Events > exhibitions archive > 2006 > Russia & URSS
Exhibition
"Russia & URSS
Art, Literature, theathre 1905 - 1940"
26th October 2006 - 14 January 2007
Appartamento del Doge, Palazzo Ducale

Brochure (pdf)

Curated by Giuseppe Marcenaro and Piero Boragina, this exhibition is the most important event on the Genoese calendar this coming autumn. It is dedicated to the aesthetic processes that were going on in Russia in the first half of the twentieth century and includes paintings, sculptures, photographs, literary manuscripts and stage sets to highlight the various creative forces which formed the artistic panorama of the time and which collectively represent its aesthetic, social and political evolution.
1905, the year of the first Russian revolution, is an ideal starting point to illustrate a period in which great tensions led the intellectuals of the time to uphold social demands and at the same time bring about a radical artistic change which gave rise to extraordinary avant-garde experiments; without, however, forgetting those writers and artists who, albeit engaged in social and aesthetic discussion, continued working in the great Russian realist tradition of the nineteenth century.
The various ‘styles’ confronted each other, resulting in a veritable battle between different forms of expression. This was the period when emerging artists such as Larionov, Goncharova, Tatlin, Popova, Rodchenko and Malevich challenged the ‘traditionalists’ like Kustodiev, Korovin and many others, who went on painting as though untouched by the winds of change.
The exceptional dynamism of events in Moscow and St Petersburg reflects the great artistic struggle taking place in the rest of Europe. These, moreover, were the years when the new social awareness was paving the way for the great revolution which was to throw the country into a state of confusion. There is not such a clear distinction between the different forms of artistic expression,
and the boundaries between painting and literature at times seem to be blurred. In literature there is a swift transition from symbolism, with its various movements, to extreme avant-garde experimentation.
The exhibition includes portraits, volumes and manuscripts by personalities like Blok, Belij Kamenskij, Krucenych, Majakovskij,
Acmatova, Cvetaeva, and the whole constellation of friends and collaborators surrounding them.
The theatre is also present as an important link between literature and the visual arts where the different forms of expression come together. In this sphere there are references to the Ballets Russes of Diaghilev and to the artists who were variously involved in the creation of scenery and costumes: Bakst, Serov, Benois, Exter, Larionov, Goncharova, Tatlin, Malevich and, the truly innovative theatre of Meirechold and Majakovsky.
The variegated world of artistic and literary expression evolved further in the following years, even during the October Revolution and beyond, giving rise to movements, groups and ‘schools’ in constant search of artistic meaning in the context of wider political debate. The association between avant-garde trends and classical realism is at the heart of a great debate on how the new social and human situation should be represented through the arts.
The exhibition illustrates the consequent artistic crisis as the new Soviet society was rapidly forming, until the powers-that-be determined a State Art with a ‘style’ totally unrelated to either the avant-garde or classical realism, producing works known as Socialist Realism, which are presented in the final section. Many artists at the forefront of avant-garde movements adopted
the new style. A good example is Malevich who, after his ‘Black Square’ in 1915, went on to create entirely figurative works in the early thirties, which were wholly in line with the art of the establishment.
The most important museums involved in the exhibition are the St Petersburg State Russian Museum, the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, the Ekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of the History of Moscow, the State Historical Museum, Moscow, and the St.Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts.
The exhibition is both a study and a sincere homage to twentieth-century Russian culture on the part of Genoa. The city of Ekaterinburg, which is twinned with Genoa, deserves special recognition for its kind cooperation and generosity in lending works from its Museum of Fine Arts.

Vladimir Majakovskij
Sketch "Mistero buffo"
Literary Museum of Moscow