"Russian art:
finds and discoveries." "Mikhail Baryshnikov, from the cycle" Dance "

Two unique exhibitions organized by the ABA Gallery (USA) will open in the halls of the New Manege. The exposition “Russian Art: Findings and Discoveries” will present works by great Russian artists created in the 19th and 20th centuries, including works by Ilya Repin, Konstantin Korovin, Abram Arkhipov, Boris Anisfeld, Natalya Goncharova, Robert Falk. The second exhibition, Mikhail Baryshnikov, from the Dance series, will be the first show in Russia of twenty photographs of the outstanding contemporary dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov.

The legendary New York ABA Gallery, founded by Anatoly Bekkerman more than thirty-five years ago, is well known to the Moscow public for its successful projects in recent years. Exhibitions “Art as a Profession. The collection of Maya and Anatoly Bekkerman "in the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin in 2014 and “Russian Art: From Borovikovsky to Kabakov” in the New Manege in 2016 were a rare opportunity to get acquainted with the masterpieces of Russian painting, which at different times found themselves abroad and are now rediscovered in their homeland. Exhibitions of the New York Gallery in Moscow are an example of cultural cooperation between the two countries, which continues to develop successfully. This year, ABA Gallery will present two projects at once in the New Manege: Russian Art: Findings and Discoveries and Mikhail Baryshnikov, from the Dance series.

The latter is devoted to photography and the art of dance. The outstanding contemporary dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, having picked up a camera, did not give up the main plot of his life - the dancers became the heroes of his photo compositions, not only ballet dancers, but basically any enthusiastically dancing people. Baryshnikov’s proprietary method - long exposure - allows you to emphasize the lighting effects and rhythm of movement, convey the unique energy of each dance.

The exhibition "Russian Art: Findings and Discoveries" is dedicated to works of Russian painting. The exposition will include more than seventy works of the museum level. Some of them have not only artistic, but also historical value. The canvas of the favorite of Pavel Tretyakov, the wanderer of Abram Arkhipov “Summer evening. Fishing Boats in the Village Harbor ”was bought by the famous Norwegian diplomat and collector Alfred Danielsen, who worked in Moscow from1929 to 1935. A rare landscape in the work of Alexei Savrasov with a figured scene also has a Scandinavian origin. In the pre-revolutionary decade, the picture was acquired by hereditary Norwegian manufacturers who successfully engaged in business in Russia until the events of 1917 forced them to return to their historical homeland with a collection of Russian art. The documented provenance of the paintings “Crimean Landscape” by Konstantin Korovin and “Still Life with Pandanus Fruit and Bamboo Branches” by David Burliuk can be traced back to the pre-war era. In addition, the exhibition will feature watercolors by Ilya Repin, a portrait of one of Boris Grigoryev’s favorite models and “The Court of Paris” by Boris Anisfeld - the earliest surviving work from a series of works on mythological and biblical subjects created by the artist in the 1910s and a rare example of creativity Natalia Goncharova’s “Ornament” of 1910, as well as landscapes by I. Shishkin, A. Dubovsky and P. Vereshchagin, works by A. Tyshler, A. Exter, N. Goncharova, M. Vasilyeva and R. Falk. A separate section of the exhibition will be dedicated to artists of the sixties. It will include unique works by Eduard Steinberg, Oscar Rabin, Oleg Tselkov, Vladimir Nemukhin, created in the Soviet period.

The exposition of the exhibition "Mikhail Baryshnikov, from the cycle" Dance "- the premiere screening in Moscow of 18 photographs by Mikhail Baryshnikov, supplemented by 24 photographs of Ilsa Bing from the dancer’s collection. A native of Frankfurt and a failed physicist, Ilsa moved to Paris in 1930, where she was awaited by the dizzying career of a professional photographer. Having started working in leading Paris newspapers and magazines L’Illustration, Le Monde illustré Vogue Paris, Adam, Marchal, American Harper’s Bazaar. Ilsa Bing soon gained fame. In the late 1920s - early 1930s, she was almost the only professional working with a narrow-format camera. Her avant-garde photographs brought the artist the title of Queen of the Watering Can. Ilse’s works participated in exhibitions along with the works of Man Ray, Andre Curtes and Henri Cartier-Bresson, and in 1931 her first personal photo exhibition took place. At the beginning of World War II, Ilsa Bing emigrated to the United States. Having settled in New York, she changed “Watering Can” to a large-format camera and became interested in the portrait genre. “I didn’t choose a photograph, she chose me… Now, more than 50 years later, I can look back and explain why. In a sense, it was a tendency of the time when people began to see differently… The mechanical device began to penetrate the field of art, ”Ilsa Bing once said.

In anticipation of the opening of the exhibition, Mikhail Baryshnikov said: “In the late 1970s, I met and made friends with the unique Ilse Bing. In 1978, joining the New York City Ballet, I received as a gift her photograph of George Balanchine’s ballet “Errante” (1933) - twenty-five photographs taken in diffuse lighting during the premiere of the play in Paris, which strengthened its reputation as a leading master of modern photography. These outstanding works to this day continue to influence my work. ”