Konstantin Korovin and his circle. Moscow–Paris

The Department of Culture of the City of Moscow, the House of Russian Abroad named after Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Vellum Gallery present an exhibition project: “Konstantin Korovin and his circle. Moscow – Paris” Painting, graphics, archival documents and video.

The Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn House of the Russian Diaspora and the Vellum Gallery, in collaboration with the Russian National Museum of Music, the Crimean Literary and Artistic Memorial Museum-Reserve, the Union of Philocartists of Russia, with the support of the Russian Abroad Heritage Foundation (FNZR) and a number of major private collectors, present an exhibition project “Konstantin Korovin and his circle. Moscow-Paris. The exhibition is dedicated to the birthday of Konstantin Korovin (December 5) and will be held in the exhibition hall of the House of Russian Diaspora from December 6, 2022 to March 23, 2023. Among the authors are K. Korovin, his friends, students and followers: V. Serov, N. Goncharova, M. Larionov, R. Falk, M. Nesterov, S. Vinogradov, S. Gerasimov, P. Williams, A. Isupov, F. Fedorovsky, G. Lapshin, A. Shevchenko.

For many years, art critic and exhibition curator Lyubov Agafonova has been talking about Konstantin Alekseevich Korovin (1861–1939) – not only as a self-sufficient genius and founder of Russian impressionism, but as an amazing planet that attracted new talents to its orbit and created. Each time, not only more and more facets of the "planet of Korovin" are opened, but questions are also raised about his creative destiny. The exhibition primarily touches on his significance as a person in history.

Paintings by Korovin are present in many museum collections, however, in the creative and personal life of Konstantin Alekseevich there has always been a place for a secret, the veil of which will be slightly opened to visitors of the exhibition: paintings by Korovin himself will be presented, including rare works not exhibited in the previous series of exhibitions; his graphics; archival documents and letters; documentaries about the artist. Other facts and stories about the artist can be read in L. Agafonova’s book "The Constellation of Korovin" prepared for the exhibition project.

The organizers of the exhibition pay special attention to the mutual influence of the artist and his circle, which included friends: Nesterov, Serov, Chekhov, Chaliapin, Stanislavsky and students: Vinogradov, Gerasimov, Ioganson, Falk, Goncharova.

And, if, say, a lot has been written about the friendship and mutual influence of Korovin and Serov, and their playful nicknames: “Serovin and Korov” serve as the best evidence of this, then much less is known, for example, about the connections of a teacher with his no less famous student Robert Falk. The exhibition will show two of his works: A Walk in the Bois de Boulogne (1930s) and Portrait of an Unknown Woman (1908).

Two gouaches of another famous student of Korovin, Natalya Goncharova, of the early French period (1900–1910), presented at the exhibition, have never been exhibited before. “The story of love and joint creativity of two Russian geniuses - Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov, is inseparable from their studies at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, in which systematic education was accompanied by artistic painting lessons in the class of Konstantin Korovin and Valentin Serov. Their meeting and love, which not everyone can experience, led to the interpenetration of two huge talents; If this meeting had not happened, perhaps culture would have received completely different individual Larionov and Goncharova, ”says Lyubov Agafonova.

With Korovin, we observe the most diverse constellation of students. Korovin turned out to be a meteor-teacher who knew how to give his meteorite students an impulse and direction. Some became his direct followers, others became completely different from the teacher, but forever retained the “Korovin impulse”.

Museum hours:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday: 11:00–19:00.
Thursday, Saturday: 11:00–21:00. Monday is a day off.

Tickets are purchased at the box office or on the museum website https://www.domrz.ru/