An exhibition of art from the era of the revolution has opened in the Tretyakov Gallery. A revolutionary situation has developed in Russian museums Monument at the Novodevichy cemetery
Mukhina V.I. Wind. 1926-1927.
Bronze. 88 x 54 x 30. Tretyakov Gallery
For the centenary of the revolution in Russia, the Tretyakov Gallery opens an exhibition of works by sculptors who witnessed those historical events. On display are portraits of revolutionaries, workers and Red Army soldiers, projects of monuments created according to the plan of monumental propaganda in 1918, as well as works that reflect the spirit of the revolutionary era. The sculptural busts of N.I. Altman, who have not been shown since 1990, as well as “Homeless Children” by I.N. Zhukov and the project of the monument to Karl Marx A.M. Gyurjan, never exhibited after entering the Gallery's collection in 1929.
Sculpture was the kind of art that the asserted revolutionary government valued for its enormous propaganda potential. Masters of different generations saw in the revolution a harbinger of a new bright future. They captured the leaders and revolutionaries of their time, as well as typical faces of the Red Army, peasants, workers, that is, those who sincerely believed in the revolution. In works created after 1917, the revolutionary era appears stormy, dramatic and multifaceted.
Mukhina V.I. The project of the monument to V.M. Zagorsky. 1921.
Bronze. 77 x 31 x 46.Base: 5 x 31 x 31. Tretyakov Gallery
Portrait of V.I. Lenin (1920, bronze) is valuable for the fact that it was made by N.I. Altman from nature in the Kremlin office and reflects the artist's impressions of direct communication with a statesman. In the 1920s, this bust was very famous, but later it was supplanted by N.A. Andreeva. The bust of Lenin is surrounded by sculptural images of comrades-in-arms: “Portrait of A.V. Lunacharsky "N.I. Altman (1920, bronze) and "Portrait of F.E. Dzerzhinsky "S.D. Lebedeva (1925, bronze).
"Krasnoflotets" A.E. Zelensky (1932-1933, marble), "Portrait of a Red Army soldier" by V.V. Adamchevskaya (1930s, bronze), "Worker with a hammer" by I.D. Shadra (1936, bronze) - these are heroized collective images of contemporaries, carrying the tension of feelings, the pathos of experiencing revolutionary events of an unprecedented scale.
Frikh-Har I.G. Chapaevsky accordion player Vasya. 1929.
Cement. 71 x 66 x 54. Tretyakov Gallery
The central work of the exhibition is "Wind" by V.I. Mukhina (1927, bronze). The element and the fight against it are filled with a metaphorical, philosophical meaning. When you move around the sculpture, you can see how the posture of the female figure is transformed, the position of the arms and legs changes, then it is lost, then it is regained balance. This work is also interesting from the point of view of establishing a new ideal of the beauty of the female body in society, when a strongly built, corpulent, physically strong worker became a reference point.
For S.T. Konenkov, the theme of the destructive power of the Russian revolt is associated with the revolution. The image of Stepan Razin (1918-1919, tinted tree) he has in common with folk sculpture and absorbs the folklore perception of the hero associated with the plot of folk songs. "The Head of Stenka Razin" is a variation on the theme of the sculptural group "Stepan Razin with a gang", made by Konenkov in accordance with the plan of monumental propaganda and installed on Red Square near the place where Razin was executed.
Konenkov S.T. Head of Stepan Razin. 1918-1919.
Tree. 54 x 30 x 35. Tretyakov Gallery
Statue of I.D. Shadra "Into the Storm" (1931, bronze) is seen as a symbol of the opposition of the will and consciousness of man to natural and social forces. The incredibly complex pose of the female figure, violating the concept of static and stability, the broken lines of her silhouette give rise to the drama and emotional intensity of the image.
The exhibition displays works that convey the atmosphere of those years and specific episodes of history. Sculpture by I.N. Zhukov's "Homeless Children" (1929, tinted plaster) is evidence of the devastation and chaos that reigned during the Civil War that followed the First World War and the Revolution. In these turbulent times, a huge number of children found themselves on the street.
An important part of the exposition is made up of projects of unrealized monuments within the framework of the monumental propaganda plan. They represent the circle of individuals and the ideas they profess, in which the revolutionaries saw the foundation of a new culture. In Moscow, it was planned to erect monuments to the freedom fighters - the biblical Samson and the gladiator Spartak.
Altman N.I. Portrait of V.I. Lenin. 1920.
Bronze. 51 x 41 x 33. Tretyakov Gallery
Contemporaries were not forgotten - among them the revolutionary V.V. Vorovsky, as well as V.M. Zagorsky, the project of the monument to which was created by V.I. Mukhina in 1921. Metaphorical images embodying the spirit of revolution for sculptors became different figures: N.A. Andreeva - blacksmith; B.D. The queen is the slaves breaking the chains. The sketches of two figures of a peasant and a Red Army soldier for the sculptural composition of A.T. Matveeva "October" (1927), which have not been shown to the viewer for the last thirty years.
Zhukov I.N. Street children. 1929.
Tinted plaster. 53 x 65. Tretyakov Gallery
The Wind of Revolution exhibition shows the realities of life in those years and conveys not only anxiety in the face of uncertainty, but also the inspiration fueled by hopes for a happy future. The revolutionary era appears before the viewer in a romantically upbeat vein.
The address: Krymsky Val, 10. Hall 21-22.
Directions to the station. Metro Park Kultury or Oktyabrskaya.
Working hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Sunday - from 10.00 to 18.00
Thursday, Friday, Saturday - from 10.00 to 21.00
(ticket offices stop working an hour before the museum closes)
day off - Monday.
Ticket price: Adult - RUB 500 Preferential - 200 rubles.
Free - for persons under 18. More details.
Every Wednesday entrance to the permanent exhibition and temporary exhibitions held in the building on Krymsky Val, for individual visitors free.
The exhibition "Someone 1917" opens with two paintings. On the right - "In Russia (Soul of the People)" by Mikhail Nesterov: beautiful, best, Russian people with icons and gonfalons follow the boy with a pure soul to God. On the contrary - "Vague" by Wassily Kandinsky, an abstract composition with an incomprehensible variegated heart and an extremely depressing gray background. Further, the exposure will be divided into opposite parts. In painting itself: traditional figurative art and non-objective avant-garde, and between them modernist paintings, moderately conventional. And in terms of plots - reflecting reality and independent of it. Most of the works do not reflect life, not that the artists were out of this world, no, some were in parties, almost everyone understood that the country would not come out of war and unrest without losses. But no one spoke about this directly in art.
Documentation
The exhibition has a separate section with a documentary chronicle of the events of 1917. A book-catalog has been published for it with articles on artistic life and the market in the revolutionary years, on the development of the avant-garde and on Jewish artists. There are also fragments from the diaries of artists who witnessed the events.
In the year of the centenary of Russian revolutions, the Tretyakov Gallery decided to show the best, important and significant works created by Russian artists in the catastrophic year of the death of the empire and two revolutions. Oddly enough, there is no premonition of an epochal turning point and the horrors of a fratricidal war in more than a hundred paintings of the exhibition.
Of course, from the faces of the peasants from Boris Grigoriev's cycle "Race" it is clear that the Russian people are not God-bearers, but this artist generally preferred not to idealize those portrayed, either because of misanthropy, or simply his writing style was harsh. Its complete opposite is Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin with his most delicate picturesque idylls, where the peasant women are graceful and iconolics and the people work in a sweet "Midday. Summer ”in complete harmony with each other and the universe.
Photo gallery
The only artist shown in "Someone 1917" who looked directly and soberly into the face of the coming boor was Ilya Repin. In his Bolsheviks, a pig-faced soldier takes bread from poor children. Nearby, in the ideological center of the exhibition, in the place where the image of Lenin would have adorned in Soviet times, there are two portraits of Alexander Kerensky. Repin wrote the chairman of the Provisional Government with obvious warmth and respect, and Isaac Brodsky - skillfully and dryly, later he would put much more flattery and sentiment in the portraits of Soviet leaders. Lenin is not at the exhibition, Russian artists did not paint him in 1917. In the section "Faces of the era" completely different characters: Felix Yusupov in Yan Rudnitsky is handsome and sad, Maxim Gorky in Valentina Khodasevich is also dapper and sad, only they are written in fundamentally different ways ...
In general, the exhibition celebrating the centenary of revolutions at the Tretyakov Gallery turned out to be more about artistic time, not historical, not about revolution, but about art. About the wealth and variety of creative searches of excellent artists, who work traditionally, who are innovative, but interesting and powerful. This was the year of the creation of masterpieces: the idealistic Philosophers by Nesterov, the famous painting Above the City by Marc Chagall with lovers flying in the sky, the vivid non-objective Dynamic Suprematism by Kazimir Malevich and the absolutely innovative Green Stripe by Olga Rozanova.
Together with them, you can see dozens of very interestingly solved and artistic paintings of different directions: from the conventional, almost geometric, "Refugee" by Alexander Drevin to the dry and aesthetic "Portrait of a Dancer" by Yuri Annenkov, from the poster of the cafe "Pittoresk" in the capricious Art Nouveau style of Georgy Yakulov to the harsh "Herring" by David Shterenberg, from the salon and languid "Portrait of MG Lukyanov" by Konstantin Somov to the colorful and bright "Tverskoy Boulevard" by Aristarkh Lentulov, from the merchant beauty of Boris Kustodiev to the philosophies of Vasily Kandinsky.
Among the things that are very, very little known, there are those that were revealed in a new way precisely on "Someone 1917". Lentulov's daringly insane painting "Peace, Triumph, Liberation" - where a humanoid dances over a caricatured imperial eagle and naturalistic genitals are drawn on its stylized body - this exhibition does not seem clownish, but sinister.
Image copyright Getty Images
The October Revolution of 1917, breaking the old order, gave birth to a new culture. The artists of the young country of the Soviets created bold and innovative works - naturally, for the benefit of the state. However, the era of experimentation was short-lived, says a columnist who visited the exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
If this steel spiral structure had actually been built, it would have surpassed the Eiffel Tower by 91 meters - the tallest man-made structure in the world at that time.
And it would have retained the title of the tallest building in the world for more than 50 years - until 1973, when the first tenants moved into the offices of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.
- "Left! Left! Left!"
The Monument to the Third International, also known as the Tatlin Tower, was designed by Russian artist and architect Vladimir Tatlin in 1919, after the October Revolution of 1917. His project was distinguished by a radical novelty of approach.
The steel frame was supposed to contain three geometric shapes made of glass - a cube, a cylinder and a cone. It was assumed that they would rotate around their axis at a rate of one revolution per year, per month and per day, respectively.
In the inner part, it was planned to place a conference hall, a chamber of the legislative assembly and an information bureau of the Third Communist International (Comintern), an organization engaged in the dissemination of the ideas of world communism.
Image copyright Victor Velikzhanin / TASS Image caption Model of the unrealized project of the monument to the III International ("Tatlin's tower")The total height of the tower would be over 396 meters.
However, this expensive (Russia was a poverty-stricken country in which there was a civil war at that time) and impractical (is such a design possible in principle and where, after all, can we get so much steel?), Incredibly bold symbol of modernity was never built.
Today it is familiar to us only from photographs of the original layout that was destroyed long ago and reconstructions.
Tatlin was a radical avant-garde artist even before the Bolshevik coup; his pre-revolutionary wood and metal structures, which he called "counter-reliefs," were much more modest in size than his tower, but they turned the traditional concept of sculpture upside down.
The task of the Soviet artist was to create works for the people and a new society
Soon Tatlin became the main apologist of revolutionary art, whose task was to support the utopian ideal of the country of the Soviets.
The new direction in art, which resolutely rejected the entire past, was intended for citizens of the new world, who were looking exclusively into the future.
It became known as "constructivism" and took its place in the column of the avant-garde - next to the Suprematism of Kazimir Malevich (whose "Black Square", painted in 1915, represents a kind of boundary in painting) and his follower El Lissitzky.
Image copyright Alamy Image caption The symbolism of El Lissitzky's poster "Hit the Whites with a Red Wedge": The Red Army crushing the barriers of anti-communist and imperialist forcesThe magnificent geometric abstractions of Suprematism turned easel painting into the most radical example of the use of pure forms and colors, and it was Lissitzky who most energetically put Suprematism at the service of power.
The lithograph "Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge" created by him in 1919 is politicized to the limit.
The red wedge, cut into the white circle, symbolizes the Red Army crushing the anti-communist and imperialist forces of the White Army.
This early work skillfully plays on empty and occupied space. Later, this style will give rise to prouns - "projects for the assertion of the new", as Lissitzky himself called them: a series of abstract paintings, graphic works and sketches in which the techniques of Suprematism will be transferred from a two-dimensional to a three-dimensional visual dimension.
Interestingly, in the 1980s, it was this work that inspired Billy Bragg to name his group of musicians-activists of the Labor Party "Red Wedge".
Children of the revolution
Thinking about the art and design of the first ten Soviet years, we usually think of only such major innovators as the artist Lyubov Popova, who soon called for the abandonment of "bourgeois" easel painting and stated that the artist's task was to create works for the people and a new society.
Of course, we cannot pass by Alexander Rodchenko - perhaps the greatest photographer, graphic designer and printer of his era.
Image copyright Aleksandr Saverkin / TASS Image caption On the famous Rodchenko poster (1924), Lilya Brik calls for buying booksHowever, in those first post-revolutionary years in Russia, there were simultaneously many trends and styles in art.
Not all of them became famous, because Western art critics have long been interested only in the radical aesthetics of the Russian avant-garde.
At the same time, they readily close their eyes to its political overtones and do not pay attention to the content part, emphasizing only the purely formal aspects of art.
For the sake of justice, it must be admitted that the same fate was in store for religious and mystical works of art (let's cite as an example at least the esoteric motives that permeate the history of modernism). It is enough for us to perceive these works as paintings and forms: we ignore most of the symbols that no longer tell us anything.
After the October Revolution and the establishment of the new government, the head of the Soviet state, Vladimir Lenin, showed particular interest in the ideological possibilities of monumental art, which was expressed in the signing by him of the decree of the Council of People's Commissars "On the removal of monuments erected in honor of the tsars and their servants, and the development of projects of monuments to the Russian socialist revolution "of April 14, 1918, nicknamed" the plan of monumental propaganda "and gave rise to a new direction in the artistic life of Soviet Russia.
It was proposed to demolish the monuments to "kings and their servants", and instead to create monuments to famous writers, philosophers, revolutionaries; in the list developed by the People's Commissariat of Education, there were about 60 names. Civil war and devastation did not allow resorting to the widespread use of monumental propaganda.
The first monuments were created from unstable materials - gypsum, wood, cement. In this regard, in an interview with the People's Commissar of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky, Lenin noted that the statues should be "temporary, at least made of plaster or concrete," it is also "important that they be accessible to the masses so that they are conspicuous" let it "be an act of propaganda and a small holiday, and then, on the occasion of anniversaries, you can repeat the reminder of this great man, always, of course, clearly linking him with our revolution and its tasks." Therefore, in the period from 1918 to 1921, over 25 monuments were erected in Moscow and Petrograd - an extremely large number for that time.
47 sculptors joined the implementation of the decree's provisions in Moscow alone; Vera Mukhina was actively involved in the work. She was a prominent member of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia, and the 1920s-1930s became a real flowering of her creativity and fame. The designs of the monuments were discussed during numerous competitions, but their implementation was postponed for many decades. Mukhina’s four projects were not implemented in this way, one of many unfulfilled works, which she called “dreams on the shelf”. Among them was a sketch of a monument to Lenin's comrade-in-arms and one of the authors of the first Soviet constitution - revolutionary and statesman Yakov Sverdlov, secretary of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b), chairman of the All-Russian Executive Committee, who died during a flu pandemic in 1919.
Story
The first competition for a monument to Sverdlov took place in 1919, but did not give results, and in 1922 the second was announced, before which the sculptors were given photographs of Sverdlov, and also given the opportunity to inspect his death mask, which was removed by another famous sculptor - Sergei Merkurov ...
However, Mukhina decided to get away "from historical and photographic expressiveness" and portrait accuracy, resorting to allegory as a means, "sometimes much more powerful, allowing for a strong condensation and concentration of the topic."
unknown, Public DomainIt is noteworthy that the thin Sverdlov was a typical intellectual with glasses, and in his person, in Lenin's words, appeared before us "the most minted type of professional revolutionary." It should be noted that in Soviet times, requirements were imposed on monuments that did not correspond to the specifics of this popular type of monumental art.
Without going into the narrow framework of officialdom, Mukhina, as an artist of realism and a painter of the beauty of the human body, without much success advocated convention, the use of allegorical and mythological images as methods of creating the necessary degree of generalization. In search of an allegory, she turned to the antiquity of Ancient Greece and Rome.
unknown, Public Domain On the figurative sketches of Mukhina, distinguished by strokes of sharp angles and straight lines, a rebellious angel with mighty arms appears with a fierce gaze, an indomitable spirit Moses or the fighter of God Prometheus, with a simmering of passions, strong-willed aspiration and energy, moral strength gleaned from ancient legends.
The sculpture "Flame of the Revolution" was a kind of fruit of these creative quests associated with the concept of the Moscow monument to Sverdlov. At first, Mukhina wanted to take advantage of the myth of the stimfalids - huge birds with human heads that Hercules fought with, but the silhouette of the bird did not fit the monument, which required a tall and slender figure. Rejecting both the woman in long robes with wings instead of arms, and the winged Nika, crowning the hero with a laurel wreath, the sculptor came not to the goddess of glory, not to Stifhalis, but to the Genius of the Revolution with a torch in his hand, carrying the flame of the revolution into the future, to that rushing into the battle of Hercules. In this one can consider the sincere expression of the sculptor's ideal, her faith in a new person, perfect and free.
Fate
Following the example of the monument "Revolution" for the city of Klin, Mukhina intended to make the sculpture for the monument to Sverdlov polychrome - the figure would be cast from black cast iron, the robe and torch would be made of light golden bronze.
However, Mukhina's project was rejected as caricature and lacking a portrait resemblance. The work was criticized for its "formalistic schematism" and was misunderstood by critics, therefore it was not even reproduced in monographs. The monument to Sverdlov was never erected, but a reduced copy of his project has survived. Mukhina regretted her unfulfilled dream and considered the plaster model lost.
After her death in 1953, the damaged statue was found in the storerooms of the Central Museum of the Revolution in Moscow, after which it was restored and in 1954 cast in bronze for the failed museum of the sculptor. Currently, the plaster version is exhibited in Hall 15 "Culture of Soviet Russia" in the State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia - the fireplace room of the English Club. The wax sketch is in the museum of Vera Mukhina in Feodosia.
Vera Mukhina, Fair useA bronze copy with a height of 104 cm is kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery, where it was exhibited in 2014-2015 in connection with the 125th anniversary of Mukhina. In 2017, she was featured in an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, dedicated to the art born of the October Revolution.
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Helpful information
"Flame of the revolution"
Quote
“Working according to the plan of monumental propaganda was the seed from which Soviet sculpture sprouted. Unprecedented perspectives opened up before art, it was enriched with new goals. The task set by Lenin was important and necessary not only for the masses, but also for us, artists. While doing it, we learned the scale and boldness of thought, learned Creativity in the highest sense of the word. "
Vera Mukhina
Composition
Despite some formal references to modernism, cubism and futurism, "Flame of Revolution" embodies all the romanticized elements of socialist realism. The half-naked figure of the Genius of the Revolution, the prototype of Sverdlov without specific portrait features, is a romantic image of the Bolshevik-Leninist, personifying the apotheosis of the rebellious element of the revolutionary struggle. Stretching out his arms up and forward, in one of which the Genius holds a lighted torch, throwing his hair back, he stubbornly lowered his head down, purposefully and courageously fighting against the stormy gusts and whirlwinds of the wind of resistance. The sharp tilt of the whole figure, embodied in the motive of an energetic and expressive confrontation, finds firm support in the slope of the obliquely cut pedestal, which further enhances the dynamics of the composition, as if bubbling with fierce tension. The robe of the Genius is conditional - his body in a spiral is enveloped in something like a huge flowing scarf or cloak with spectacular folded and angular draperies that form powerful volumes independent of plastic figures, which, like sails enveloped in the wind, create the feeling of flying upward.
Mukhina returned to the motive of the flight in 1938 in the version of the monument "To the Rescue of the Chelyuskinites", made in more realistic forms. The huge figure of the north wind - Borea in the form of an old man with the skin of a polar bear fluttering behind his shoulders, as if yielded to the courage of people and flew away from the ice crystal block on the arrow of the island, which was supposed to be created in the area between the Kamenny and Crimean bridges. Below, to the right and to the left, at the supports on the ledges of the projected, but not built bridge, which would have connected the embankment at the Palace of Soviets with Zamoskvorechye, it was planned to install two large sculptural groups - the Chelyuskinites led by Otto Schmidt and their pilots-saviors.
The motives of the "Flame of the Revolution" are also seen in the sculpture "Worker and Collective Farm Woman", made by Mukhina for the Paris World Exhibition of 1937 and subsequently installed at the main entrance of the Exhibition of Economic Achievements in Moscow. The torch was replaced by the hammer and sickle, which are held over their heads by the heroes of this monument, devoid of the last elements of avant-garde, but which became Mukhina's professional triumph as a leading woman sculptor of the era of socialist realism.
Free admission days at the museum
Every Wednesday you can visit the permanent exhibition "Art of the 20th century" at the New Tretyakov Gallery for free, as well as temporary exhibitions "Gift of Oleg Yakhont" and "Konstantin Istomin. Color in the Window ”held in the Engineering Building.
The right to visit expositions free of charge in the Main Building in Lavrushinsky Pereulok, the Engineering Building, the New Tretyakov Gallery, the house-museum of V.M. Vasnetsov, A.M. Vasnetsov is provided on the following days for certain categories of citizens on a first come first served basis:
First and second Sunday of every month:
for students of higher educational institutions of the Russian Federation, regardless of the form of study (including foreign citizens-students of Russian universities, graduate students, adjuncts, residents, assistants-trainees) upon presentation of a student card (does not apply to persons presenting student cards "student-trainee" );
for students of secondary and secondary specialized educational institutions (from 18 years old) (citizens of Russia and the CIS countries). Students-holders of ISIC cards on the first and second Sunday of each month have the right to visit the exhibition "Art of the XX century" of the New Tretyakov Gallery free of charge.
every Saturday - for members of large families (citizens of Russia and CIS countries).
Please note that conditions for free admission to temporary exhibitions may vary. Check the information on the pages of the exhibitions.
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On National Unity Day - November 4 - the Tretyakov Gallery is open from 10:00 to 18:00 (entrance until 17:00). Paid entrance.
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Please note that conditions for preferential admission to temporary exhibitions may vary. Check the information on the pages of the exhibitions.
The right to preferential visits The Gallery, except for the cases provided for by a separate order of the Gallery's management, is provided upon presentation of documents confirming the right to preferential visits:
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Free admission right The main and temporary exhibitions of the Gallery, except for the cases provided for by a separate order of the Gallery's management, are provided for the following categories of citizens upon presentation of documents confirming the right to free admission:
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Visitors to the above categories of citizens receive a free entrance ticket.
Please note that conditions for preferential admission to temporary exhibitions may vary. Check the information on the pages of the exhibitions.