"With eyes wide open" is the anticipation, or rather the preview of a new large museum in Moscow, that of Russian Impressionism which will open its doors in the Russian capital next autumn. To announce and raise awareness of what is destined to be one of the "must-see museums" for every tourist who will travel to Moscow, the management of the future institution has decided to anticipate the opening to the public with two important previews: the first was held in Russia, in the Ivanovo Museum, at the beginning of last autumn and now it's the turn of Venice, the only stop abroad. Here, from 13 February to 12 April, in Palazzo Franchetti, the Italian and international public will be able to admire 50 masterpieces of the future Moscow museum, the best of the best of its impressive art collection. An extremely refined "business card", to announce a collection of sure international interest.
The Venetian exhibition is curated by Yulia Petrova, director of the Museum of Russian Impressionism, and by Silvia Burini and Giuseppe Barbieri, heads of the Center for Studies on the Arts of Russia (CSAR) of the Ca' Foscari University and of a series of prestigious and appreciated exhibition activities that since 2010 have spread some essential aspects of Russian art of the last two centuries in Italy. It is an interesting indication of the original cultural policy and of the special mission of the Moscow institution: to promote, through temporary exhibitions, in Russia and abroad, knowledge of a relevant trend in Russian art, in particular that which characterizes the period between the end of the XNUMXth and the beginning of the XNUMXth century, a phase that is still little known, apart from some big names, of the artistic development and the international role of modern Russian art.
The 50 works are exhibited in an itinerary that brings together thematically contiguous subjects (the landscape, the urban scene, the figure in an interior), with due but not always binding attention to chronology. The moment of greatest flowering of Impressionism in Russia is a few decades following the turning point in French art that occurred between the seventh and eighth decades of the nineteenth century, and especially includes the last decade of the century and the beginning of the next. But this does not mean that it can be considered the provincial variant of the French one or even the sporadic choice of manner of some painter. In fact, Impressionism had already become the timely point of reference for the work of landscape painters such as Fedor Vasil'ev, it had influenced the research of Polenov and Repin, after their stay in France and, thanks to these masters, it had soon become object of study for the students of the Moscow School of Painting, Architecture and Sculpture, some of whom destined – such as Konstantin Juon, Petr Petrovicev and Stanislav Žukovsky, all present in the exhibition – to a role of primary importance before, during and after the advent of the avant-garde.
The tradition of painting in the impressionist manner then continues for a good part of the twentieth century, and is documented in the exhibition with works by Koncalovsky, Grabar', Kustodiev, Baranov-Rossiné, with other unsuspected painters, such as Sergej Gerasimov or Georgij Savickij, and even with artists closely related to socialist realism, such as Aleksandr Gerasimov and Dmitrij Nalbandjan. On the other hand, the guiding image of the exhibition – Pimenov's Posters in the Rain (1973) – clearly demonstrates how the impressionistic matrix also characterizes the period of the post-Stalin thaw with some relief.
In short, the Venetian exhibition aligns the first explicit remeditations and reworkings of the French artistic revolution, highlights the tenacious persistence, for a good part of the twentieth century, of this approach to the representation of individual life and its scenarios and underlines the enduring relevance of this matrix. For this reason, the chronological arc of the works on display ranges from some rare early paintings by Konstantin Korovin, the most famous exponent of Russian Impressionism, and by Valentin Serov up to very recent years, with painters such as Vladimir Rogozin and Valerij Košljakov, who they can certainly consider "impressionists" in the strict sense but for whom the research of their predecessors at the end of the XNUMXth century was fundamental and who today collect their legacy, ideally and effectively, in a contemporary key.
The Museum of Russian Impressionism in Moscow was born from the private collection of Boris Mints, started over ten years ago, also through the purchase on the western market of a series of paintings which have thus returned to Russia and which will soon be available to visitors of the Museum.
However, the Museum of Impressionism does not exhibit only a private collection. There is a firm will to create, through the use of new technologies (some of which will be tested for the first time in the Venice exhibition), a space that involves visitors from various backgrounds and at different levels. In short, the museum is conceived as a dynamic, interactive space, where the permanent exhibition will be accompanied by educational and research structures and activities on the collections of the museum itself. A cinema room and a space for temporary exhibitions are planned.
As we have mentioned, that of "Russian impressionism" is a definition that has very broad boundaries. The Museum therefore collects works by the classic masters of the period more properly referable to this historical trend, as well as by painters who have found in the impressionist matrix, even for only a part of their career, an irreplaceable reference for their research and their evolution.
Art historians are accustomed to date the appearance of new art in Russia to 1863 (the year of Manet's Le déjeuner sur l'herbe and l'Olympia). In that year a group of young painters rebelled against the hitherto unquestioned authority of the Petersburg Academy of Arts. The main consequence of this gesture was the birth of a second pole of artistic influence, Moscow, where, in 1870, with the help of a passionate art dealer, Pavel Tret'jakov, the Society of Itinerant Painters (Peredvizhniki ). The aim was to spread artistic knowledge outside the big cities, with traveling exhibitions. The Society remained active until 1923, organized more than 50 exhibitions and played a major role in the opening up of a new phase of Russian art.
The aesthetics of the Peddlers marked the following generation, but it also brought about a complete reorientation of Russian art which up until then had followed the great European schools without showing any real originality. The Ambulanti aimed decisively at realism and commitment in social life. Their major cultural point of reference was Lev Tolstoy, whose opinions they shared long before he clearly set them out in Cto takoe iskusstvo (What is art, 1898).
Beginning in 1874, Savva and Elizaveta Mamontov began to assemble a more or less permanent group of Russian artists on their Abramtsevo estate. The founders of this "group" were Repin, Polenov, and Valentina Serova, together with their son Valentin, and later they were joined by the brothers Viktor and Apollinarij Vasnetsov, Korovin and Vrubel'. We discussed, worked and talked about medieval Russian and folk art. Painting and sculpture were practiced but also applied arts (the Abramcevo church is the collective work of Vasnecov, Polenov and Repin), there was even a private opera house where many shows were staged, such as Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden .
The Corista (1883) by Konstantin Korovin (1861-1939) is probably the first Russian impressionist work: it was ahead of its time and was not understood by its contemporaries. And yet you can perceive the two typical elements of his impressionistic approach: the decoratorism and the tendency to study-sketch, evident in his Parisian landscapes executed starting from 1900. They are evening scenes, the city is flooded with light, Korovin breathes life into the episodes that take place on the street, thanks to large, impulsive, almost rough brushstrokes. In his landscapes there is a theatrical atmosphere, and this should not be surprising, given that the artist was also a good theater set designer, particularly famous for his creations for operas.
Korovin's work occupies a central place in the Moscow tradition and constitutes an effective example of the desire of local painters to achieve spontaneity in their depiction of life and beauty. By the end of the XNUMXth century many artists had developed a more or less common style in Moscow and this evolution inevitably led to the formation of a group, the "Union of Russian Painters" which for a short time joined the St. Petersburg "Mir iskusstva" (The art world), even though there were irreconcilable differences between the two groups. Muscovites, albeit to varying degrees, were dominated by Impressionism, by the need for the representation of individual and social life, while the members of "Mir iskusstva" already tended towards the modern (the Russian variant of Jugendstil, liberty or art noveau, in a sort of “stylistic plurilingualism”). In Russia it is very complex to distinguish between these orientations, firstly because the two terms are closely connected to each other and also because there is a lack of that strong romantic tradition to which contemporary European artists were instead able to refer.
Venue of the exhibition: Palazzo Franchetti
Campo Santo Stefano, San Marco 2847, Venice
Dates: from 13 February to 12 April 2015
