East Meets West Gallery "Between Heaven and Earth." Part I

From May 16 to June 16, 2019 at the All-Russian Museum of Decorative Arts, the director and curator of East Meets West Gallery Tatyana Paleeva (Chilingaryan) presents the art project “Between Heaven and Earth” Part I, dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the gallery.

The first part includes in an updated version the projects of past years: “Tibet. Infinity of silence "2012, which belongs to the group of ethnic projects on the interaction of cultures of the West and the East, and the international environmental project" Power of Water "2012. An integral part of this project will be the introduction to the new for the gallery complex art and ethnographic theme" Call of Ancient Armenia " dedicated to the land of the ancestors of the curator Tatyana Paleeva (Chilingaryan).

Art project “Tibet. The Infinity of Silence ”was shown at the ARTPLAY Design Center in 2012. In it, the curator presented her view on the relationship between modernity and the ancient culture of Tibet, an attempt to “cognize” with the language of art the mysterious charm of the earth, which has fascinated and attracted Europeans for centuries. Everyone who touches the secrets of Tibet, discovers for himself a different side of life, philosophical, religious or artistic. Of the five authors, the new edition is attended by Mikhail Molochnikov, Alena Telpukhovskaya and Sergey Filatov, as well as travel photographer Sergey Shestakov.

In the international environmental art project “The Power of Water” (2012, the Polytechnic Museum), various aspects of the relationship between culture, education and everyday life were touched upon. Twelve artists from Russia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the USA and Japan offered their viewers an artistic interpretation of the universal and “most humane” themes: water and life, water and man, water and art. In the modern version, four authors of that project participate. Vladimir Nasedkin (Russia) with the famous installation “Architecture of water, metal and stones”, specially restored for the anniversary project, photographer Mel Theobald (USA), permanent author of “East Meets West Gallery” since 2010 Hans Mendler (Germany), Alexey Lantsev )Russia). For the first time, Sergey Filatov joined this project with a new sound sculpture, Upstream (2019), created specifically for this project.

“Call of Ancient Armenia” is a new thematic art project of East Meets West Gallery. In May 2013, an expedition to Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh was organized in which the director of East Meets West Gallery Tatyana Paleyeva (Chilingaryan) and the famous travel photographer, winner of prestigious awards Sergey Shestakov took part.

In this project, a design form for the presentation of exhibition material is developed based on the synthesis and arrangement in one space of objects, artifacts and works of various types of applied art from the museum funds, works of different styles and directions of high art, as well as exhibits from private collections. The project organically combines art photography by Sergey Shestakov, a participant in an expedition to Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh in 2013, and a graphic by Suren Ayvazyan, made from nature in Shushi (Nagorno-Karabakh), where his distant ancestors were born. The memory of the ancestors and their lives in Armenia was the work of famous Moscow Armenian artists Karina Nazarova, Yuri Grigoryan (senior), Yuri Grigoryan (younger). Armenia forever remained in the memory of Vladimir Nasedkin, who came to the country in 1989 after the devastating earthquakes in Spitak and Leninakan. The main theme of these memoirs was the ancient cross-stones of Armenia, which in his series “Armenia. Khachkars ”(1989-2000) turned into monumental and strict compositions that grew up with the author into abstract spiritual symbols of the ancient people of Armenia. Variations on this subject are in the collections of the Russian Museum, the Tretyakov Gallery, in the art museums of Tver, Yekaterinburg.

Thanks to the Nikoghosyan-Ilikchyan family and the Niko Gallery, we got a unique opportunity to show at the exhibition, along with the works of famous contemporary artists, the works of 20th century art classics Nikolai Bagratovich Nikoghosyan, one of the most prominent figures in the history of Russian and Armenian sculpture of the second half of the 20th century, and Mariam Aslamazyan, whose life and work are also inextricably linked with both the Russian avant-garde tradition and the Armenian national painting tradition of the 20-30s of the XX century.

The unique traditional flavor of the life and life of the Armenian people of the late XIX - early XX centuries. it is impossible to imagine without folk and arts and crafts. And the main thing, of course, is rightfully considered carpet weaving. The exhibition presents three unique copyrighted works of carpet art of Armenia of the 30s from the department of fabrics of the All-Russian Museum of Decorative Arts, including the carpet of the famous master Hakob Keshishyan from the carpet-weaving factory of Yerevan. From private collections of the Nikoghosyan-Ilikchyan and Tatyana Paleeva (Chilingaryan) families, the first time is shown antique lint-free carpets (Carpets) from Nagorno-Karabakh from the late 19th century and the second half of the 20th century.

Armenia has long been famous for handicrafts, Ceramic vessels for water, wine, dough, cheese, oil of the late XIX - early XX centuries, provided to us by collectors, are characterized by simple silhouettes, plastic forms and are made mainly of Armenian red clay. Isabella Aghayan’s decorative composition “Memoirs of Armenia” (1991) from the ceramics department of the All-Russian Museum of Decorative Arts, a seven-piece complex composition, is also made of red clay, but with different pigments, author’s paintings and glazes. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Etchmiadzin, Yerevan, Tokat, Karin, Erzurum and Van produced large quantities of tinned copper dishes: dishes, jugs, tubs, pans. This dish was decorated with plant patterns in medallions, leaf-shaped drawings, images of birds, fish and animals. Many engraving and ornamentation drawings dating back to very old prototypes can be seen on the copper objects from the private collection of the Nikoghosyan-Ilikchyan family. Artistic processing of silver is one of the oldest crafts in Armenia. Many jewelers of the XVII-XIX centuries, decorated with fine grains, fine engraving, artful mobile, gilding, can be considered works of art. Historical places of development of the artistic processing of precious metal products, such as Van, Karin, Erzrum, Bitlis, Shushi, Alexandropol (Gyumri), became major craft centers in Armenia in the 19th century, where this art reaches a high level. Silver jewelry was an indispensable part of the women’s national costume. The exposition will feature a necklace made of silver with turquoise at the end of the 19th century. and turquoise earrings owned by Mariam Aslamazyan and other silver jewelry that were provided to us by the Nikoghosyan-Ilikchyan family.

The project “Between Heaven and Earth” creates a contrasting combination of elements of various aesthetic systems of the past with the present, continues to search for the creation of a new artistic integrity and imagery, principles for the presentation in one space of traditionally not exhibited works of high art, handicrafts and original works of decorative and applied art. Between heaven and earth is not only Man, the Artist, but the Curator himself.

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