been the cycle “Imperial and Royal Treasuries of the World in the Kremlin”. It seems that during this time the cycle was honestly exhausted. Or nearly exhausted. In the Kremlin's plans for the next 12 months, for example, there is already a second appeal to Japanese subjects. And there is a rather exotic twist on the topic - the treasures of the Portuguese crown, which makes sense from a historical point of view, since the Portuguese colonial empire was once the richest territorial conglomerate in the world. But still, this is a somewhat local item next to the treasures of the Tudors, Habsburgs or hoarding Saxon Wettins - and they have already played their glorious roles in the cycle.
"Double engagement". Stained glass from the Sainte-Chapelle. 1230-1248. France, Center of National Monuments Patrick Cadet/Centre des monuments nationaux
Moreover, the treasures of the French kings were already on tour in the Kremlin as part of the exhibition series: precious medieval, Renaissance and Baroque vessels from the personal collection of Louis XIV were brought from the Louvre in 2004. And yet, it is the current exhibition about Saint Louis at the end of the “treasure series” (even though it does not seem to be formally related to it) fits perfectly into its context. You just need to remember that this is happening in the Kremlin, which, with all its diamond, gold, icon, fresco and white stone funds, is also a repository symbolic images authorities. And about power, especially medieval power with its sacred and mystical overtones, the humanities of the last 50 years love to talk methodologically based on the famous works on the ritual aura around the French crown: Mark Blok's Miracle-Working Kings, Ernst Kantorovich's Two Bodies of the King and so on.
Reliquary of the Crown of Thorns. 1806. Gilded silver, crystal. Cathedral Notre Dame of ParisСathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris/Pascal Lemaître
Louis IX, who ruled France in 1226-1270 (that is, during the time of our Alexander Nevsky and his son Daniil Alexandrovich, the first appanage prince of Moscow), was an exemplary embodiment of this extremely exalted idea of kingship. A devout Christian who wore a sackcloth under purple. A wise and powerful ruler who made France the pan-European center of both political authority and cultural superiority. A strict guardian of justice, who personally judged the litigation of his subjects of all ranks; some of his actions in this capacity (the extermination of blasphemers, usurers, players, prostitutes) out of the context of time may not look like the height of justice, but the very principles of the supremacy of the national judiciary, the presumption of innocence, reliance on the system of Roman law and the ban on barbaric remnants like ordeals and court fights are actually quite good in any context. A knight without fear and reproach, and therefore a crusader: Louis personally participated in the Seventh and Eighth Crusades. Which for him, with all his zeal and heroism, turned into continuous disasters: defeats, captivity, forced concessions to the Saracens, camp diseases (especially dysentery, which killed the king - of course, not romantic, but what to do!). But they also gave extra shine to his crown.
"Madonna and Child". France, late 13th - early 14th century. Ivory, wood, traces of green and red paint and gilding. Height 34 cm. State Hermitage Museum. Photo: A.M. Koksharov
Not all great rulers manage to create an ideal and eloquent architectural manifesto, but Saint Louis succeeded. His Sainte-Chapelle, Holy Chapel, is not just a textbook example of High Gothic. First, it is a sign of royal greatness. In Sainte-Chapelle, in fact, two temples, located one above the other. The squat lower one was for royal servants, the upper one, dazzlingly beautiful, flooded with multi-colored light, refracted in stained-glass windows, of which there are so many that the material tectonics of the walls disappear, was intended for the monarch.
Fold of a diptych depicting the Passion of Christ. Northern France, mid-13th century Ivory, traces of coloring. State Hermitage. Photo: A.M. Koksharov
Casanova, I remember, proudly wrote about the Venetian Basilica of St. Mark, that not a single sovereign in the world can boast of such a palace chapel. There really was no one to boast of such as San Marco, except for the doges, but the Sainte-Chapelle of Louis IX was still out of competition, and not only due to unthinkable architectural perfection. It was a sacred space of a special status, a unique grandiose reliquary for storing the most important shrines of the Christian world.
In this collection, which sanctified and exalted the power of Louis, there were not only regular particles of the Cross of the Lord and the Bethlehem manger. According to medieval sources, there was, for example, an Image Not Made by Hands (the very same “mandylion”, Holy Ubrus - a towel with a miraculously imprinted face of Christ). There was the Spear of Longinus - a relic of the Calvary drama, which caused a special thrill in the medieval mind. And there was the alleged Crown of Thorns of the Savior, this is already known for sure.
"Louis IX administers justice." Miniature from the handwritten book of Guillaume de Saint-Patu "The Life and Miracles of Saint Louis". 1330-1340, France. National Library of France (BNF)
Louis did not find these treasures miraculously in an abandoned temple, did not receive them as a gift from a magnanimous foreign ruler, did not conquer them in battle. Everything is much more pragmatic. The unlucky Latin emperor Baldwin II of Flanders, who ruled in Constantinople, captured by the Crusaders, was forced, in order to somehow make ends meet, to lay to the Venetians the shrines belonging to his sovereign Byzantine predecessors, including the Crown of Thorns. Saint Louis bought them for 135,000 livres. For comparison: it took 40 thousand to build the Sainte-Chapelle in a record short period of seven years for those times. And another 100 thousand cost the king to create a huge, three-meter high, precious ark where the relics were placed. This ark has not been preserved; it was melted down during the French Revolution. But many items have been preserved related to the biography of Louis IX himself and his posthumous veneration (including documents of the canonization process), with the liturgical practice of Sainte-Chapelle, his favorite temple brainchild, and in general things that reflected that era in all its Gothic splendor and with all the strange interweaving: the dazzling ideal of power and everyday feudal atrocities, scholastic learning and neoplatonic mysticism, asceticism and courtly court culture.
"Saint Louis". Wooden sculpture. Paris, National Museum of the Middle Ages (Cluny Museum) RMN-Grand Palais (musée de Cluny - musée national du Moyen-Âge)/Franck Raux
These things are shown by the Kremlin Museums at their exhibition. Most of the 75 exhibits were brought from France: from the Louvre, the National Museum of the Middle Ages (Cluny), the National Library. A number of particularly fragile works of the 13th century (carved bone, Limoges enamels) that could not endure long-distance voyages were released to Moscow by the State Hermitage Museum. But the most sensational exhibits were provided by the French side. In the artistic sense, the main decoration of the exhibition is fragments of the original stained-glass windows of Sainte-Chapelle. In the sacred sense, it is a reliquary for storing the Crown of Thorns, though not medieval, but post-revolutionary, of Napoleonic times, modest, but a reminder of the pious ambitions of St. Louis, who in his collection of shrines considered himself the successor of the emperors of Byzantium. As well as the sovereigns of Moscow who lived in the Kremlin.
Especially for The Art Newspaper Russia, the head of the culture department of Kommersant
Museums of the Moscow Kremlin
Saint Louis and relics of the Sainte-Chapelle
March 3 - June 4
From the Palace of Justice in Paris through the arched passage you can get to the Holy Chapel, Sainte Chapelle, - pearl gothic architecture. It was built by King Louis IX of France (Saint) in 1242-1248. as a monumental reliquary for the greatest shrines of the Christian world, and above all the Crown of Thorns of the Savior.
Consisting of two churches located one above the other, the chapel crowned with lancet turrets resembles a precious box. Filled with streams of colored light, the upper temple is an ensemble of stained-glass windows 15 meters high.
opening in One-pillar chamber of the Patriarchal Palace the exhibition within the cross year of cultural tourism of Russia and France will focus on three major topics: the personality of Saint Louis, the relics of the Passion of Christ and Sainte-Chapelle, created by the king of France as a worthy place to store the shrines he acquired.
« The idea of a joint project largely came from our French colleagues from the Center of National Monuments, - clarifies the curator of the exhibition, Doctor of Historical Sciences Olga Dmitrieva. - They were inspired by their own experience. In 2014, France celebrated the 800th anniversary of the birth of Louis with a large-scale exhibition at the ConciergerieIX. The emphasis then was on the figure of one of the most famous and beloved kings of France, whom our public knows much less. Therefore, in Moscow, it was decided not to literally repeat the concept of the Paris project.».
Exhibition curator Olga Dmitrieva
Photo: Valentin Overchenko/Moscow Kremlin Museums
An exciting story awaits the viewer, concerning the curious pages of world history, one of which is dedicated to the fate of relics.
Crown of Thorns Savior Saint Louis acquired in 1239, along with other relics of the Passion of Christ, which turned the French monarch from the Capetian dynasty into "the most Christian king."
« During the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204), the crusader army captured Constantinople, the capital of the Christian state, having at their disposal not only the city, but also the Grand Palace, the main residence of the Byzantine emperors, where relics were kept in the chapel for many centuries: the Crown of Thorns, a fragment of the True Cross, the stone of the Holy Sepulcher, the spear of the centurion Longinus, the sponge on which Jesus was served vinegar with gall. The crusaders were fully aware of the value of the acquired shrines says the curator. - However, the new authorities of the Latin Empire, being in a deplorable state, deprived of resources, begin to sell and pawn relics, which in itself is shocking. Latin emperor Baldwin II goes to France for negotiations. Moreover, by that time the Crown had already been laid to the Venetians. Louis, a man of sincere faith, decides to save the shrines».
Of course, in France, this event caused a huge resonance. When the Crown, acquired for a lot of money, arrived from Venice, the king and his brother went out barefoot to meet him and carried the reliquary on their shoulders. The chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, built soon, becomes the center of the formation of a new national identity, while the king of France is perceived as the direct heir of the Byzantine emperors. On the lancet stained-glass windows of the chapel, a biblical line is consistently unfolded, while one theme is singled out - the genesis of power. The composition, starting with the history of biblical kings, ends with a window dedicated to Louis himself.
Twelve stained-glass windows from Sainte-Chapelle, dismantled in the 19th century and now stored in the Center for National Monuments, will leave France for the first time to take center stage in an exhibition at the Moscow Kremlin Museums.
"Double Engagement"
Stained glass from the Sainte-Chapelle
1230-1248
© Patrick Cadet / Center des monuments nationaux
« Stained glass is a fragile material. The first attempts to restore or replace them were made already in the 14th century, when the glass production technique was the same as inXIIIcentury, - Olga Dmitrieva continues the story. - Even the Great French revolution didn't do much damage to the glass. The excited masses of the people more encroached on the sculptures and knocked down the royal lilies from the walls. Subsequently, after the restoration of the monarchy, an archive was arranged in Sainte-Chapelle, and light openings were bricked up to install cabinets. The dismantled glasses that ended up on the antique market ended up in museum collections over time.».
Among the seventy-five exhibits of the future exhibition - a lot of interesting artifacts that will arrive from the Louvre, the Museum of the Middle Ages (Cluny), the National Archives of France, the National Library. But not all things are transportable. The State Hermitage has shared fragile masterpieces. It's about about Limoges enamels of the 13th century, altars and folds of ivory.
Casket with the image of Christ in glory, crucifixion and saints
France, Limoges
first decade of the thirteenth century.
State Hermitage
Photo: S.V. Suetova, K.V. Sinyavsky
"Madonna and Child", late XIII - early XIV century. State Hermitage. Photo: A. M. Koksharov
The head of a staff depicting the scene of the Annunciation, second quarter of the 13th century. State Hermitage. Photo: S. V. Suetova, K. V. Sinyavsky
Door of a diptych depicting the Passion of Christ
middle of the thirteenth century
State Hermitage
Photo: A.M. Koksharov
The reign of Saint Louis was the heyday of the book business. The curator of the exhibition pays special attention to manuscripts and illuminated manuscripts. Quite curious are the documents related to the veneration of Louis himself and the process of his canonization, including manuscripts describing the inquiry into his holiness conducted by the Roman Curia.
« The exhibition will also include portraits of Louis himself. Very rare polychrome wooden sculpture from the town of Poissy, where he comes from and where the necropolis of his six children, including his beloved daughter Isabella, is located", - continues Olga Dmitrieva.
"The Miracle of Saint Louis". Miniature from the handwritten book of Guillaume de Saint Pathu "The Life and Miracles of Saint Louis", 1330-1340,
"Louis IX administers justice." Miniature from the handwritten book of Guillaume de Saint Pathu "The Life and Miracles of Saint Louis", 1330-1340, National Library of France (BNF)
"Louis IX and Marguerite of Provence enter the ship." Miniature from the handwritten "Book of the Acts of His Majesty St. Louis", 1401-1500, National Library of France (BNF)
Bottom cover of Sainte-Chapelle Gospels, 1260-1270?, National Library of France (BNF)
From Venetian art to the artists of the thaw period, from Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin to Salvador Dali - 14 important exhibitions of the year to add to your calendar.
"Caprichos". Goya and Dali
Francisco Goya.«
caprichos»
. Series of 80 etchings. The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, 1799
State Museum fine arts continues to combine contemporary art with classical art: this time, not only the Japanese artist Yasumasa Morimura appeared in this perspective, but also the Spaniards Francisco Goya and Salvador Dali. A small exhibition in the main building presents etchings from the Caprichos series by both authors. However, if Goya's series is a satirical reflection on the crisis of contemporary Spain, then Dali cruelly sneers at Goya's existing plots, adding new characters to the compositions and changing the names of the etchings. The era of romanticism and postmodernism of the twentieth century collide in a dialogue, visual and literary.
Triennial of Contemporary Art
When: March 2017
On the anniversary of the October Revolution, the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art is launching a revolutionary program introducing Muscovites to contemporary artists from all over Russia, from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok. The first triennial will feature more than 60 artists selected by curators across the country. They also identified seven trends that have become common to all regions, as well as the main masters, whose influence goes far beyond hometown or region. The theme of the exhibition will be the spirit of the times and social trends that determine regional artistic processes. “Our idea is to show the current cross-section of Russian contemporary art and start interacting with the regions,” Garage director Anton Belov commented on the triennial.
"Thaw»
Vladimir Gavrilov. "Cafe. Autumn day", 1962
The arrival of spring is met in Moscow with the onset of the "Thaw" - at the exhibition in the Tretyakov Gallery they will show artists traditional for the turn of the 50s and 60s - Pimenov, Gavrilov, Salakhov, Popkov. The exposition presents several thematic sections - from "The best city on earth" to "Atom - space" - and tells not only about the achievements of the Khrushchev era, but also about the conflicts of this historical period. “This was the most important era not just of art, but of human worldview and its embodiment in all possible artistic forms,” Zelfira Tregulova, director of the Tretyakov Gallery, talks about the thaw era.
“Facing the future. Art of Europe 1945–1968»
Where: Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin; st. Volkhonka, 12
Yves Klein."Blue Globe (RP 7)”, 1988. Copy from the original in 1957, made after the death of the artist
The thaw will come not only to the Tretyakov Gallery, but also to the whole of Moscow - the Pushkin Museum, Gorky Park and the Museum of Moscow, where, in addition to exhibitions, lectures, master classes and discussions will be held. And if the Tretyakov Gallery show Russian art Khrushchev era, then in Pushkin - European post-war artists who fought for peace after the overthrow of totalitarian dictatorships and invented new utopias. Two hundred masters from Western and Eastern Europe are presented at the exhibition in a variety of art forms, from paintings and photographs to media art and actionism.
Ugo Rondinone "Your age and my age and the age of the rainbow"
Where: Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, st. Krymsky Val, 9, building 32
One of the most hype contemporary artists of recent years, successfully conquering fairs and biennials, the Swiss Ugo Rondinone will present a special exhibition at the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art as part of Garage Square Commissions. Hugo specially recorded a video message to the children, in which he asked them to draw a rainbow - a symbol of love, fearlessness and the joy of life. Children from 4 to 10 years old, participants of Garage educational programs and children from orphanages, will become full-fledged co-authors of Rondinone - their works will be shown on the wall along the museum.
Saint Louis and the relics of the Sainte-Chapelle»
Where: Moscow Kremlin Museums, One-Pillar Chamber of the Patriarchal Palace
"The Baptism of Christ". stained glass from Sainte Chapelle, Paris, circa 1270-1280
Fans of medieval art can rejoice: in the spring, the Kremlin will show monuments from the era of the French king Louis Saint - stained glass windows and relics of the Sainte-Chapelle chapel, as well as works from the Louvre collection, the Cluny Museum of Medieval Art, the National Library and the National Archives. Many works are truly unique and leave France for the first time, among them are Limoges enamels and high Gothic jewelry, as well as the reliquary of the Crown of Thorns early XIX century, which will become one of the main exhibits. The exhibition is accompanied by a large-scale educational program, more details about which can be found on the website dedicated to the exhibition.
"De Chirico. Nostalgia for infinity»
Where: State Tretyakov Gallery, st. Krymsky Val, 10
Giorgio de Chirico. "Song of Love", 1914
The Tretyakov Gallery continues to acquaint the Moscow audience with the work of Italian masters. Not as large as at the Vatican, but no less spectacular, the Giorgio de Chirico exhibition, prepared together with the Giorgio and Isa de Chirico Foundation, will open here. Such a retrospective is taking place for the first time, before that the paintings of the Italian metaphysician were exhibited in 1929, and the etchings - in the 1930s.
Giorgio Morandi
Where: Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin, st. Volkhonka, 14
Giorgio Morandi. Still life, 1948
If the Tretyakov Gallery shows the surrealistic de Chirico, then the Pushkin Museum will present an anthology of the work of another master of the first half of the 20th century - Giorgio Morandi. More than 40 years after the Morandi exhibition in 1973, the museum will present a retrospective that includes all stages of the master's work from early metaphysics and avant-garde works to the classic Morandi still lifes, thanks to which he received recognition. In addition, the exhibition presents the artist's graphics, including etchings and engraving boards.
"Anselm Kiefer - Velimir Khlebnikov"
Where: State Hermitage
Anselm Kiefer. "Osiris and Isis", 1985
Anselm Kiefer's first solo exhibition will open at the Hermitage at the end of spring. However, it will not be just a retrospective, but a dedication German artist Russian poet Velimir Khlebnikov. Both are united by the theme of war: in Khlebnikov it is expressed in a cycle that occurs on water and land once every 317 years, while in Kiefer it is expressed in reflections on the theme of Nazism and the Holocaust. “I think in pictures. Poems help me with this. They are like beacons. I swim towards them, from one to the other. I was lost without them,” Kiefer says of poetry.
Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto. The Golden Age of Venetian Painting"
Where: Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin, st. Volkhonka, 12
When: June - end of August
Paolo Veronese. Apollo and Marsyas, second half of the 16th century
Although it is difficult to surprise a sophisticated viewer with Venetian art, it is impossible not to captivate them. Reaching its heyday in the 16th century in the works of Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto, Venetian school considered one of the pinnacles of development Italian painting throughout the history of art. It is these artists who will be presented at the exhibition, where you can see about 40 paintings.
« Someone 1917»
Where: State Tretyakov Gallery, st. Krymsky Val, 10
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin. "In Petrograd", 1918
Although the centenary of the revolution will not be the main leitmotif of this year's exhibitions, the curators of the State Tretyakov Gallery will still pay considerable attention to it. The exhibition is dedicated primarily to artists who experienced the revolution, and presents two sections - figurative peacemakers and utopian non-objectives. Nesterov, Kandinsky, Serebryakova, Petrov-Vodkin, Klyun, Malevich - all of them can be seen at the exhibition "Someone 1917".
Takashi Murakami
Where: Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
Takashi Murakami,Kaikai. 2000-2005
A lover of bright colors and recognizable labels, Takashi Murakami, will be exhibited in Moscow for the first time - Garage is preparing a large exposition, which will also include graphics and animation and works by Japanese masters from the collections of the Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin and the State Museum of Oriental Art. Five sections of the exhibition will be devoted to the master's work since the 90s and will touch upon various phenomena of Japanese culture, embodied in the work of Murakami. The artist is called the Japanese Andy Warhol, he can also be compared with Yayoi Kusama - both artists have their own, very specific style and collaborate with fashion brands.
Drawings by Klimt and Schiele from the collection of the Albertina Museum, Vienna
Where: Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin, st. Volkhonka, 12
Egon Schiele. Youth in purple cassock with folded hands, 1914
Although Italian exhibitions make up the majority of this year's program, in fact it is under the banner of cultural cooperation between Austria and Russia. At the end of the year in Pushkin Museum an exhibition of two of the most famous artists turn of the XIX-XX centuries - Klimt and his follower, no less famous Schiele. The main emphasis is on graphics - both masters are not only good painters, but also excellent draftsmen, and the collection of the Vienna Albertina is one of the best graphic collections in the world.
"Salvador Dali. Surrealist and classic"
Where: Faberge Museum in St. Petersburg, Embankment of the Fontanka River, 21
Salvador Dali. "Atomic Leda", 1949.
The first large-scale exhibition “Salvador Dali. Surrealist and Classic” will open at the Faberge Museum on April 1 and run until July 2. The exposition will present works from the Spanish fund "Gala - Salvador Dali", private and museum collections. In total, the exhibition will feature more than 150 graphic and pictorial works of the artist. Tickets for Salvador Dali. Surrealist and Classic” are already on sale.
