"Russian Athos"

December 15, 2016 at 17.00 in the Museum and Exhibition Complex of the Russian Academy of Arts Zurab Tsereteli Art Gallery, the opening ceremony of the exhibition "Russian Athos" dedicated to the 1000th anniversary of Russian monasticism on Mount Athos will take place.

The exhibition is held with the blessing of the Superior of the Russian Holy Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos Archimandrite Eulogius. The organizers of the exhibition are the Russian Academy of Arts, the Russian Holy Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos, the Fund for the Renaissance of the Russian Athos, the Department of Culture of Moscow, the Moscow State Art Gallery of Vasily Nesterenko.

The main part of the exhibition is dedicated to the murals of the Church of St. Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon on Old Rusik - the largest cathedral church of the Russian Monastery. Its construction was completed before the revolution on the site of an ancient temple. An iconostasis was installed, but the temple was not painted. Work on the interior of the temple was continued in 2015-2016. with the blessing of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill and the Cathedral of the Elders of the Russian Holy Panteleimon Monastery.

The exhibition presents sketches and cardboard paintings, reproductions of subjects in full size. New paintings continue the tradition of the "Athos style", the heyday of which fell on the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. The decoration of the temple has more than 80 plots designed specifically for Old Rusik. Unique murals were created based on the characteristics of the Athos traditions, while taking into account the rich spiritual history and the temple in Old Rusik, and the entire Russian Athos, the continuity and connection of Svyatogorsky and Russian monasticism.

The temple was painted by a team of artists led by the People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, academician, member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Arts, member of the Patriarchal Council for Culture Vasily Nesterenko. The creative team performing the work included well-known Moscow masters with extensive experience in temple painting: Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Arts Mikhail Poletaev, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Vladimir Pavlov, member of the Union of Artists of Russia Viktor Goncharov and a whole group of ornamental painters and gilders.

The murals were completed for the 1000th anniversary of Russian monasticism on Mount Athos. At the end of May 2016, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Kirill consecrated the renovated church and served the first liturgy in it. The patriarch praised the work of the creative team under the leadership of Vasily Nesterenko. A favorable review of the murals of the temple was received from the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin, who visited Athos in the spring of 2016.

In addition to full-size sketching of murals and reproductions of plots, the exhibition presents creative works by Vasily Nesterenko and his colleagues. These are portrait and landscape works created over the past 20 years and dedicated to Mount Athos - the Earthly Section of the Blessed Virgin Mary. These canvases show the rich nature of the Holy Mountain, its inhabitants, monasteries and monasteries of Athos, including the Russian Monastery and the monastery of Old Rusik.

The exposition dedicated to the Russian Athos is not only a creative report of artists to the Russian Academy of Arts, to its colleagues and spectators, but it is also the contribution of the Russian Academy of Arts to a series of events dedicated to the anniversary year - the year of the 1000th anniversary of Russian monasticism on Mount Athos.