EXHIBITION "ROBERT FALK. FRONTIERS OF CREATIVITY" IN THE "NEW JERUSALEM" International Exhibition Complex

December 9 at the Museum and Exhibition Complex of the Moscow Region “New Jerusalem” the exhibition “Robert Falk. The verge of creativity ”, which presented paintings and graphic works by the master from the collection of the New Jerusalem Museum and six other Russian museums, including the Pushkin Museum. A.S. Pushkin Museum. Bakhrushin, the Museum of the East, as well as private collections.

The exhibition is dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the death of Falk and is designed to reflect the variety of facets of the artist’s creativity, showing him in development: from the formation during the period of study at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, to the latest works.

The exposition includes about 60 works. Some of them were shown to the general public for the first time, for example, the student portrait “Circus Artist” (1909) Falk, which was discovered during the preparation of the exhibition in the Khimki Picture Gallery named after S. N. Gorshina. The location of this work for a long time could not be established, and it was known only by the diary sketch made by the artist. The unfinished portrait was made on the reverse side of another work - “Still Life with Vegetables” - and is currently ready for bilateral display. For the first time, “Still Life with Clovers” (1912–1915), on the back of which “Portrait of a Lady in a Hat with a Green Espry,” is also demonstrated.

A special section consists of paintings that the artist painted while living in the fall and winter of 1910 in New Jerusalem. The landmark work of this stage can be called the “Bazaar in Voskresensk” (1910) - it, like several other paintings, was presented at the exhibition by the Pskov State United Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve.

The paintings painted in Voskresensk (Istra), as well as a number of other exhibited works, were created at the time when Falk was an active member of the avant-garde association Jack of Diamonds (1910-1917), having gone through a fascination with primitive art and cubism, perceived through Cezanne’s work.

The exhibition was also reflected in the Paris period, which lasted almost 10 years from 1928 to 1937, and became one of the most fruitful for Robert Falk, the period of “comprehending the classics”, including the art of his beloved Rembrandt. Paying tribute to the beautiful subtle landscapes with non-parade views of the French capital, it should be noted that throughout his creative life for Falk, the most important genre was portraiture. The real pearl of the exhibition is the portrait “Girl in a Dress with a Lace Collar” from the collection of the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin. According to the existing version, the portrait depicts the last lover of Vladimir Mayakovsky Tatyana Yakovleva. The portrait of Valery Falk, the son of the artist from the collection of the New Jerusalem Museum, is also distinguished by the picturesque subtlety and depth.

The exhibition allows visitors to trace the entire creative path of Falk and get acquainted with the variety of interests of the artist, who worked with the same brilliance in the genre of portraiture, landscape (in the late period, mainly near Moscow) and still life.

Falk, almost never exhibited after returning from Paris, accused of formalism, nevertheless influenced the artistic life of Moscow by his presence: the artist’s workshop was open to many, and Robert Falk continued to work intensively, reaching in his later works “ unprecedented simplicity ”and“ higher pictorial spirituality ”.

According to the curator of the exhibition, the head of the Art Department of the New Jerusalem Museum Lyudmila Denisova, Falk is currently one of the most significant figures of Russian art, which is not surprising since his painting is located, in the words of one of the main researchers of his work, D. V. Sarabyanova, “in direct dependence on the essence of being,” and this is its eternal significance.

The architecture of the exhibition allows visitors one after another to discover the "facets" of more than half a century of the artist’s creative career. An extremely multifaceted master who always knew how to remain himself.

Exhibition curator:
Denisova Lyudmila Mikhailovna, Head. Art Department of the IEC New Jerusalem

The address of the ICC "New Jerusalem":

Istra, New Jerusalem Embankment, 1