A little history of art. The Kidnapping of Europa

Two paintings became the basis for the 2024 exhibition: “The Rape of Europe” (1910) by Valentin Serov and “The Bathing of the Red Horse” (1912) by Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin. It would seem that there is nothing in common between them, nothing unifying. However, we have tried to build some connections.

Both artists, Serov and Petrov-Vodkin , solved new problems for themselves that were uncharacteristic of their work (at that time). Serov is a realist, one of the best portrait painters of his time, creating a flat, decorative picture. He fantasizes on the theme of the ancient Greek myth, slightly distorting the literary basis, but following the traditions of the recently discovered Cretan-Mycenaean culture: a combination of bright, laconic, complementary shades in relation to each other, a conventional image of the figure and face of the princess of Europe, similar to the ancient Greek statue of Kore, devoid of individuality and emotions. I also remember the famous fresco of the Knossos Palace, Taurocatapsia or Playing with a Bull, or Jumping over a Bull, the color combinations of which are repeated by the artist in his experimental painting.

What was important for us — what we emphasized — was the compositional solution of the painting. The formation is made diagonally from the lower left corner to the upper right, in this direction the Thunder Bull is swimming. And the figure of the princess is located almost along the vertical axis of symmetry of the canvas. Having built such a scheme, we can quite easily compose the picture and this, coupled with the color scheme - a combination of the background color with the terracotta color of the bull - makes the work feasible for the youngest authors of six or seven years old.

What about the Red Horse? Let me invite you to create your own compositional scheme for this painting. (This can be done in the guest book). It will be interesting to what extent our analytical experiments coincide…

History of the MII

In 2015, in an art studio organized by Maya Khlobystina, a plan was born to study the history of art through the reproduction of world masterpieces. The main idea was to combine into a single whole two disciplines that are different in the principle of knowledge, but close in content: one theoretical, the other – the practical history of art with drawing. Thus, the “Little History of Art” program is aimed at introducing and uniquely immersing a young person in the basics of the development of fine arts and mastering the skills of painting and drawing simultaneously, as a single subject.

In May 2016, the studio completed its first season with a large-scale exhibition at the Borey Gallery in St. Petersburg. More than 70 works, selected from more than 150, took part in it. And it was “A Little History of European Art.” Presented to the general public for the first time, the project was highly praised by professionals, artists and art critics, and the exhibition itself was very popular and received a large number of enthusiastic reviews. Since then, every year the studio has ended the school season with an exhibition. And sometimes two at the same time on different sites. So in 2017, at the end of May - beginning of June, two exhibitions were held at once: “A Little History of Russian Art” again at the Borey Gallery and “Unknown and Other Hits” at the Museum of Modern Art. Diaghilev St. Petersburg State University (this exhibition was dedicated to the most famous paintings from Russian painting, which have become objects of mass culture: “Unknown”, “Morning in a Pine Forest”, “Girl with Peaches”, etc.) From year to year, different generations of students studied in studio "Little History of Art" and presented the results of their activities at exhibitions. In 2018 and 2022 - “A Little History of the Russian Avant-Garde” and “Down with Your Art. Hello after 100 years” at the Museum of the St. Petersburg Avant-Garde Matyushin House. In 2019 again in Boreas, and in 2021 again two exhibitions at the same time. In the pandemic year of 2020, the Museum of Contemporary Art. Diaghilev a virtual exhibition was organized.

Since 2018, the “Little History of Art” program has been taught at the Children’s Creative Center “Theater Family” in the Nevsky district of St. Petersburg.

At the beginning of 2021, M. Khlobystina’s book “A Little History of Art. The first 11 steps”, published by the collaboration of the publishing houses “Borey Art” and “Children’s Time”. The book included only 11 lessons from a large program; the format of the publication did not allow for more.

“This is a rare case when both the children and the master are lucky. It was she who introduced completely new tasks into teaching children the craft of drawing and painting and achieved excellent results with extraordinary external ease…

I was amazed how the teacher gives the child the opportunity to learn about masterpieces of art, works of brilliant artists from different eras. But to the same extent, I am amazed by children who themselves choose objects for their own cognition and embodiment of their interpretation. I’m sure everyone who looks at this gallery of images will smile and say brilliant! It won’t be an exaggeration.”

— T.S. Yuryeva, professor of St. Petersburg State Automobile Inspectorate named after. Repina, Doctor of Art History

“The idea of combining drawing and painting with the study of art history is an original and fruitful idea. We are not talking about parallel classes - in some they learn to draw, in others they study the history of art - but about direct work with the works of famous masters. As a teacher, I would like to compare this way of working with modern intensive language teaching methods, which eliminate the artificially created difficulties in traditional teaching. Here, at the same time, we learn to look and see, feel color (what it is), create color (why this and not another), master composition, grasp the difference in styles and visual techniques, and thus, without any strained reasoning and incomprehensible theories of beauty, we become our own people in the world of fine arts. This means we learn to look with clear eyes at the world — simply, the big world around us — which we most often do not see.”

— A. G. Pogonyailo, professor of St. Petersburg State University, Doctor of Philosophy

“M. Khlobystina’s technique turns out to be excitingly interesting in practice: an enthusiastic story about the logic of the “construction” of the picture is framed by a plot statement. Precisely placed accents form the frame of the composition. An organically built “narrative”, supported by the peculiarity of the chosen technique - painting, relief or volumetric composition, forms a mosaic visual canvas. All that remains is to fasten and link the parts with optical parallels and figurative connections.”

— Olga Koshkina, PhD in art history