Kandinsky and the Russian Soul
Press release
Beyond the borders of the West is a land of endless plains, wide expanses of water, and harsh seasons: the land of Russia. Her poets, from Pushkin to Evtushenko, have observed that only those born and bred there can understand her complexity and deep spirituality, and there can be no doubt that Russian art in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries narrated with great sensitivity and awareness the extraordinary spiritual and cultural riches of its own land.
The irresistible fascination of the experiences and aesthetics of nineteenth and twentieth century Russian artists lies at the heart of Kandinsky e l'anima russa, Kandinsky and the Russian Soul, a large-scale exhibition organised by Palazzo Forti in close collaboration with the Russian State Museum of Saint Petersburg. The outcome of lengthy researches and of a new critical approach, the exhibition will show over one hundred and thirty extraordinarily intense works from the past two hundred years. These are among the most important works of Russian art ever to be seen in the west and are presented as part of a complex project to discover and penetrate their aims. From the 'itinerant' painters of the 19th century, by way of the various avant-garde researches of Kandinsky, Malevich, Larionov, and Goncharova, to the visionary iconographies of the present day, this show develops for the first time ever the fascinating theme of the Russian soul, a theme that in cultural history is exclusive to the art and literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The Itinerant Painters and the Nineteenth Century
Only rarely does artistic creation mesh so closely with the realities of a people, depicted in its progress through time and the changing seasons, examined in the very depths of its soul, and narrated through the words and images of its own traditions: this is the art of nineteenth century Russia, the art of a century marked by aspirations towards liberty and social justice but, at the same time, haunted by an awareness of the emptiness and philistinism of the conquests of civilisation, progress, and revolution. All this we find in the canvases of the itinerant painters with whom we begin our journey into the Russian soul. Wanderers by vocation, their presence as often rejected as welcomed by cities tempted, even corrupted, by new Western ways, such artists as Perov, Fedotov, and Makovsky painted the Russia dear to Gogol and Dostoevsky where only a zealous faith seemed to feed the bodies and minds of the people who appear on the canvases to reclaim their dignity. And so a work such as Ilya Repin's The Bargemen on the Volga, quite exceptionally available for the present show, is emblematic of a realism filtered through the soul: the representation of man is echoed and ennobled by the great river itself. Still in the nineteenth century, Venetsianov, Krylov, Soroka, and Serov develop the theme of landscape painting in search of a particular language with which to describe and bring to life peaceful villages in wintry regions, harvesters standing in golden fields, or fishermen resting by the sea at dawn.
From Symbolism to the Avant-garde
By now subject to the tensions of modernity, Russian art at the end of the nineteenth century descended even further into its own soul: the dreamlike and esoteric works of Mikhail Vrubel hover on the cusp between realism and abstraction; the pictures of Nesterov and Surikov transform reality into myth and legend; Levitan and Kuindzhi paint the landscapes of the soul; Ryabushkin journeys through the fables of the past, and Pryanishnikov submits to the pangs of religion.
Russian art in the twentieth century begins both with linguistic experiments and a return to the remote images of its own earth; with inquiries into primary forms for expressing metaphysical visions and contemporary icons; the fragmentation of colour, and a painterly lyricism for renewing religious tensions. All this is expressed in the powerful forms of Kustodiev, the primitive subjects of Goncharova, the Suprematist squares and figures of Malevich, the exaggerations of Filonov, the mystic prayers of Roerich, and Petrov-Vodkin's hallucinatory symbols of bodies and faces.
Vassily Kandinsky and 'Mother Russia'
From realism to pure abstraction: this is the carefully reconstructed context within which the exhibition presents the works of Vassily Kandinsky, the great central figure of the twentieth century whose masterpieces can finally be seen in relation to the artists and to the soul of his country. Kandinsky had a deep spiritual bond with his motherland and said that he had always, and only, painted Moscow, with a tense and harmonious vision, simple yet complex, disturbed yet serene: 'I trace back the origins of my attempts at art to this overall, interior and exterior, image of Moscow'. His numerous works in the show overflow with symbols and allusions: Black Spot, 1912, adumbrates the conflict between the two fundamental values of his land, demonic Evil and luminous Salvation; Twilight, 1917, reflects the luminous musical variations and the glistening colours of the Russian soul; St. George, 1911, the knight of the spirit and the metaphysical herald, fights for the traditions and values of his country's past.
Dreams, Visions, and Reality
Through a sequence of visionary inquiries and formal analyses, the exhibition will also show the public the fantastic symbolic works of Chagall, Serebryakova's new realism, the magic squares of Sterenberg, the graphical lyricism of Bilibin. The works of Soviet realism, represented by Yermolayev, Rutkovsky, Yakovlev, Deineka, Volkov and others, are here presented in a critically positive light aimed at bringing out their profound links with the soul of the earth, the people: of Russia.
Contemporary Forms
The show will close with the latest developments in Russian art, from new post-Revolution and Soviet realism to the most recent multiform experiments with video and photography, as represented by the works of Kabakov, Makarevich, Kolosov, Nemukhin, Steinberg, Tobreluts and others.
The show allows the public to see works of great value, masterpieces rarely if ever exhibited in Europe. Their impact and strong psychological engagement go hand in hand with the timeliness and aesthetic discernment characteristic of the exhibitions of Palazzo Forti. Here is a journey into an extraordinary art, one that reveals the soul of a people and a land with deep roots and which can show us unexpected truths.
The exhibition is curated by Giorgio Cortenova and Evgenia Petrova. It is supplemented by a catalogue, published by Marsilio, containing reproductions and full details of all the works in the show together with critical essays.
© 2004 The State Russian Museum