From Rose to Ray. Blue Rose and Golden Fleece. Origins and continuation

The Alexander Solzhenitsyn House of Russian Abroad and the Vellum Gallery in collaboration with the Russian National Museum of Music, the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, the Saratov State Art Museum named after A. N. Radishchev, the Armenian Museum "Tapan" under the Russian and Novo-Nakhichevan Diocese of the AAC, with the support of the Russian Abroad Heritage Foundation (FNZR) and a number of major private collectors, present the exhibition project “From the Rose to the Beam. Blue Rose and Golden Fleece. Origins and continuation.

The project explores the significance of Nikolai Ryabushinsky, a patron of the arts, artist, publisher of the literary and artistic magazine "Golden Fleece" and organizer of exhibitions of the same name. We will talk about the personality of Ryabushinsky, who to a large extent changed the path of development of Russian art, about the Blue Rose and Golden Fleece exhibitions, which essentially opened the art of the Impressionists and Fauvists to the Russian art community. It was Ryabushinsky, with his exhibition program, who drew attention to this trend among Russian collectors. In fact, for the first time in world history, he created fashion and commercialized new art. Visitors will also learn about the famous Black Swan Villa in Petrovsky Park: with tropical plants, strolling peacocks and a young leopard at the entrance, with a luxurious collection of rare items,

The artistic and literary project will be held in the exhibition hall of the House of Russian Diaspora from April 21 to September 10, 2023. Among the authors of the works: Nikolai Ryabushinsky, Mikhail Vrubel, Viktor Borisov-Musatov, Pavel Kuznetsov, Nikolai Krymov, Sergey Sudeikin, Nikolai Sapunov, Vasily Milioti, Pavel Utkin, Nikolai Feofilaktov, Alexander Matveev, Artur Fonvizin and others.

The project will present works created in the 1890s – 1920s, including during the publication of the Golden Fleece magazine and the exhibitions of the same name (1906–1909), with special attention paid to the artists exhibiting the Blue Rose ". It is natural that the project draws attention to writers who have collaborated with the magazine at various times. This is, first of all, Andrei Bely - a poet and theorist of symbolism, who suggested the name of the journal in his story "The Argonauts", Konstantin Balmont, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Alexander Blok, Fyodor Sologub.

The curator and author of the idea of the exhibition, art critic Lyubov Agafonova, proposes to recall and affirm the significance of Nikolai Ryabushinsky and the circle of artists of his magazine. The Golden Fleece is a literary and artistic magazine, and it was in its artistic part that it had to say a really new word in world artistic culture, designate a whole direction in art and, moreover, raise the work of the French impressionists to a new, including commercial, level.. If it were not for the extravagance of Nikolai Ryabushinsky’s nature, history could have turned out differently. The role of the Russian philanthropist and collector is very indicative, to which we would like to pay special attention.”