Exhibition M.I. Kurilko (1880–1969)

Personal exhibition of the remarkable Russian artist Mikhail Ivanovich Kurilko (1880 - 1969) - a painter, architect, virtuoso master of easel graphics, noted by the rich imagination of a theater artist who designed drama and opera performances in theaters of Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev and other cities.

The exhibition will show for the first time more than 200 works of M. I. Kurilko from the collection of the artist’s family, which demonstrate the directions of his activity and cover a significant segment of the artist’s career from the 1910s to the end of the 1940s. These are early etchings of the 1910s, which ensured success for the young author in a professional environment, precious in their original technique of working on parchment from the early 1920s, lively and emotional drawings of costumes and sets for the performances “Salome,” “The King Funs,” “ Red Poppy ”,“ Khovanshchina ”,“ Duma about Opanas ”,“ Enemy Strength ”,“ Stone Flower ”,“ Aida ”. The author’s works are supported by a number of rare historical documents also from the family archive. They give visual significance a special significance and establish a connection of times. The presence of documents in the family archive is organic to the work of Kurilko, since he himself loved the reliable details of history and reflected them in his works. As an observer philosopher of the dramatic events of that time, he developed his own system of plastic solutions for his piercing metaphorical artistic evidence. His creative method combined a high knowledge of art from different eras, with which he was in constant dialogue when referring to theatrical productions, and a sense of modernity. It was it that allowed him to create the first Soviet ballet on a new theme - Red Poppy. This happened in 1927 in the country’s most traditional theater - at the Bolshoi Theater. He realized the innovative idea of the architecture of the theater building by taking part in the design of the theater in Novosibirsk. His convincing monumental and decorative solutions appeared in 1938 in the most significant exhibition complex for the era - at the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition.

The presented works allow us to trace the stylistic evolution of the artist and the trends of Russian fine art of that time. This line dates back to the tradition of romanticism and symbolism in the 1910s, paid tribute to the period of fantastic realism in the early 1920s, and in the 1930s developed in parallel with the pan-European trend of romantic realism, filled with the so-called “light of the thirties”. The worldview of M. I. Kurilko was determined by the circle of artists with whom he took part in the most significant exhibitions of his time. This is the First State Free Exhibition of Works of Art of 1919 in Petrograd, an exhibition-competition on the theme "The Great Russian Revolution" of 1919 in the halls of the Academy of Arts, the 1st exhibition of paintings of the 1921 Community of Artists in Petrograd (together with O. Braz, I. Brodsky, V. Voinov, K. Gorbatov, S. Konenkov, B. Kustodiev, D. Mitrokhin, S. Chekhonin and others), an exhibition of paintings and sculptures in the garden of the People’s House in 1922 (together with A. Gaush, P. Naumov, A. Rylov, P. Filonov, R. Frents, etc.), 1922 International Book Exhibition in Flor Nation (among the participants Yu. Annenkov, A. Benois, M. Bobyshov, M. Dobuzhinsky, V. Konashevich, V. Lebedev, A. Ostroumova-Lebedev, V. Khodasevich and others), the famous exhibition of paintings by Petrograd artists of all directions in 1923 in Petrograd, an exhibition of paintings by the Association of Realistic Artists (OXR) in Moscow in 1927, the exhibition "Moscow Theaters of the October Decade (1917-1927) in 1928 in Moscow, an exhibition of paintings by the Society named after A.I. Kuindzhi in Leningrad in 1930 and many others.

After the revolution in 1919, Kurilko collaborated with V. Tatlin and other leftist masters as a member of the Moscow College of Fine Arts of the People’s Commissariat of Education.

Among the merits of Kurilko before the domestic culture remains, first of all, an interested, conscientious transfer of knowledge to young artists, distinguished by the wisdom and enthusiasm of the keeper of professional skills, which he began to do in 1914. Therefore, his contribution to domestic art can be fully called culture-forming. It is significant that this exhibition takes place in the exhibition hall of the Union of Artists of Russia, which took the initiative to return the creative heritage of the Master.

The exhibition will be open from March 17 to April 1, 2016