"There are blue roses ..." on the 140th anniversary of the symbolist artist Pavel Kuznetsov

An exhibition dedicated to the work of the famous Russian artist Pavel Kuznetsov (1878 - 1968), a student of Valentin Serov and Konstantin Korovin, one of the leaders of the “second wave” of Russian pictorial symbolism, the founder of the Blue Rose art association, opens in the Perm Gallery. The exhibition will present the viewer the versatile talent of the master through various stages of his creative activity.

Painter, graphic artist, theater artist, landscape painter, portrait painter, author of still lifes, decorative panels, teacher - Pavel Kuznetsov lived for ninety years and until the last days did not let go of the brush. Kuznetsov’s painting did not cease to experience the processes of renewal. But the master went down in the history of art, first of all, as the leader of the “second wave” of Russian pictorial symbolism and the founder of the Blue Rose movement, which brought together Peter Utkin, Nikolai Krymov, Alexander Matveev, the Milioti brothers, Martiros Saryan, Arthur Fonvizin and others. “In the constellation of the amazing, he was the most amazing. Kuznetsov was a dreamer, his friends were funny. He saw they composed. He looked inward, they outward ”(A. Efros).

In the life of Pavel Kuznetsov there was everything: success and misunderstanding, awards, personal exhibitions and accusations of formalism. But at all times, in any circumstances, the artist remained himself. In all works created in different periods, the main features of his work are traced: naive daydreaming, contemplative calm, gravitation towards primitiveness, clarity, the desire to learn from nature, faith in the artist’s purpose to create the beautiful.

The Perm Gallery has a significant collection of works by Pavel Kuznetsov, but they have never participated in exhibitions. For the first time, an exposition is organized in which the master’s versatile talent will be presented through a series of pictorial and graphic works of different stages of his creative activity. Among them are “Shepherdess”, “Bridge over Zanga”, “Crimean landscape”, “Horses in the steppe”, graphics from the albums “Turkestan” and Mountain Bukhara ”and other works.

The authors of the exhibition “There are blue roses…” invite viewers to get acquainted not only with the work of Pavel Kuznetsov, but also with the work of his teachers, friends, colleagues, the environment that nurtured and nurtured his ideas and new ideas. Therefore, in addition to the works of Kuznetsov, the exhibition will include the works of Konstantin Korovin, Valentin Serov, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Victor Borisov-Musatov, Alexander Matveev, Martiros Saryan, Vasily Milioti from the collections of the Perm Gallery. Many of them will also be shown for the first time.

Curators of the exhibition:

Irina Andrenko, art critic, leading researcher at the UGSF
Natalya Novopashina, art critic, leading researcher at the UGSF