Exhibition "Denisov-Uralsky and his followers"

D Perm Art Gallery will host the exhibition "Denisov-Uralsky and his followers", dedicated to the 155th anniversary of the master. The exhibition is based on the works of the famous stone-cutting artist Alexei Denisov-Uralsky from the collection of the Perm Art Gallery and the work of modern followers Faberge and Denisov-Uralsky - masters of the Stone-cutting House Alexei Antonov (Yekaterinburg).

Alexey Kozmich Denisov-Uralsky (1864-1926) - a significant personality for the Urals. Throughout his life, the artist did not interrupt communication with his small homeland. In 1900, he even took the pseudonym Uralsky, emphasizing this relationship with the Urals not only by the fact of birth, but also by the spiritual essence, worldview, and philosophy of creativity. Denisov-Uralsky was a versatile artist - in addition to painting and graphics, he was enthusiastically engaged in stone-cutting and jewelry art. However, for a long time, the artist’s work remained in the shadow of famous compatriots. Today, leading experts in stone-cutting and jewelry art in Russia put the name of Denisov-Uralsky on a par with Faberge.

The first section of the exhibition introduces the stone-cutting and jewelry art of the Urals of the 19th – early 20th centuries. The exposition presents monuments of religious and secular art made of silver, gold and precious jewelry stones. Skillful stone carvings are demonstrated by items of interior decoration and a women’s toilet, cabinet items made of marble and malachite.

The central section of the exhibition presents the famous series of miniature sculptures by A. K. Denisov-Uralsky “Allegorical Figures of the Warring Powers”, reflecting the author’s reaction to the events of the First World War. The sculptures were created in Petrograd, in the workshop of A.K. Denisov-Uralsky in 1914-1916. The reasons that prompted the artist to create the cycle are known from the author’s article “Blood on a Stone”, published in the literary and artistic almanac “Argus” on the eve of the opening of the Denisov-Uralsky exhibition in March 1916. As an epigraph, the artist took a quote from the Gospel of Luke: "… the stones will cry out."

For the first time, the Perm Art Gallery exhibits in its halls all the preserved sculptures of this series, made in the sophisticated “volumetric mosaic” technique (compositions are made of parts carved from different types of stone and held together by pins and glue). Plots of compositions are embodied with the help of characters and allegories. For example, France (ally) is represented by the figure of Marianne, personifying the motto “freedom, equality, brotherhood”, Serbia (ally) - by the figure of a hedgehog bristling with needles, Austria-Hungary (enemy) - in the image of a monkey sitting on the edge of a broken trough, Great Britain (ally) - in the form of a sea lion, personifying the power of a power, Italy (ally) - in the form of a capitoline she-wolf as a symbol of Eternal Rome. Unsaved compositions are represented by archival photographs from the Central State Archive of Film and Photo Documents (St. Petersburg). For the first time, more than 100 years after the Denisov-Uralsky exhibition in Petrograd (1916), one of the main works of this series “The Apotheosis of War (Angel of Peace)” is exhibited in its original form. For many years it was believed that the foundation on which the figure of an angel stands was lost. When studying the collection, disparate parts of the composition were identified, the sculpture was brought to the exposition.

In the third section of the exhibition, viewers will see the works of stone-cutting and jewelry plastics of the Stone-cutting House of Alexei Antonov - the successor of K. Faberge and Denisov-Uralsky. Various works by types and genres give an idea of the stylistics of contemporary stone-carving art of Yekaterinburg, as well as of its creators - virtuoso masters who perfectly master all the intricacies of their craft.

Author of the concept and curator of the exhibition: Alexandra Pestova
Exhibition Architect: Dmitry Merkushev

The exhibition, organized with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Perm Territory, will be open to visitors from September 6 to October 6, 2019. Audience 6+