The Pre-Raphaelites were brought to Moscow, an exhibition at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. Pushkin

MOSCOW. State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin (Pushkin Museum im. AS Pushkin) hosts within its walls one of the most visited exhibitions in the world - “Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde”. A sensational exhibition will work in the main building of the museum from June 11 to September 22 of this year, after which it will continue its world tour, which should end only in the spring of 2014. The exhibition in Moscow was possible thanks to the close cooperation of the Pushkin Museum. A.S. Pushkin, Tate Galleries (Great Britain), Alisher Usmanov’s Art, Science and Sport charity fund with the support of the British Council and has become the third joint project of museum staff from Russia and the UK. The curators of the exhibition were Anna Poznanskaya and Alison Smith.

For the first time, the idea of bringing the work of the Pre-Raphaelites to Moscow was formulated by the director of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin Irina Antonova in 2008. The organization of this exhibition took almost five years and required a lot of work from the curators. The paintings in the Tate Gallery annually attract the attention of millions of tourists, and it turned out to be incredibly difficult to remove them from the permanent exhibition. In addition, many canvases and art objects are now in private collections in the United States and Great Britain, negotiations with their owners took a very long time.

Around the world, interest in the work of Pre-Raphaelite artists is today more than ever. Films and television programs are shot about them, reproductions and photographs of the most significant paintings are very popular. Buying a true picture of the Pre-Raphaelites today is almost impossible, even at world-famous auctions. That is why the exhibition attracts the attention of all lovers of painting. In the exposition, which will be presented in the Pushkin Museum to them. A.S. Pushkin, there are about a hundred paintings and art objects, including such outstanding works as The Ophelia by John Everett Millet or The Beloved by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Many of the works presented have never been exhibited in Russia and other countries.

The Pre-Raphaelite movement can be called the first avant-garde art movement in Europe. It arose from the idea of denying the traditional school of painting, created by the followers of Raphael. The pre-Raphaelites chose the art of the early Renaissance, the era "before Raphael" as a model for the artistic rethinking. Numerous contemporaries believed that it was precisely in the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelites Brotherhood that the more accurately and emotionally conveyed the mores and morals of the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. The Brotherhood had a clear art program, and not only painters, but also poets, writers, decorators, furniture makers, etc. joined its ranks. The most prominent representatives of the movement can be called such artists as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millet.

One of the main places in the work of the Pre-Raphaelites is the image of a woman in all her forms - mother, lover, wife. Portraits of white-skinned long-haired beauties, made by the hand of the masters of this movement, became a real artistic discovery for their time. But in ordinary life, the views of members of the fraternity on the social place of women in society can be called very loyal and, to some extent, avant-garde. They did not forbid them to build their own careers, engage in creativity, openly advocated for their rights.

In our country, the work of the Pre-Raphaelites is not so widely known. That is why the opening of the exhibition of the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin timed a series of his own scientific lectures, which anyone can attend. Among the issues discussed at the lectures are the works of William Morris and Gabriel Rossetti, the creative dialogue of Pre-Raphaelite artists and representatives of English literature, the influence of the movement on the art of photography. Lectures are held on Wednesdays in the hall of the Museyon Center for Aesthetic Education. In addition, the educational program that will accompany the work of the exhibition also includes a variety of excursion programs, lectures by British experts, meetings with curators, interactive programs, the special event “Pre-Raphaelites: An Evening at the Museum” (September 14), entertainment for children and adults.

Official site of the exhibition: http://pre-raphaelites.artguide.ru/

Anna Sidorova © Gallerix.ru